Means of implicit temporal localization of a future action: a variant of classification

The research investigates the phenomenon of implicitness in the English language (in accordance with the understanding of the concept in contemporary linguistics) and is dedicated to the functional-semantic analysis of different means of implicitly locating an action in the future in English discourse (based on the British variant of the English language). In the article we analyze one work of fiction, on the basis of which we set out to explore discourse units pertaining to different levels (primarily utterance and supra-phrasal unit); within this corpus temporal characteristics of separate language forms and structures are hence established through componential analysis. Suprasegmental analysis is employed to examine implicit semantics of the means of temporal location of a future action from the perspective of adjacent and distant links between the elements that are related to each other formally and associatively. In the research we also endeavor to propose a level classification of linguistic devices that implicitly render the sense of temporality. As it is shown in the article, all implicit means fall within three categories: morphologic-syntactic, syntactic-semantic and contextual. The analysis of different implicit temporal structures is conducted regardless of the modal component of the meaning of future verb forms, a consideration which may serve as a starting point of further research.