will/shall

[Herb Stahlke]

>>> laurence.horn at YALE.EDU 01/25/01 01:25AM >>>
Talk about the stars being aligned.  an hour ago I received a
message
from Georgia Green, who is not an ads-l subscriber and has no
idea
we've been talking about will/shall, that contains the following
information about Bishop Lowth, the famed 18th century British
prescriptivist:
================
Robert Lowth was a grumpy old man, worse than Kilpatrick or
Safire on
their worst days, and he as much as admits making up the
shall/will
rule:
     "_Will_ in the first Person singular and plural promises or
threatens; in the second and third
      Persons only foretells: _shall_ on the contrary, in the
first
Person simply fortells; in the
      second and third Persons commands or threatens."
Then there is a footnote:
     This distinction was not observed formerly as to the word
_shall_, which was used in the
     Second and Third Persons to express simply the event.
So, he's making it up!
=================
Sof if Georgia is right, and I have no reason to doubt her, it
is
Bishop Lowth who...er, whom we have to thank for that immortal
contrast between

"I shall drown; no one will save me!"    [despairing accidental
drownee]
"I will drown; no one shall save me!"    [determined suicide]

Herb writes:

Bishop Lowth should have drowned; no one would have saved him.
Bishop Lowth would have drowned; no one should have saved him.

Herb