LL-L "Grammar" 2004.10.03 (13) [E]

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L O W L A N D S - L * 03.OCT.2004 (13) * ISSN 189-5582 * LCSN 96-4226
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From: Gary Taylor <gary_taylor_98 at yahoo.com>
Subject: Grammar

Hello Gabriele et al

you asked:
"So, what about our native speakers? Can anyone tell
me if, when, and
perhaps
why, "we shall" and "I shan't" got lost along the
way?"

I reckon it's the tendency towards regularity - why is
it only 'I' and 'we' that follow this rule? Makes no
sense so make all forms 'will'. Also, that it's only
'I' and 'we' is not quite correct - there is only one
way after all of saying 'you shall go to the ball'...

I personally hardly ever use 'shall'. I think it's
dying out in London, my mum uses it a lot more than
me, and to me it sounds old fashioned. The only time I
might be caught using it is in questions when making
suggestions, such as 'shall we do ...?' but I'm much
more like to express this as 'dya fancy doing ...?'
(yes - you Americans can laugh at that quaint
Englishism) or 'dya wanna do ...?'.

You often come across archaisms in English learning
text books such as when I lived in Moldova and people
insisted that 'Have I a dog?' was correct English -
maybe in the 18th century... Or even that 'often' has
a silent 't' I always say the 't' and without the 't'
it either sounds old-fashioned or 'posh' (to me that
is - please don't take offence if you don't pronounce
the 't').

Anyway that's my native-speaker input. :)

Gary

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