Future tense in English

O.Jespersen believes that shall and will preserve some of their original meaning
(shall an element of obligation, will an element of volition) ? English has no
means of expressing �pure futurity�, free from modal shades of meaning, i.e. it has
no form standing on the same grammatical level as the forms of the past and present
tenses.
It is also well known that a present tense form and present continuous may also be
used when the action belongs to the future (as planned action).
Besides the 6 forms of the English verb there are 2 more, namely, the future-in-
the-past and the future-continuous-in-the-past. These forms are used chiefly in
subordinate clauses depending on a main clause having its predicate verb in one of
the past tense, however they can be found in independent clauses as well.
Tense as a binary opposition
A well-grounded objection against the inclusion of the construction shall/will +
Infinitive in the tense system of the verb on the same basis as the forms of the
present and past has been advanced by L. S. Barkhudarov
His objection consists in the demonstration of the double marking of this would-be
tense form by one and the same category: the combinations in question can express
at once both the future time and the past time (the form "future-in-the-past"),
which hardly makes any sense in terms of a grammatical category.
Tense as a binary opposition
The meaningful contrast underlying the category of prospective time is between an
after-action and a non-after-action. The after-action, or the "future", having its
shall/will-feature, constitutes the marked member of the opposition
It means that the future form of the verb only shows that the denoted process is
prospected as an after-action relative to some other action or state or event, the
timing of which marks the zero-level for it.
Tense as a binary opposition
As a result, the expression of the future receives the two mutually complementary
manifestations: one manifestation for the present time-plane of the verb, the other
manifestation for the past time-plane of the verb.
All the other categories capable of entering the sphere of verbal time, e.g. the
category of development (continuous in opposition), the category of retrospective
coordination (perfect in opposition), the category of voice (passive in
opposition):
Examples:#
(1) I was making a road and all the coolies struck. (2) None of us doubted in the
least that Aunt Emma would soon be marvelling again at Eustace's challenging
success. (3) �h� next thing she wrote she sent to a magazine, and for many weeks
worried about what would happen to it. (4) She did not protest, for she had given
up the struggle. (5) Felix knew that they would have settled the dispute by the
time he could be ready to have his say. (6) He was being watched, shadowed, chased
by that despicable gang of hirelings. (7) But would little Johnny be 'being looked
after properly? The nurse was so young and inexperienced!
The oppositional content of the exemplified cases of finite verb-forms will, in the
chosen order of sequence, be presented as follows: the past non-future continuous
non-perfect non-passive (1); the past future continuous non-perfect non-passive
(2); the past future non-continuous non-perfect non-passive (3); the past non-
future non-con�tinuous perfect non-passive (4); the past future non-continuous
per�fect non-passive (5); the past non-future continuous non-perfect pas�sive (6);
the past future continuous non-perfect passive (7)-the lat�ter form, not in
practical use
Conclusion
As we have already stated before, the future tenses reject the do-forms of the
indefinite aspect, which are confined to the expression of the present and past
verbal times only. This fact serves as a supplementary ground for the
identification of the expression of prospect as a separate grammatical category.
Of course, it would be an ill turn to grammar if one tried to introduce the above
circumstantial terminology with all its pedantic strings of "non's" into the
elementary teaching of language.