usage of the verb "to see"

[Tvita]

I found one sentence in the English textbook in which the verb "to see" is applied to the noun "years". It seems to me strange. Could you please help me to clarify this? Maybe the pronoun "we" was omitted in this sentence?

The next twenty years will see great changes in both the workplace and education, but this should be regarded as an opportunity in itself, rather than a problem for society.

[lanlethi2603]

You are wrong:) In this case, the verb 'see' is not for subject 'years'. In fact, this is one kind of 'emphasized sentence structure' as you can see in this eg:

There stands a beautiful lady!

The verb stand here is not for 'there' but for 'a beautiful lady'.. Am I understood??:)

[RonBee]

Originally Posted by Tvita

I found one sentence in the English textbook in which the verb "to see" is applied to the noun "years". It seems to me strange. Could you please help me to clarify this? Maybe the pronoun "we" was omitted in this sentence?

The next twenty years will see great changes in both the workplace and education, but this should be regarded as an opportunity in itself, rather than a problem for society.

You are onto something. It could be seen as an elision, thus:

(In) The next twenty years will (we) see great changes in both the workplace and education, but this should be regarded as an opportunity in itself, rather than a problem for society.

[engee30]

Originally Posted by RonBee

You are onto something. It could be seen as an elision, thus;

(In) The next twenty years will (we) see great changes in both the workplace and education, but this should be regarded as an opportunity in itself, rather than a problem for society.

(In) The next twenty years (we) will see great changes ...

[engee30]

Originally Posted by lanlethi2603

You are wrong:) In this case, the verb 'see' is not for subject 'years'. In fact, this is one kind of 'emphasized sentence structure' as you can see in this eg:

There stands a beautiful lady!

The verb stand here is not for 'there' but for 'a beautiful lady'.. Am I understood??:)

To a certain extent, you're right about that.

In this case, the verb see means that something happens in a particular place or during a particular time, so instead of saying, Great changes ... will happen in the next twenty years, you can express the same idea through, The next twenty years will see great changes ..., as is similar to the existenial there:

A girl is waiting at the door.
There is a girl waiting at the door.