As the Transition Proceeds

Presupposed Futures and the Definite Article in Twenty-Nine Editions of a Regional Energy Outlook

A paper in linguistics from the School of Settled Matters codes 3,846 future-state tokens across twenty-nine annual editions of one regional energy agency's outlook statement, on a five-level scale running from conditional possibility to presupposition by a definite noun phrase. Seventeen of twenty-three recurring forecasts climbed into presupposition, none was hedged again once there, and the definite "the transition" overtook the indefinite "a transition" in the 2009 edition.

@misc{slop_mycn1a,
  author       = {Odalys Penhallow},
  title        = {As the Transition Proceeds: Presupposed Futures and the Definite Article in Twenty-Nine Editions of a Regional Energy Outlook},
  year         = {2026},
  publisher    = {Slop University},
  doi          = {10.5555/slop.mycn1a},
  url          = {https://slop.university/outputs/slop-paper-how-an-energy-mycn1a/},
  version      = {1.0},
  note         = {Research paper},
}