Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Peter Kirk <peterkirk AT qaya.org>]

On 26/09/2005 10:35, Vadim Cherny wrote:

> > > ...
> >
> >
> > There is no future tense inherent in "will", as an independent verb. 
> > It is simply a rare synonym of "want" or "decide", which would never 
> > be used in such a context.
>
>
> It is a rare synonym now. In ME, "will" began to form future tense and 
> retained the sense of "want."
>
> > but "What dost thou will?" would be grammatical pre-modern English, 
> > or else "What wilt thou?". But in this case "will" or "wilt" is 
> > acting as an independent verb, and so is not a future tense or in any 
> > way "future-oriented".
>
>
> I recall that "will" acquired its future tense auxiliary role in ME. 
> Thus, at some point it shared functions of independent verb abd tense 
> auxiliary. At that time, "What wilt thou?" is a close analogy to 
> idiomaically employed future tense in Hebrew.
The verb "will" certainly had two different uses, one as a future 
auxiliary and one as an independent verb. Both uses are common in the 
King James Bible. But the two uses are clearly distinct, already by 
1611, both in syntax (the future auxiliary has no "to" before the 
following verb, which is mandatory with the independent verb form) and 
in meaning. It would be possible to translate Genesis 37:15 into King 
James English with "What does thou will?" or "What wilt thou?", but the 
syntax as well as the context indicates that this is not the future 
auxiliary "will" but the independent verb "will".

--
Peter Kirk
peter AT qaya.org (personal)
peterkirk AT qaya.org (work)
http://www.qaya.org/