Omnitemporal will

The English modal verb will has always presented problems for descriptive classification within the modal categories traditionally divided between epistemic and non-epistemic. On the one hand, its role as a marker of futurity does not help to distinguish it from many deontic meanings of obligation or necessity; while on the other, its future meanings have often been associated with epistemic senses. Historically, it seems to present anomalies in the form of ‘omnitemporal’ meanings appearing as early as Old English times. The present paper offers a two-fold solution to categorisation problems, suggesting a broad classification of core modal meanings which is related to presupposed speaker knowledge, and within which will may be easily accommodated. An investigation into early uses of will with third-person subjects in selected Old English texts further reveals a majority of uses associated with generic or non-specific subjects and suggests that such omnitemporal uses, rather than those expressing specific intentions of the subject, may have played an important role in the grammaticalisation of predictive functions.