The Classification of Words

§ 263. Another instance of its relative use may be seen in cases like Tell her I died blessing her ' in which died de­notes an act in the past as viewed from the future with a distinct subjective connotation of 'inevitability'.
The Future Non-Continuous Non-Perfect
§ 264. The future non-continous non-perfect is analyt­ical in structure. It is built up with the help of the word-mor­phemes 'shall' and 'will'.
In certain cases it is no easy matter to say whether shall or will is a word-morpheme or a modal verb. In a sentence like / am afraid he will refuse to confess we cannot say with any degree of certainty that will is a pure word-morpheme without any vestige of its original modal sense. It is somewhat easier to tell a word-morpheme from a modal verb in oral speech because modal verbs, as a rule, bear a stronger stress.
I. P. Ivanova ² believes that the obliteration of the modal meanings of shall and will has proceeded at a slow pace be­cause their modal meanings easily go along with the concept of futurity.
§ 265. Some grammarians (among them O. Jespersen ³, G. Curme ⁴ do not recognize the existence of the pure future in English since, in their opinion shall and will groups are in all cases modal phrases.
The fallacy of these views is proved by the following facts:
1) When the unstressed shall is regularly used for the 1-st person and the unstressed will — for the 2-nd and the 3-rd (in British use), as a rule, no original modal meanings of these verbs can be felt (on the whole).
E. g. I shall be forty next autumn. They will know it in due time. It will take place next month.
Note. We read, however, in Linguistic Change in Present-Day English: "The distinctions formerly made between shall and wilt are being lost, and
f

¹ M Mincoff, op. cit, p 177
² Op. cit , p. 55
³ Философия грамматики, М., 1958, p. 304—306.
* Op. cit., p 362.
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will is coming increasingly to be used instead
of shall people increasingly use / would and
we would in contexts where previously should was normal" '.
2) In structures with the enclitic '// no specific modal meanings can be felt. As a language unit it conveyes the sum of its elementary meanings, so it presents an action in the future (future tense) unspecified as to its continuity or en­tirety (non-continuous or common aspect) or correlation with other situations (non-perfect order).
§ 266. In speech the future non-continuous non-perfect may denote future acts of practically any description — iso­lated events, continuous actions, habitual, recurrent acts, the nature of the action being specified by the context and the meaning of the verb.
E. g. It will en fail some hard work. (Daily Worker). Sometimes I am afraid I w i I I breakoffa finger as one break a stick of chalk. (Hemingway). / hope you will live forever. (Ib.).
The future non-continuous non-perfect occurs but seldom in narration, in which a chain of events is spoken of, because narration is2.
Like the past non-continuous non-perfect it is not very well suited to denote permanent actions since it is associated with a certain time sphere (it represents an action which is to take place after the moment of speech). However, its use in the 'generic' or ornnitemporal meaning is not altogether impossible. What will be true for the future is viewed as true in general.
"Young men will b e young men", said the countess. (Jerome).
Cf. Как аукнется, так и откликнется.
Since the future tense denotes an action not yet realized but one that is to take place, that is, an action planned, ex­pected, anticipated, etc., it is natural that the future tense often acquires a modal tinge of supposition ³.
¹ Ch. Barber, op. cit, p. 134—135.
² I. P. Ivanova, op. cit., p. 36.
³ An analogous modal colouring is observed in Russian. See В. В. В и-
н о г р а д о в, op. cit., p. 575.
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Hence the not uncommon use of the future non-contin­uous non-perfect to express supposition with reference to the present.