the tradition of normative English grammar is that “shall” expresses a determination or volition, whereas “will” expresses a fact statement.
Actually, believe it or not, the tradition of “normative English grammar” (i.e. high-status language) is that what you what you wrote is correct for persons other than the first. For the first person (I/we), it’s the reverse.
I honestly don’t know what the origin of this distinction is, unless it’s the fact that British people seem to say “I shall” a lot.
Neither “shall” nor “will” originated as any sort of future marker. Originally “will” denoted intention, and “shall” denoted obligation. “He will do that” |-> “He intends to do that”, “He shall do that” |-> “He is obligated to do that”. The first-person/others asymmetry comes from what you can know about what you intend vs. what you can know about what others intend.
It was interesting to see confirmation of my silly theory in the first sentence:
IT is unfortunate that the idiomatic use, while it comes by nature to southern Englishmen (who will find most of this section superfluous), is so complicated that those who are not to the manner born can hardly acquire it;
Yes, I definitely get the impression from Fowler that, while he knows the correct high-status English usage and can explain how it came about and how to use, he also knows that it’s a little silly.
All the same, I do find ‘shall’ useful. As long as I remember not to use it when Fowler would use it as a simple future marker (‘will’ is the only simple future marker in my American dialect), I can use it to express determination. If people think that ‘shall’ and ‘will’ are interchangeable, then I can’t do that; but as long as people know that ‘shall’ is something funny, then at least they can look up what I mean if they don’t know.
It would be much nicer if things worked the way that simplicio said. Once the last first-person-simple-future user of ‘shall’ dies, then it will be safe to implement this rule. (So please hold off on the Singularity until then.)
Actually, believe it or not, the tradition of “normative English grammar” (i.e. high-status language) is that what you what you wrote is correct for persons other than the first. For the first person (I/we), it’s the reverse.
I honestly don’t know what the origin of this distinction is, unless it’s the fact that British people seem to say “I shall” a lot.
Neither “shall” nor “will” originated as any sort of future marker. Originally “will” denoted intention, and “shall” denoted obligation. “He will do that” |-> “He intends to do that”, “He shall do that” |-> “He is obligated to do that”. The first-person/others asymmetry comes from what you can know about what you intend vs. what you can know about what others intend.
Fowler has a pretty thorough explanation of this history. It’s a bit out of date, but that’s OK; it’s history.
But also note, EY mostly wrote ‘will’ or ‘‘ll’, not ‘shall’.
It was interesting to see confirmation of my silly theory in the first sentence:
Yes, I definitely get the impression from Fowler that, while he knows the correct high-status English usage and can explain how it came about and how to use, he also knows that it’s a little silly.
All the same, I do find ‘shall’ useful. As long as I remember not to use it when Fowler would use it as a simple future marker (‘will’ is the only simple future marker in my American dialect), I can use it to express determination. If people think that ‘shall’ and ‘will’ are interchangeable, then I can’t do that; but as long as people know that ‘shall’ is something funny, then at least they can look up what I mean if they don’t know.
It would be much nicer if things worked the way that simplicio said. Once the last first-person-simple-future user of ‘shall’ dies, then it will be safe to implement this rule. (So please hold off on the Singularity until then.)