Craig,
 
In my thinking I have classified the "about to" as a periphrastic modal for "will", akin to "able to" for "can."   Periphrastic modals seem to fall into the following several categories:
1) verbal (like to, want to, ought to, get to, have to, need to, deserve to),
2) copular (be to = will or must),
3) copular + adjectival ( be willing to, be supposed to, be able to, be free to, be privileged to), 
4) copular + adverbial (be about to)
5) progressive (be going to),
6) passive (be obliged to, be allowed to, be made to),
7) perfect (have got to, had ought to), 
8) perfect + adjectival (had rather, had better, had best),
 
Note that there is even a fixed tense in these last two categories, and that the last category takes the bare infinitive.   
 
Bruce Despain

>>> [log in to unmask] 1/30/2004 11:20:23 AM >>>
    My grammar class was improvising prepositional phrases for a few common prepositions, including "about", and a student presented this sentence:  I am about to study grammar.  
    I was (and am) fairly sure "about to study grammar" isn't a prepositional phrase, but I was (and am) not sure of how to understand and explain it.  I thought about "about to" as a sort of modal auxiliary, somewhat parallel to "I ought to study grammar" or "I am supposed to study grammar", though I'm not happy with that.  Another possibility is to think of "to study grammar" as an infinitive clause (phrase, if you feel so inclined), with "about" acting somewhat like an adjective would in the same slot.  (Infinitive structure as adjective complement.  "I am ready to study grammar" or "I am happy to study grammar.")  "About" does mean something like "almost" in certain contexts.  ("I'm about crazy ove! r her." Or, in a closer parallel, "I am about to go insane.")
    I told my students I was perplexed on Wednesday, told them my current thinking today, and then said I would be asking other people for help, in part because I want to model what "doing grammar" is about, sometimes feeling perplexed,  sometimes very much a group activity.  Perhaps someone has already wrestled with this and we won't need to invent a crooked wheel.
    Has anyone seen this construct described before? If not, any other suggestions?

Craig
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