The Periphrastic Future with Shall and Will in Modern English

Abstract

One cannot read through the mass of discussions of the problem of shall and will published during the past century nor even those written since 1900 without being impressed by the wide diversity of the points of view and the definite conflict of the opinions and conclusions thus brought together. Even among those articles that can be grouped as expressing the conventional rules there is considerable variety and contradiction, not in the general rule for independent declarative statements (that a shall with the first person corresponds with a will with the second and third) but in the other rules concerning questions, reported discourse, and subordinate clauses. That there is a considerable body of literary usage which conflicts with the conventional rules is indicated by the many pages in these articles devoted to pointing out instances in which “the best of our authors” have violated the rules.

John Wallis (1616–1703)

“…As Troike has recently pointed out, both Charles Fries (1925) and a generation later Robert A. Hall (1960:24;1964:11) groundlessly refuted Wallis' statement about the differentiated use of the auxiliaries with the future tense.…”

SHALL AND WILL IN BRITISH AND AMERICAN ENGLISH: A FREQUENCY STUDY

“…Joos 1964, Leech 1971). There are also special studies of the use of shall and will in American vs. British English, notably Fries (1925) and Taubitz (1978).…”

“…This has long been recognized and is usually dealt with in grammatical descriptions. We shall follow the division set up by Fries (1925), and use the terminology of Quirk et al (1979:386,721): independent declarative clauses, questions, and subordinate clauses. The identification of the three clause types is based on the criteria set forth in Quirk et al (1979).…”

“…Joos 1964, Leech 1971). There are also special studies of the use of shall and will in American vs. British English, notably Fries (1925) and Taubitz (1978).In spite of all the attention given to the topic, uncertainty remainsfor a variety of reasons. In the first place, the semantic complexity of the modals makes them notoriously difficult to describe.…”

On the Development of the Immediate Future Use of Be About to in the History of English With Special Reference to Late Modern English

“…Will and/or shall have traditionally been very popular topics (e.g. Fries (1925), Trnka (1930), Aijmer (1985)). More recently, the be going to-future shows another trend, as it suggests a typical grammaticalisation path from movement into the future (e.g.…”