will/shall

[Laurence Horn]

At 10:36 AM -0500 1/25/01, Herb Stahlke wrote:
>I think I'd probably say "d'ya wanna go" instead of "shall we
>leave", unless I was being posh.
>
>Herb
>
Well, there is the danger, as Deborah Tannen has pointed out, that
the recipient of "d'ya wanna go?" (whatever intonation is used) may
feel s/he is literally being asked whether or not s/he wants to go,
when the speaker intends it as a suggestion (or vice versa), while
"Shall we go" clearly indicates that the speaker would like to go if
the addressee is willing to.  Still, the former (or even the more
reduced form, "Wanna go?") is probably more likely than "Shall we
go?".  But my point is that the "shall" in this case is less
stylistically marked than in the simple future uses.

Larry