Functional-semantic Field of shall/will in Diachrony

Abstract

. This scientific article is devoted to the study of shall/will semantics. In order to understand the current state of the language, it is necessary to regard each phenomenon of the modern language as a result of a long historical change, development and transformation. The issue of meaning and function of will/shall in modern English, which is the subject of our study, is of great interest in theoretical grammar. The study of this problem in diachrony will not only determine the role of shall/will in the formation of pure future tense, but also identify the conditions of these verbs combination with the infinitive to form modality

Keywords

• shall
• will
• modal verb
• diachrony
• future tense
• Old English period
• Middle English period
• sculan
• willan