Modality and the Expression of Future Time in English: 'Will', 'Would', 'Shall' & 'Should'

I. Introduction 1.1 It is impossible to make definite reliable statements about future happenings as is the case in statements about the past and present. For this reason all future forms express certain attitudes or speakers' intentions. Therefore futurity, modality, and aspect are closely interrelated, and this is reflected in the fact that future time is rendered by means of modal auxiliaries, by semi-auxiliaries, etc. Since future reference is a dangerous and controversial area, some scholars …

…GREENBAUM, G. LEECH and J. SVARTVIK. (1973) A Grammar of Contemporary English. London: Longmans. (2nd Edition). SHARWOOD SMITH, M.A. (1972) "English Verbs of Future Reference in a Pedagogical Grammar". Smith states that these two forms are now regarded as modal auxiliaries (cf. Strang, Thorne), syntactically speaking, as they behave syntactically like the other forms in that group ('may', 'must', 'should', etc.), although not everyone lists them as modals (cf. Fries 1940) or modals all the time (Thorne)