Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Peter Kirk <peterkirk AT qaya.org>]

On 27/09/2005 17:48, Stoney Breyer wrote:

> SB PREVIOUS:
> the idiom "will to [X]", which has the sense "exert one's will towards"
> the goal specified by the verb [X]. 
>
> SB TODAY: Silly me -- that is of course a different verb, conjugated
> weakly. OED derives it from the noun. 
>
>  
No, surely you were spot on the first time. The independent verb "will", 
as opposed to the auxiliary, has almost lost its irregular conjugation 
e.g. past "would" which is now generally used only as an auxiliary, and 
is instead now usually conjugated weakly. This is one of a number of 
English verbs which have lost their irregular conjugations, completely 
or in part, but are still the same verb. Also the independent verb 
"will" is current largely in this idiomatic sense, also in the sense of 
"leave an inheritance using a will".

If someone asked me to rewrite the sentence "I wanted to be made whole" 
using the verb "will", I would write "I willed to be made whole", even 
if the obsolete form which might have been used in KJV was "I would be 
made whole". I accept that "I would to be made whole" and "I willed be 
made whole" are both wrong, i.e. forms which as far as I know would 
never have been used in any stage of English. But surely I am using the 
same verb "will" in both cases, in a sense which has changed only a 
little, perhaps to become stronger because "want" has taken over as the 
regular word for use in such cases.

If I write "he hangs the murderers like he hangs curtains", am I using 
two different verbs, even if the pedantic past form of this would be "he 
hanged the murderers like he hung curtains"?

By the way, I am having to drop out of discussions with Vadim as I am 
away on a trip and so have little time for such things - which do not 
seem to be at all productive.

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