Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Vadim Cherny" <VadimCherny AT mail.ru>]

> > > > 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?"

"What wilt thou" has neither "to," as common for "will" in the sense "want," 
nor a main verb, as common for "will" as future aux. Thus, the phrase seems 
to reflect an intermediate sense between "want" and future aux, a function 
resembling yiqtol mvksh.

Vadim Cherny