I shall be 17

[Douglas G. Wilson]

 From A. Murie:

> >Also consider "We shall overcome"....
>
>I think this only goes to show the degree to which US usage has turned "The
>Rule" on its head, since it uses "shall" for the emphatic or as an
>expression of determination, which _ought_ to belong to "will," acc. the
>Rule.

Maybe not only US usage, or maybe this isn't exactly what the Rule says ....

Consider one of the best known quotations in modern history: Winston
Churchill (1940):

<<We shall go on to the end, we shall fight in France, we shall fight on
the seas and the oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing
strength in the air, we shall defend our Island, whatever the cost may be,
we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we
shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills;
we shall never surrender, ....>>

Stirring words still ... and the very epitome of emphatic *British*
determination.

[I'm pretty sure I was never taught "the Rule" and I have only a vague
conception of it. As long as I can remember, I think I've seen "shall" as a
simple (not systematically marked) variant of "will" in most contexts,
although of course I've noticed that Britishers tend to use "shall" more
often than Americans do.]

-- Doug Wilson