The various uses of perfect aspect typically require a context
to be interpreted, or even to be judged correct or not. Part of the reason for
the context-dependence of perfect aspect is that it tends to be used in
background rather than foreground portions of a discourse, so in narrative it
won’t typically move the plot forward and in exposition or argument it won’t be
used to state major steps in the logic.
I’d have to see your sample sentence in a context to see whether
it works or not. There’s nothing intrinsically wrong with the structure as it
stands. Rather, it requires further information to be fully interpretable.
Herb
From: Assembly for the
Teaching of English Grammar [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Cynthia
Baird
Sent: 2009-03-04 21:48
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: incorrect future perfect?
Would anyone care to comment on this sentence? It
came up in a literacy textbook I have to use, and a student had real
difficulty with accepting this as a logical sentence. I gave him my
explanation about why I thought the sentence was problematic, but I would
like to hear from some of you to know if I was right or wrong in my
assessment of the sentence. The sentence read as follows: We will have finished the project tomorrow. I know the sentence contains a future perfect, and I risk
Brad's comments, but so be it. |
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