The future expression of "will"

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4.2. The far future
4.2.1. The future expression of "will"
"Will" as the far future does not have a cause or a plan of the event unlike the near future. That is to say, it means the speaker's thought in the spot.

See the following examples.

(9)
a. You will feel better after this medicine.
b. It will rain tomorrow.

(9a) has the speaker's expectation and the cause or the plan of the event is not in it. And (9b) has the prediction.

See the following figure of "will."

(10)

The red circle is the future event, which is similar to the near future. But it does not have the blue line which expresses the speaker's feeling. That is, it does not have the mental contact with the present.

Now, we compare it with "be going to" to understand more.

(11)
a. It will rain tomorrow.
b. It is going to rain tomorrow.

(11a) is the will example and (11b) is the be going to example. (11a) has the prediction but (11b) has the urgent meaning. See the following figures.

(12)
a. It will rain tomorrow.

b. It is going to rain tomorrow.

The difference in the above is whether it has the speaker's feeling expressed by the blue line or not. If we consider the situation, (11b) means it is cloudy or dull and then when the speaker looks at the sky s/he has the feeling to rain soon, and also means s/he has the same feeling when hearing the weather forecast.

But (11a) means merely the speaker's prediction.

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