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b-hebrew - Re: [b-hebrew] Genesis 37:15

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  • From: "Stoney Breyer" <stoneyb AT touchwood.net>
  • To: <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Genesis 37:15
  • Date: Mon, 26 Sep 2005 14:26:32 -0500

VC: "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.

SB:
1. "Will" has never required "to" with a complementary verb in any
sense; cf John 1:6 (KJV) "Wilt thou be made whole?"

2. "Wilt" in this sense *is* the main verb. At the time when "thou wilt"
was still current, "What wilt thou?" (or "What will ye?" or "What will
she?", etc.) was a perfectly regular interrogatory form; cf Mac "Where
got'st thou that goose look?" The same use obtains in German: "Was
willst du?" Since about the middle of the 17th Century English has
abandoned this simple inversion in favor of an inverted periphrastic --
we now say "What do you want?", "What do you see?", "What are you
holding?"

Keep on trying.

Stoney Breyer
Writer/Touchwood, Inc.







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