High aspect in the English <em>be going to</em> construction: Syntactic evidence

Abstract

Research into the syntax of English be going to has typically focused on how going to relates to gonna, but work has tended to focus less on the location and structure of the construction within the clausal spine. This paper compares two competing hypotheses for this location: the high aspect account, in which going to/gonna is a modal with be in a high functional head above it, and the little v account, in which future be going to is quite similar to the progressive main verb in structure. I observe that these proposals make contrasting predictions regarding additional material in the inflectional domain: the high aspect account prohibits future be going to from being preceded by a modal or have, while the little v account makes no such restriction. The synchronic accounts likewise represent differing views on the diachronic grammaticalization process. I test these predictions in two online experiments: a task in which participants determine the grammaticality of sentences containing be gonna, and a task in which participants determine whether sentences containing be going to take a future or motion reading. Results show that be gonna is ungrammatical when preceded by modals/perfect, and be going to takes more of a motion reading in the same context. Both tasks strongly favor the high aspect account. This supports syntactic approaches to grammaticalization that take items to move into and up the clausal spine.