Thanks for ferreting out DaveBox’s posting in the Forum that I have missed answering for almost four months. I sometimes overlook some short postings that tend to get buried in a flurry of longer ones, and I would like to apologize for that.
You contend that DaveBox’s criticism of the future perfect usage in following sentence is correct: “I
will have had eaten by the time she arrives.” He says that the “had” in the form “will have had eaten” is unnecessary, so he would rather that the sentence be constructed this way: “I
will have eaten by the time she arrives.”
My own feeling is that your and DaveBox’s suggested form knocking off “had” would be the right form of the future perfect if the time marker is changed from “by the time” to “when,” as follows: “I
will have eaten when she arrives.” The sense would then be that the speaker will have finished eating shortly before or right at the moment of the woman’s arrival. On the other hand, in the construction “I
will have had eaten by the time she arrives,” the sense is that the speaker will have finished eating long before the woman’s expected arrival. In other words, we are dealing here with two slightly different senses of the future perfect, both of which are correct depending on what’s on the mind of the speaker.
These two variations of the future perfect are actually the bone of contention in a very interesting discussion thread in the
Language Log, where the similar form “will have had gone” as used in the following sentences is debated:
“I’m hoping someone
will have had gone through a similar situation and will have some good words of advice for you.”
“A very large percentage of my viewers reading this
will have had gone through an experience where they had to go through sending in mail in rebates to get a substantial discount.
“If not for your witty remarks I
will have had gone insane.”
“These wealthy men
will have had gone to school and have a steady job.”
The matter is also taken up separately in a discussion thread in
LanguageHat.com. I suggest you read both discussion threads to get a much better sense of the distinction between the two forms of the future perfect that are at issue here.
