#grammar!

me: but will as an auxiliary and ‘ll as a clitic both come before the verb, so wouldn’t it make more sense for them to become grammaticalized as prefixes, i.e. “i illneed your help?”

(”i illneed your help” and “i’ll need your help” would be pronounced almost exactly the same anyway, so further phonological evolution would be needed to obscure it.)

(if it were a conlang. which it’s not.)

or are we assuming that future english speech communities would recognize the pattern of “tense/aspect change goes on the end of the verb” (e.g. -ed, -s, -ing) and so would also append ill to the end of the verb by analogy as opposed to pure concatenation?

His world shrunk to the throb of agony that was his phantom hand, and Brienne pressed against him.

Jaime IV, A STORM OF SWORDS

The world shrank to two blue stars, a terrible crushing pain, and a cold so fierce that his tears froze over his eyes.

Samwell III, A STORM OF SWORDS

They were out in Blackwater Bay, and the world shrank to dark water, blowing mist, and their silent companion stooped over the oars.

Sansa V, A STORM OF SWORDS

The world shrank down to tooth and claw, snow flying as they rolled and spun and tore at one another, the other wolves snarling and snapping around them.

Bran I, A DANCE WITH DRAGONS

Her world had shrunk to a cell six feet square, a chamber pot, a lumpy pallet, and a brown wool blanket thin as hope that made her skin itch, but she was still Lord Tywin’s heir, a daughter of the Rock.

1) My post doesn’t make any claims about the nature of the “male default” thing—patriarchy’s rarely sneaky enough to be considered a conspiracy, but generally lazily confident in its power and “common sense” that it feels no need to hide. Think the big gross ol’ goblin king from the Hobbit movie on his throne. Also I have had an education and know what “universal he” is. I have further problems with “universal he”—even if the only argument is “times they are a changing.” If you can make a statement about a group but not about each individual (i.e., in implied gender), I have a problem with that.Oh, but you were correct in surmising that I’m a feminist.2) The “they” snowflake fad has had many supporters. Like Bill Walsh, copy editor for the Post, in 2015. Or Shakespeare, in “Much Ado about Nothing” (my fave comedy of his), in 1598. “God send everyone their heart’s desire… Singular they’s been around since the 1400s turtleshroom.