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GÜNTER RADDEN, Meaningful Grammar

Common Meaning Causal Situation Implicature Future outcome
intentional future intention anticipation action
conclusive future indication conclusion result
Table 2: Common and particular meanings of the be going to-Future.

The intentional future is causal in that a person has the intention of
doing something in the future, and the speaker may confidently an-
ticipate the person’s action as the future outcome. The conclusive fu-
ture is causal in that certain circumstances, according to the speaker’s
reasoning, indicate a more or less predictable result as the future out-
come. Thus, when we see dark clouds gathering in the sky towards
us, we conclude that it is going to rain soon. The intentional future and
the conclusive future thus share the same abstract conceptual structure
and hence are not felt to be different.

(iii) Let us now consider the motivation of the use of the be going to-
construction as a future marker. Firstly, the idea of movement is still
present in its temporal meaning, albeit in a metaphorical sense. We
understand reasoning metaphorically in terms of moving, and draw-
ing inferences is, of course, a kind of reasoning. We find this metaphor
reflected in expressions such as come to a conclusion, follow a train of
thought or an idea came to my mind. The be going to-construction is thus
also motivated by the conceptual metaphor THINKING IS MOTION.
Secondly, the progressive aspect in be going to focuses on the on-
goingness of an event. In analogy to physical motion to a goal, we see
ourselves moving on the time line towards a future goal that, however,
has not been reached yet. This grammatical structure thus perfectly
matches the notion of an implied outcome and hence also motivates
its future sense.
The be going to-construction is thus well motivated as a futu-
rate tense, not only in its metonymic step-by-step derivation from
movement, but also in its present-day metaphoric understanding
and its grammatical form of progressive aspect. The particular sens-
es are also motivated. Intentions are formed in the present and are
oriented towards the immediate future. Likewise, indications draw
our attention to things that are going to happen as a result, and

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