A practical english grammar - Vyssaja skola 1978
The modal SHALL
Sound symbols
a) Simple futurity or confident expectation, with the subject I or we (standard for British speakers, and some American speakers)
We shall leave New York on September 4.
The grammar of shall and will is one of the most widely discussed points in English grammar. It has long been taught in Great Britain, and in those parts of the United States that imitate Great Britain most closely in speech, that shall must be used for the subjects I and we if the meaning is simple futurity; will is then used for other subjects. This theory then goes on to state that the modals are reversed when the meaning is intention, choice, or command: will with I and we, and shall with other subjects. The influence of the schools is so strong that it is almost impossible to determine what the real tendency of the language is, but one thing is certain, and that is that the tradition does not completely coincide with the facts of usage on either side of the Atlantic. Americans, by and large, ignore it altogether, using will for all subjects except when they are consciously imitating schoolbook grammar and in a few other usages that will be mentioned below. British speakers, as can be judged from the enormous amount of discussion and exhortation necessary to enforce the tradition, are not too assiduous about following the rules either. Martin Joos, in his The English Verb (Madison, Wisc.: University of Wisconsin Press, 1964) has an important statement on this point, adducing evidence to show that educated English speakers use shall and will according to the meaning they intend to express rather than according to I/we-versus-other subject rules: will (regardless of subject) expressing an event whose occurrence is assured by all the circumstances that the speaker knows about, and shall expressing an event whose occurrence is assured by circumstances more closely connected with the speaker himself and—by implication—more subject to his control. This explains the difference between “You will have it tomorrow” (through the operation of the postal system, perhaps) and “You shall have it tomorrow” (because the speaker assumes a large part of the responsibility for seeing that the event takes place). Also, there are rhetorical questions like “Shall these crimes go unpunished?”—used in America as well as Great Britain—implying that the speaker and his hearers have a choice about the action to be taken. There is plenty of evidence that will with I or we is used in Great Britain to express futurity when the subject has no control over the event, thus making absurd the claim that I will means T choose’ or ’I intend’; on the other hand, we have the slogan of the American civil rights movement (1965) “We shall overcome!” in which shall, with the subject we, expresses not mere futurity but a great deal of determination and choice.
b) Suggestion, in the interrogative, usually with I or we, or with a subject over whose actions the speaker has some control
Shall we wait for John?
Shall I get you a glass of water?
Shall my son take you to the airport?
c) Command, especially in legal documents
All legislative powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress . . . (from the United States Constitution)
d) Promises, future commitments, especially where the speaker has control or feels that he has control
I give you my word: the work shall be done on time. (Rather formal in the United States; many American speakers use will for this meaning.)