Learn English – The sun at five tomorrow

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CGEL by Huddleston and Pullum says on page 171:

8.3 Non-aspectual uses of the progressive

…

(a) The progressive futurate

[21] i a. The sun sets at five tomorrow. b. #The sun is setting at five tomorrow.

…

The progressive is restricted to cases where human agency or intention is involved – hence the anomaly of examples like [ib].

By the last line, I think, they mean that the progressive futurate is restricted to cases where human agency or intention is involved. Right?

Also, I was wondering why human agency or intention would need to be involved to express future time with the progressive. Could someone articulate the reason for this?

Finally, I'd like to know if you could ever use these other variations:

c. The sun is going to set at five tomorrow.

d. The sun will set at five tomorrow.

e. The sun will be setting at five tomorrow.

Best Answer

To understand this you need to firstly be aware of how to use the present continuous to talk about the future:

The present progressive indicating a future event speaks about arrangements for events at a time later than now. There is a suggestion that more than one person is aware of the event, and that some preparation has already happened. e.g.

  • "I am playing with John tomorrow" is a one-time planned event (a single-time arrangement for the future).

The present simple is used when a future event is part of a programme or time-table.

The present simple is used to refer to events in the future which are certain because they are facts, or because there is a clear or fixed schedule or timetable.

  • "I fly to Berlin next week." is a fixed event that is scheduled for next week.

Notice! Not every verb can be used to speak about the future (the sentence will sound awkward and generally unacceptable):

  • My friend solves this problem tomorrow.
  • My wife forgets about the party on Sunday.

A futurate is a sentence with unexpected future reference, and in which unplannable eventualities are generally unacceptable.

If we assume that generally a fact, an unchangeable programmed event, or a natural scheduled event can't be changed, the result, if it is, will be awkward. When laws of physics are questioned the sentence becomes really odd and generally unacceptable!

  • The earth is rotating slower tomorrow.
  • The sun is setting slower tomorrow.

However, other futurate uses can only involve human agency or intention (thus the restriction). This mainly means that only due to human intervention a change is made or an event is to be:

  • "The train is leaving at 8am tomorrow." (Normally it leaves at 8:20am but tomorrow due to changes made by human intervention the schedule is changed)
  • "The shop is closing at 5pm on Friday." (Normally it stays open until 7pm but tomorrow due to changes made by human intervention is closes earlier)

To summarise, the proper "progressive futurate" is used with anything that can be changed by human intervention.

The meaning off the progressive futurate unlike that of the "progressive aspect" is not aspectual and thus doesn't show duration.

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