I suspect at least some of the motivation for "shall" in this statement is the statement's status as a fulfillment of a legal requirement. "Shall" isn't just (very) formal in American English, it's heavily associated with legal and pseudo-legal genres (like bylaws). Ask someone to imitate legalese, and "shall" will typically show up right alongside "party of the first part" and "make known and publish." I think OSHA requires a sign like that, although I don't think the "shall" part is mandatory (if it's not OSHA, then it's just about every state government in the country). --- Bill Spruiell On Sat, Jun 4, 2011 at 10:09 PM, Kathleen Ward <[log in to unmask]> wrote: I've always heard it called the deonatic use ofnthe modal -- something that imposes an obligation on the hearer of an utterance. It is a characteristic of modals in English that they have both deonatic and epistemically (degree of certainty) uses. Kathleen M. Ware. University of California, Davis On Saturday, June 4, 2011, Jane Saral <[log in to unmask]> wrote: > Friends have just returned from their annual pilgrimage to Ashland, Oregon, and on one flight they saw a sign in the flight attendants' area that said, "Hands shall be washed before serving food or drink." > > > > What is this use of "shall" called? > > Jane Saral > To join or leave this LISTSERV list, please visit the list's web interface at: > http://listserv.muohio.edu/archives/ateg.html > and select "Join or leave the list" > > Visit ATEG's web site at http://ateg.org/ > To join or leave this LISTSERV list, please visit the list's web interface at: http://listserv.muohio.edu/archives/ateg.html and select "Join or leave the list" Visit ATEG's web site at http://ateg.org/ To join or leave this LISTSERV list, please visit the list's web interface at: http://listserv.muohio.edu/archives/ateg.html and select "Join or leave the list" Visit ATEG's web site at http://ateg.org/ To join or leave this LISTSERV list, please visit the list's web interface at: http://listserv.muohio.edu/archives/ateg.html and select "Join or leave the list" Visit ATEG's web site at http://ateg.org/