出版社：Japan Science and Technology Information Aggregator, Electronic
摘要：This paper aims to explicate, from a unified point of view, the differences in meaning and cooccurrence restriction between be going to and will , and a diversity of their uses in contemporary English. It presents the temporal structures of be going to - and will -sentences which provide an explanatory basis for these phenomena. It is argued that the notion of temporal focus is necessary in order for the temporal structures to have a more explanatory power. It is demonstrated that these temporal schemata not only systematically explain both synchronic and diachronic aspects of be going to and will , but also account for why be going to in the past tense tends to express unfulfilment of the infinitive part while will in the past tense does not.
