I shall be 17

[Peter A. McGraw]

"I shall be 17" is a no-no in my native AE speech--not prescriptively in
the sense that I try to remember to avoid it, but descriptively in the
sense that it would never occur to me to use it.  I remember learning "The
Rule" about shall-will in high school English class, and I probably
remembered it long enough to pass a test, but became very vague about it
soon after and have remained so ever since.  It never interrupted my
natural usage, where "shall" is confined to questions asking for direction
or guidance, e.g., "Shall we go to a concert, or would you prefer a movie?"


Peter Mc.

--On Thursday, April 12, 2001 10:52 AM +0800 Laurence Horn
<laurence.horn at YALE.EDU> wrote:

> At 10:28 AM -0400 4/12/01, Douglas G. Wilson wrote:
>>> ... "SHALL is absolutely impossible in this position"
>>
>> As they say in French, "Bouchois!"
>>
>>> Would any of you out there share this judgement, that I SHALL be 17 next
>>> month is a definite no-no?
>>
>> I think it's a definite yes-yes.
>>
> And then there are those who follow The Rule (see discussion in
> archives), for whom "I shall be 17 next month" is an ordinary
> predictive future, while "I will be 17 next month" expresses
> determination or insistence ("I WILL be 17, and you can't stop me!").
> For such speakers, if any exist, "I'll be 17 next month" is
> presumably either ambiguous or (if the latter reading  is too
> stressed to permit contraction) "shall" only.
>
> larry



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                               Peter A. McGraw
                   Linfield College   *   McMinnville, OR
                            pmcgraw at linfield.edu