As an auxiliary,
shall indicates a
duty or necessity whose obligation is derived from the person
speaking; as, you
shall go; he
shall go; that is, I
order or promise your going. It thus ordinarily expresses, in the
second and third persons, a command, a threat, or a promise. If the
auxillary be emphasized, the command is made more imperative, the
promise or that more positive and sure. It is also employed in the
language of prophecy; as, "the day
shall come when . . . , "
since a promise or threat and an authoritative prophecy nearly
coincide in significance. In
shall with the first person, the
necessity of the action is sometimes implied as residing elsewhere
than in the speaker; as, I
shall suffer; we
shall see;
and there is always a less distinct and positive assertion of his
volition than is indicated by
will. "I
shall go" implies
nearly a simple futurity; more exactly, a foretelling or an
expectation of my going, in which, naturally enough, a certain degree
of plan or intention may be included; emphasize the
shall, and
the event is described as certain to occur, and the expression
approximates in meaning to our emphatic "I
will go." In a
question, the relation of speaker and source of obligation is of
course transferred to the person addressed; as, "
Shall you go?"
(answer, "I
shall go"); "
Shall he go?"
i. e., "Do
you require or promise his going?" (answer, "He
shall go".) The
same relation is transferred to either second or third person in such
phrases as "You say, or think, you
shall go;" "He says, or
thinks, he
shall go." After a conditional conjunction (as
if, whether)
shall is used in all persons to express
futurity simply; as, if I, you, or he
shall say they are right.
Should is everywhere used in the same connection and the same
senses as
shall, as its imperfect. It also expresses duty or
moral obligation; as, he
should do it whether he will or not.
In the early English, and hence in our English Bible,
shall is
the auxiliary mainly used, in all the persons, to express simple
futurity. (Cf.
Will,
v. t.)
Shall may
be used elliptically; thus, with an adverb or other word expressive of
motion
go may be omitted.
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