Discussion Groups / English Usage / May 2009

OK, I keep forgetting about this alternative.

Thanks.
Marius Hancu

Is he perhaps thinking of it in the 1st person? It will be he who will
be coming, having become a ghost.

    "Then shall I come (as a ghost)".

Opened can of worms alert!

http://www.askoxford.com/concise_oed/shall?view=uk

   shall
   modal verb (3rd sing. present shall)
   1 (in the first person) expressing the future tense.
   2 expressing a strong assertion or intention.
   3 expressing an instruction or command.
   4 used in questions indicating offers or suggestions.
   
   USAGE Strictly speaking shall should be used with I and we to form
   the future tense, as in I shall be late, while will should be used
   with you, he, she, it, and they, as in she will not be there. This,
   however, is reversed when strong determination is being expressed,
   as in I will not tolerate this, and you shall go to school. In
   speech the distinction tends to be obscured, through the use of the
   contracted forms I’ll, she’ll, etc.

"Cinderella, you *shall* go to the ball" is a strong assertion rather
than simply a prediction.

Shall/will is mentioned in a forum at:
http://www.englishforums.com/English/Default/blrvn/post.htm

[Final post on the page]

   There are lots of difficulties in the use of shall. It's partly
   regional and partly proscriptive.
   
   In Standard Southern English:
   
   Shall I put the light off? means Do you want me to put the light
   off?
   
   Will I put the light off? means Guess if I'm going to put the light
   off.
   
   In Scottish English Will I put the light off? means Do you want me
   to put the light off?
   
   In standard written British English when refering to simple futurity
   one is supposed to use shall for the first person only. The use of
   will in the first person implies obligation or intent. With the
   second and third persons the position is the reverse. When I was at
   school (in the 1960's) a master gave us the following two examples:
   
     I shall drown! No one will save me.
   
     I will drown! No one shall save me.
   
   The first is an expression of despair and the second an expression
   of suicidal intent.

It is claimed that Scots use shall and will the other way round, so that
from a Scot:
   
     I will drown! No one shall save me.
   
is an expression of despair that will be interpreted by the Southern
English as an expression of suicidal intent.