Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Peter Kirk <peterkirk AT qaya.org>]

On 26/09/2005 12:38, Vadim Cherny wrote:

> > > 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)
>
>
> but there is no "to" in "What wilt thou?"


The rule is that the future "will" must be followed by a main verb 
without "to". Where there is no verb, there is no "to". But in the 
future sense it is not possible to drop the main verb. If the main verb 
is indefinite, you can say "What will you do?" with a future meaning, 
but you cannot shorten this to "What will you?", which has a quite 
different meaning "What do you want?"

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