Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Stoney Breyer" <stoneyb AT touchwood.net>]

Peter Kirk: 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".

SB: No, I think the verbs are still distinct, as they are historically
according to the OED. The first is strongly/irregularly conjugated and
employed syntactically (except in archaizing contexts) as an auxiliary
of futurity, intention, consequence, accession or desire:

* Will you dance? ... I will ... She says she will!
* He asked her if she would dance ... She would. 

The second is weakly conjugated and employed syntactically as a
free-standing verb meaning roughly "exert one's Will in order to
effect":

* His personality is so strong that he wills the girls to dance with
him.
* His personality was so strong that he willed the girls to dance with
him.

PK: the pedantic past form of this would be "he hanged the murderers
like he hung curtains"

SB: Not so pedantic neither: at least in my Alabama youth, "hanged high
as Haman" was a catchphrase for public justice.

-- 
Stoney Breyer
Writer/Touchwood, Inc.