15.5. Volition - Unit fifteen. Modality

The Communicative Grammar of English Workbook - Edward Woods, Rudy Coppieters 2002

15.5. Volition
Unit fifteen. Modality

Sections 319-324

We distinguish four types of volition. These are listed in order of increasing strength.

(i) Willingness: this is expressed by the auxiliary will (or ’ll informal). For past or hypothetical willingness, use would.

Wish: for neutral volition want is less formal than wish. For hypothetical circumstance, use only wish or the exclamatory if only ...

(ii) When expressing your own wishes or inviting the wishes of others, you can make the wish more tactful by using would like, would prefer, would rather. Should can replace would for the first person. Shall I/we is another way to consult another person’s wishes.

Intention: This is expressed by the verbs intend, plan and aim. It can also be expressed by be going to, or, in the first person by will or

(iii) shall.

(iv) Insistence: This can be expressed by insist or be determined and also by will/shall with a strong stress.

Task one ***

Rewrite these examples avoiding will/would or shall and using another verb construction to convey nearly the same meaning. If there are any noticeable differences of meaning, say what they are.

  1. The government will press ahead with the new security bill in spite of strong opposition.
  2. Shall we work together on this new project?
  3. She wouldn’t spend time watching programmes likeCoronation Street. She considers them to be trivial and no more than a fantasy world.
  4. The chairman won’t postpone the shareholders’ meeting just because the venue is considered to be too small.
  5. They will help you in the garden. They enjoy doing that.
  6. I would put money into it if they could guarantee a minimum return for the investment.
  7. Would you like to be rich and famous like Cliff Richard?
  8. I’d like her to succeed. She’s worked very hard.
  9. The minister won’t admit he was wrong about the Sports stadium.
  10. Ivan would like Tim to teach with him in Hungary.

Task two **

Complete the sentences with an appropriate verb or phrase.

  1. I ... help you with your luggage, sir.
  2. He’s very rich and he loves the old art gallery. He ... leave a lot of his money to look after the building.
  3. I … this work finished by the week-end.
  4. I ... to thank all of you for the contribution you have all made to our success this year.
  5. They ... they’d bought the house now, instead of renting.

6 ... you’d told me about the problem.

  1. The room’s too small and too noisy. I ... another one. There must be somewhere in this hotel where I can rest comfortably.

8 ... I get the tickets?

  1. They ... stay until the end of the performance, although it doesn’t finish until after midnight.
  2. He’s like that. He ... (always) ... do everything himself. He never asks for help.