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+ Infinitive. Its broader combinability is based on semantic transposition and can be likened to broader uses of
the modal collocation be about, also of basically intention semantics.
§ 9. The oppositional basis of the category of prospective time is neutralized in certain uses, in keeping
with the general regularities of oppositional reductions. The process of neutralization is connected with the
shifting of the forms of primary time (present and past) from the sphere of absolute tenses into the sphere of
relative tenses.
One of the typical cases of the neutralization in question consists in using a non-future temporal form to
express a future action which is to take place according to some plan or arrangement. Cf:.
The government meets in emergency session today over the question of continued violations of the cease-
fire. I hear your sister is soon arriving from Paris? Naturally I would like to know when he's coming. Etc.
This case of oppositional reduction is optional, the equivalent reconstruction of the correlated member of
the opposition is nearly always possible (with the respective changes of connotations and style). Cf.:
... > The government will meet in emergency session. ... > Your sister will soon arrive from Paris? ... >
When will he be coming?
Another type of neutralization of the prospective time opposition is observed in modal verbs and modal
word combinations. The basic peculiarity of these units bearing on the expression of time is, that the
prospective implication is inherently in-built in their semantics, which reflects not the action as such, but the
attitude towards the action expressed by the infinitive. For that reason, the present verb-form of these units
actually renders the idea of the future (and, respectively, the past verb-form, the idea of the future-in-the-past).
Cf:.
There's no saying what may happen next. At any rate, the woman was sure to come later in the day. But you
have to present the report before Sunday, there's no alternative.
Sometimes the explicit expression of the future is necessary even with modal collocations. To make up for
the lacking catcgorial forms, special modal substitutes have been developed in language, some of which have
received the status of suppletive units (see above, Ch. III). Cf:.
But do not make plans with David. You will not be able to carry them out. Things will have to go one way
or the other.
Alongside the above and very different from them, there is still another typical case of neutralization of the
analysed categorial opposition, which is strictly obligatory. It occurs in clauses of time and condition whose
verb-predicate expresses a future action. Cf:.
If things turn out as has been arranged, the triumph will be all ours. I repeated my request to notify me at
once whenever the messenger arrived.
The latter type of neutralization is syntactically conditioned. In point of fact, the neutralization consists here
in the primary tenses shifting from the sphere of absolutive time into the sphere of relative time, since they
become dependent not on their immediate orientation towards the moment of speech, but on the relation to an-
other time level, namely, the time level presented in the governing clause of the corresponding complex
sentence.
This kind of neutralizing relative use of absolutive tense forms occupies a restricted position in the integral
tense system of English. In Russian, the syntactic relative use of tenses is, on the contrary, widely spread. In
particular, this refers to the presentation of reported speech in the plane of the past, where the Russian present
tense is changed into the tense of simultaneity, the past tense is changed into the tense of priority, and the future
tense is changed into the tense of prospected posteriority. Cf:.
(1) Он сказал, что изучает немецкий язык. (2) Он сказал, что изучал немецкий язык. (3) Он сказал,
что будет изучать немецкий язык. 
In English, the primary tenses in similar syntactic conditions retain their absolutive nature and are used in
keeping with their direct, unchangeable meanings. Compare the respective translations of the examples cited
above:
(1) He said that he was learning German (then). (2) He said that he had learned German (before). (3) He
said that he would learn German (in the time to come).
It does not follow from this that the rule of sequence of tenses in English complex sentences formulated by
traditional grammar should be rejected as false. Sequence of tenses is an important feature of all narration, for,
depending on the continual consecutive course of actual events in reality, they are presented in the text in
definite successions ordered against a common general background. However, what should be stressed here is
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