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<p>The most annoying thing about this nonsense is that English is <em>not</em> a "strong FTR" language:</p>
<p>"If I wanted to explain to an English-speaking colleague why I can't attend a meeting later today, I could not say 'I go to a seminar', English grammar would oblige me to say 'I will go, am going, or have to go to a seminar'."</p>
<p>First, of course we regularly use the simple present for future reference: <em>I fly to New York on Friday</em>. Second, neither <em>I am going</em> nor <em>I have to go</em> is in any way a future construction. Neither is <em>I will go to a seminar</em>, which is modal, not tense, but we can let that go, because, in the context indicated here it is quite impossible. In certain contexts one could say <em>I'm going to go ...</em>, which is a real future construction. But it simply is not obligatory in English to use any kind of future construction here --<span style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><span style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> <span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;">the most natural way to say this is with the </span></span><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;"><strong style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">present</strong> progressive:<em style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> <span style="font-size: x-small;">I am going to a seminar</span></em>.</span></p>
<p>On 2013-02-26 7:54, Nigel Vincent wrote:</p>
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<div style="direction: ltr; font-family: Tahoma; color: #000000; font-size: 10pt;">At Frans' prompting I post this piece of nonsense for typological (or indeed other!) comment:<br /><br /><a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-21518574">http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-21518574</a><br /><br /> Nigel<br /><br />
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<div style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 13px;">Professor Nigel Vincent, FBA<br /> Professor Emeritus of General & Romance Linguistics<br /> The University of Manchester</div>
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<div>Vice-President for Research & HE Policy, The British Academy</div>
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<div>Linguistics & English Language<br /> School of Arts, Languages and Cultures</div>
<div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"></span>The University of Manchester</div>
<div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"></span>Manchester M13 9PL</div>
<div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"></span>UK</div>
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<div>http://www.llc.manchester.ac.uk/subjects/lel/staff/nigel-vincent/</div>
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