Bill & Craig & Kathleen,
Bill, I love how terms of obligation are put so politely.  And, Craig, thank you for including Kathleen's reference to deonatic use and epistemical use of modals.  Anyone stepping into the ATEG pool soon discovers the waters there run very deep, indeed.
But I want to get back to some of what was offered by Craig in terms of modals.  Craig, you say, "All the pure modals were once main verbs. . ."  Do you have any instances of their use in this manner?  I have no doubt that you are correct.  
I also appreciate that you add that now they "serve to ground a statement within the judgement of the speaker."  Too often we miss point of view.  But this reminds me of something I have barely read, Constructions at Work by Adele E. Goldberg, writing about argument structure constructions.  This reminds me of another work I have read from beginning to end, Endangered Minds by Jane M. Healy, in which she writes that forms of language that contain "more complex grammatical devices are called elaborated codes.  Those conveying ideas without such complex grammatical structures are called restricted codes and are the ones viewed as more 'primitive.'"  She claims that, unless 'literature is carefully taught by a skilled teacher who knows how to make the text come alive and who is able to make the huge time commitment to help students with unfamiliar vocabulary, grammar, and voice, I can tell you what many kids do--they simply don't read it.  Instead, they continue to practice--and to embed in their brains--language that some linguists refer to quite descriptively as 'primitive.'"
John R. Searle writes in Making The Social World that language not only moves from identifying real things to identifying imaginary things (and metaphors connected to real things) to conceptualizations (that are approached through metaphor), but it also creates a new reality through laws that show themselves to be real in that they entail punishment and create jobs for those who carry out those punishments--which brings us back to Bill's reference to "shall," where "the party of the first part" shall carry out a certain act or be subject to punishment.  Thus, we move beyond the being "primitive" in our use of language.
This shows how important grammarians are to educators.  And it shows why language seems so intimidating to our students.  They sense its power to create the social world that has grown out of the natural world in which language first evolved.
Shall the world ever recognize the worth of the grammarian?  Time will tell.  Meanwhile, I hope to hear more about how these modals became conceptual shells encasing our words with judgment.

Gregg


On Jun 5, 2011, at 7:31 PM, Spruiell, William C wrote:


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
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