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Part of
Norms and Conventions in the History of English
Edited by Birte Bös and Claudia Claridge
[Current Issues in Linguistic Theory 347] 2019
► pp. 167–190

Pragmatic and formulaic uses of shall and will in Older Scots and Early Modern English official letter writing

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Letters of the Early Modern period are typically composed of set parts, such as a salutation or letter-closing formulae, and of less conventionalised passages. In both conventional and non-conventional parts predictive and intentional shall and will are regularly used. This comparative study of Early Modern English (EModE) and Older Scots (OSc) official letters investigates how formulaic conventions and pragmatic function influenced the use of shall and will. The findings show that in OSc official letters written between 1500 and 1700 shall, irrespective of whether it has a predictive or an intentional meaning, is favoured over will for conventionalised commissive speech acts. Outside such conventional uses, shall became rare in the 17th century. In the English letters, the commissive uses of shall declined after the first half of the 16th century. Will, by contrast, is preferred for non-commissive uses in both English and Scots letters.

Keywords: will , shall , formulaic convention, pragmatic function, letters
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Source material and method
  • 3.Predictive shall and will
    • 3.1Certain vs non-certain predictions
    • 3.2Modal meanings
      • Animate subjects
      • Epistemicity
    • 3.3Linguistic criteria signalling subjectivity
    • 3.4Certain vs non-certain predictions in official letters and their pragmatic uses
      • Certain vs non-certain predictions
      • Will in directive speech acts
      • Shall in commissive speech acts
    • 3.5Distribution of certain and non-certain predictions
    • 3.6The distribution of commissive and directive speech acts
      • Gradual restriction of shall to commissive uses in Scots letters after 1570
      • Declining frequency of polite directive will after 1570
  • 4.Intentional shall and will and the role of commissive speech acts
  • 5.Conclusions
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 27 May 2019
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https://doi.org/10.1075/cilt.347.09els
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