A Linguistic View on the Use of <i>Will</i> and <i>Shall</i> as Auxiliaries or Inflections

Larice Toko Lumanda

doi:doi:10.11648/j.cls.20190501.14

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A Linguistic View on the Use of Will and Shall as Auxiliaries or Inflections

Larice Toko Lumanda

Published in Communication and Linguistics Studies (Volume 5, Issue 1)

Received: 15 March 2019 Accepted: 17 April 2019 Published: 4 June 2019

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Abstract

In the English grammar lessons, will and shall are taught in schools and universities as modal verbs. Almost all famous grammarians confirm that will and shall are modal verbs. Modal verbs are considered as auxiliaries apart from the main or primary auxiliaries be, have, and do. Considering the definitions and characteristics of auxiliaries and inflections, a deep understanding of will and shall is required. This paper examines the definitions and characteristics of both auxiliaries and inflections and the uses of will and shall in order to know whether will and shall are auxiliaries or free inflections of the Future Tense. However it is worth mentioning that time is divided into past, present, and future. In modern English, almost grammarians say that there are two tenses in English namely present tense and past tense. According to them, the future tense does not exist. They believe so simply because there is no inflection for future tense; the futurity is expressed through modal verbs (will and shall). Generally speaking, modal auxiliaries help lexical verbs to express a variety of meanings, different attitudes, such as mood, aspect, etc. whereas inflections help verbs to express tenses. For instance, -ed is a bound inflection that helps regular verbs express the simple past tense. The –s is also a bound inflection that expresses the third person singular in the Simple Present Tense whereas –Ø is an invisible inflection which expresses the first persons (singular and plural), second persons (singular and plural), and the third person plural of the Simple Present Tense). Is there any inflection for the Future Tense? This paper is an attempt to answer this question.

Published in	Communication and Linguistics Studies (Volume 5, Issue 1)
DOI	10.11648/j.cls.20190501.14
Page(s)	18-22
Creative Commons	This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright	Copyright © The Author(s), 2024. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

Will, Shall, Auxiliaries, Modal Auxiliary Verbs, Inflections, Lexical or Ordinary Verbs

References

[1]	Bickel, B. And J. Nichols. (2018). Inflectional morphology. In “Language typology and syntactic description. Cambridge: CUP.
[2]	Crystal, D. (2008). A Dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics. Sixth edition. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing.
[3]	Eastwood, J. (2002). Oxford Guide to English Grammar. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
[4]	Erichsen, G. (2017). Inflection: Grammar Glossary for Spanish Students. Online.
[5]	Hana, J. (2010). Morphology. Online.
[6]	Stump, G. T. (2001). Inflection. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing.
[7]	Thomson, A. J. And Martinet. (1986). A practical English Grammar. Fourth Edition. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
[8]	Lutrin, Beryl & Marcelle Pincus (2011). English Handbook and Study Guide. A Comprehensive English Reference Book. South Africa: Berlut Books CC.
[9]	Wren, P. C. et al. (2007). High School English Grammar and Composition. New Delhi: S. Chand and Company.
[10]	https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/inflection.
[11]	https://www.ucl.ac.ukinternet-grammar/verbs/tense.hlm.
[12]	englishforeveryone.org.
[13]	https://new.collinselt.com//tense-vs-aspect.
[14]	hpps://www.lawlessenglish.com/learn-english/grammar/tense-aspect/.
[15]	Lewis, M. (1986). The English verb. Hove, UK: Language Teaching Publications.
[16]	Collins Cobuild. (2017). Collins Cobuild English Grammar. New Edition.
[17]	Alexander, L. G. (2014). Longman English Grammar. New York: Longman.
[18]	Hana, J. (2010). Intro to Language – Basic Concepts of Linguistics.

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Larice Toko Lumanda. (2019). A Linguistic View on the Use of Will and Shall as Auxiliaries or Inflections. Communication and Linguistics Studies, 5(1), 18-22. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.cls.20190501.14

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Larice Toko Lumanda. A Linguistic View on the Use of Will and Shall as Auxiliaries or Inflections. Commun. Linguist. Stud. 2019, 5(1), 18-22. doi: 10.11648/j.cls.20190501.14

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AMA Style

Larice Toko Lumanda. A Linguistic View on the Use of Will and Shall as Auxiliaries or Inflections. Commun Linguist Stud. 2019;5(1):18-22. doi: 10.11648/j.cls.20190501.14

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@article{10.11648/j.cls.20190501.14,
  author = {Larice Toko Lumanda},
  title = {A Linguistic View on the Use of Will and Shall as Auxiliaries or Inflections},
  journal = {Communication and Linguistics Studies},
  volume = {5},
  number = {1},
  pages = {18-22},
  doi = {10.11648/j.cls.20190501.14},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.cls.20190501.14},
  eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.cls.20190501.14},
  abstract = {In the English grammar lessons, will and shall are taught in schools and universities as modal verbs. Almost all famous grammarians confirm that will and shall are modal verbs. Modal verbs are considered as auxiliaries apart from the main or primary auxiliaries be, have, and do. Considering the definitions and characteristics of auxiliaries and inflections, a deep understanding of will and shall is required. This paper examines the definitions and characteristics of both auxiliaries and inflections and the uses of will and shall in order to know whether will and shall are auxiliaries or free inflections of the Future Tense. However it is worth mentioning that time is divided into past, present, and future. In modern English, almost grammarians say that there are two tenses in English namely present tense and past tense. According to them, the future tense does not exist. They believe so simply because there is no inflection for future tense; the futurity is expressed through modal verbs (will and shall). Generally speaking, modal auxiliaries help lexical verbs to express a variety of meanings, different attitudes, such as mood, aspect, etc. whereas inflections help verbs to express tenses. For instance, -ed is a bound inflection that helps regular verbs express the simple past tense. The –s is also a bound inflection that expresses the third person singular in the Simple Present Tense whereas –Ø is an invisible inflection which expresses the first persons (singular and plural), second persons (singular and plural), and the third person plural of the Simple Present Tense). Is there any inflection for the Future Tense? This paper is an attempt to answer this question.},
 year = {2019}
}

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TY - JOUR
T1 - A Linguistic View on the Use of Will and Shall as Auxiliaries or Inflections
AU - Larice Toko Lumanda
Y1 - 2019/06/04
PY - 2019
N1 - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.cls.20190501.14
DO - 10.11648/j.cls.20190501.14
T2 - Communication and Linguistics Studies
JF - Communication and Linguistics Studies
JO - Communication and Linguistics Studies
SP - 18
EP - 22
PB - Science Publishing Group
SN - 2380-2529
UR - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.cls.20190501.14
AB - In the English grammar lessons, will and shall are taught in schools and universities as modal verbs. Almost all famous grammarians confirm that will and shall are modal verbs. Modal verbs are considered as auxiliaries apart from the main or primary auxiliaries be, have, and do. Considering the definitions and characteristics of auxiliaries and inflections, a deep understanding of will and shall is required. This paper examines the definitions and characteristics of both auxiliaries and inflections and the uses of will and shall in order to know whether will and shall are auxiliaries or free inflections of the Future Tense. However it is worth mentioning that time is divided into past, present, and future. In modern English, almost grammarians say that there are two tenses in English namely present tense and past tense. According to them, the future tense does not exist. They believe so simply because there is no inflection for future tense; the futurity is expressed through modal verbs (will and shall). Generally speaking, modal auxiliaries help lexical verbs to express a variety of meanings, different attitudes, such as mood, aspect, etc. whereas inflections help verbs to express tenses. For instance, -ed is a bound inflection that helps regular verbs express the simple past tense. The –s is also a bound inflection that expresses the third person singular in the Simple Present Tense whereas –Ø is an invisible inflection which expresses the first persons (singular and plural), second persons (singular and plural), and the third person plural of the Simple Present Tense). Is there any inflection for the Future Tense? This paper is an attempt to answer this question.
VL - 5
IS - 1
ER -

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Author Information

Larice Toko Lumanda

Department of English Letters and Civilization, University of Kinshasa, Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo

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APA Style

Larice Toko Lumanda. (2019). A Linguistic View on the Use of Will and Shall as Auxiliaries or Inflections. Communication and Linguistics Studies, 5(1), 18-22. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.cls.20190501.14

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ACS Style

Larice Toko Lumanda. A Linguistic View on the Use of Will and Shall as Auxiliaries or Inflections. Commun. Linguist. Stud. 2019, 5(1), 18-22. doi: 10.11648/j.cls.20190501.14

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AMA Style

Larice Toko Lumanda. A Linguistic View on the Use of Will and Shall as Auxiliaries or Inflections. Commun Linguist Stud. 2019;5(1):18-22. doi: 10.11648/j.cls.20190501.14

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@article{10.11648/j.cls.20190501.14,
  author = {Larice Toko Lumanda},
  title = {A Linguistic View on the Use of Will and Shall as Auxiliaries or Inflections},
  journal = {Communication and Linguistics Studies},
  volume = {5},
  number = {1},
  pages = {18-22},
  doi = {10.11648/j.cls.20190501.14},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.cls.20190501.14},
  eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.cls.20190501.14},
  abstract = {In the English grammar lessons, will and shall are taught in schools and universities as modal verbs. Almost all famous grammarians confirm that will and shall are modal verbs. Modal verbs are considered as auxiliaries apart from the main or primary auxiliaries be, have, and do. Considering the definitions and characteristics of auxiliaries and inflections, a deep understanding of will and shall is required. This paper examines the definitions and characteristics of both auxiliaries and inflections and the uses of will and shall in order to know whether will and shall are auxiliaries or free inflections of the Future Tense. However it is worth mentioning that time is divided into past, present, and future. In modern English, almost grammarians say that there are two tenses in English namely present tense and past tense. According to them, the future tense does not exist. They believe so simply because there is no inflection for future tense; the futurity is expressed through modal verbs (will and shall). Generally speaking, modal auxiliaries help lexical verbs to express a variety of meanings, different attitudes, such as mood, aspect, etc. whereas inflections help verbs to express tenses. For instance, -ed is a bound inflection that helps regular verbs express the simple past tense. The –s is also a bound inflection that expresses the third person singular in the Simple Present Tense whereas –Ø is an invisible inflection which expresses the first persons (singular and plural), second persons (singular and plural), and the third person plural of the Simple Present Tense). Is there any inflection for the Future Tense? This paper is an attempt to answer this question.},
 year = {2019}
}

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