The future tense in French and the modal auxiliarywillin English can both express conjecture. This use is generally considered marginal compared to that of referring to future time. A unified analysis of the French future tense and of Englishwillneeds, however, to be able to account for the former. In this paper I attempt to show how this particular modal value is intrinsically related respectively to the tense system of French and to the modal system of English and consequently why no real correspondence may be posited between the two languages, the future of conjecture being seldom translated bywilland vice versa.

7This article discusses the synchronic status and diachronic development of will be -ing and shall be -ing (as in I'll be leaving at noon).2 Although available since at least Middle English, the constructions did not establish a significant foothold in standard English until the twentieth century. Both types are also more prevalent in British English (BrE) than American English (AmE).We argue that in present-day usage will/shall be -ing are aspectually underspecified: instances that clearly construe a situation as future-in-progress are in the minority. Similarly, although volition-neutrality has been identified as a key feature of will/shall be -ing, it is important to take account of other, generally richer meanings and associations, notably 'future-as-matter-of-course' (Leech 2004), 'already-decided future' (Huddleston & Pullum et al. 2002) and non-agentivity. Like volition-neutrality, these characteristics appear to be relevant not only in contemporary use, but also in their historical expansion. We show that the construction has evolved from progressive aspect towards more subjectivised evidential meaning. A G NÈ S C E L L E A N D N I C H O L A S S M I T HWe suggest that will be -ing and shall be -ing merit closer scrutiny. Firstly, the variant 32 with will is in fact encountered in a variety of discourse types in Present-Day English. 33Following are some typical examples found in contemporary usage: 34(1) This store will be closing in 5 minutes. 35(A standard announcement in UK stores at around 5.25 pm). 36(2) This train will be calling at Preston, Chorley, . . (1972) and Gachelin (1997) deem it 'pure' or 'colourless' future (see also Declerck, 68 this issue). These accounts share a common thread: the idea that the future situation 69 3 We borrow this term from Comrie (1976), to distinguish the meaning of the construction from its form. 4 For some commentators (e.g. Adamczewski & Delmas 1982) cases such as this provide compelling evidence that 'progressive' is a misnomer for the be + -ing construction. It is because of this controversy, and potential confusability of form and function, that we refer to the constructions as shall be -ing and will be -ing rather than will/shall + the progressive. B E YO N D A S P E C T : WILL BE -ING A N D SHALL BE -ING 241'will come to pass without the interference or the volition of anyone concerned' (Leech 70 2004: 67). However, the characterisations involve subtle differences, which need to be 71 elucidated and assessed against a body of authentic data.

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This paper offers a pragmatic account of two wh-questions in French used non-canonically - c’est quoi, ce N and qu’est-ce que constructions. It is claimed that in this non-canonical use, both constructions express surprise. As these constructions may be syntactically ambiguous between an information-seeking reading and a surprise reading, it is expected that the two readings differ in terms of prosody. This hypothesis is supported by the results of a production experiment. Experimental evidence shows significant prosodic differences between syntactically similar information-seeking questions and surprise questions. Surprise questions exhibit an increase in lengthening, slower speech rate and less frequent rising final contours.