Shall/Will

Rudolph C Troike rtroike at U.ARIZONA.EDU
Mon Apr 16 04:56:06 UTC 2001


The Churchill quotation was great. I've always thought the best examplar
of the American refutation of the shall/will distinction was MacArthur's
famous statement on evacuating the Philippines: "I shall return."
Certainly no more determined statement could have been made. It would have
been relatively pointless for him to have said "I will return", which
would have indicated simple futurity, with no determination or commitment.

        Rudy



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