(TRANSLATION IN PROGRESS)
With Modal verbs and patterns as the Conditional or Unreal Past, we may feel about language form more as a reflection.
Let us see if we could apply our MODAL TIME FRAME to guidance on the Unreal Past or the Conditional.
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There has been much dispute over the Conditional. Some grammarians reject it altogether.
Let us remember that labeling does not change the objective language reality. It cannot decide on how linguistic forms may work within human discourse.
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Let us use Conditional patterns, to compare language forms. We mind our target grammatical time, the PRESENT, PAST, or FUTURE.
We can practice with the verb TO HAVE. It can mean keeping, tolerating, or eating something.
As a syntactic verb, HAVE may provide the auxiliary time for Modal verbs. Let us look to the syntax and negotiation of meaning: how do we eat a cookie and have it?
Our cookie is perfectly digestible. To choose on the word sense, we can underline the “HAVE” to mean keeping, tolerating, or eating.
We look to the premise (if you eat the cookie) and the consequent (you do not have it).
In PRACTICE 9.4. we viewed time as on a symbolic line.
ZERO CONDITIONAL
TARGET GRAMMATICAL TIME: THE PRESENT
83. If you eat the cookie, you DO NOT have it.
LANGUAGE FORM: PRESENT
If you eat {PRESENT}, you DO {PRESENT} NOT have
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1ST CONDITIONAL
TARGET GRAMMATICAL TIME: THE FUTURE
84. If you eat the cookie, you WILL NOT have it.
LANGUAGE FORM: PRESENT
If you eat {PRESENT}, you WILL {PRESENT} NOT have
We began our journey viewing the verb form “WILL” in the Fields of Time.
We noted there is not really a FUTURE shape for the verb form WILL.
We do not say *will will.
The verb form WILL maps on the FUTURE already in the PRESENT grammatical shape.
We can compare Modal uses of WILL
85. She WILL be reading now.
(I am sure she is reading now.)
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2ND CONDITIONAL
TARGET GRAMMATICAL TIME: THE PRESENT
86. If you ate the cookie, you WOULD NOT have it.
LANGUAGE FORM: PAST
If you ate {PAST}, you WOULD {PAST} NOT have
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3RD CONDITIONAL
TARGET GRAMMATICAL TIME: THE PAST
87. If you had eaten the cookie, you WOULD NOT have had it.
LANGUAGE FORM: ANTECEDENT PAST
If you had eaten {ANTECEDENT PAST},
you WOULD NOT have {ANTECEDENT PAST} had
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4TH (MIXED) CONDITIONAL
TARGET GRAMMATICAL TIME: THE PAST and PRESENT
88. If you had eaten the cookie, you WOULD NOT have it.
LANGUAGE FORM: ANTECEDENT PAST and PAST
If you had eaten {ANTECEDENT PAST},
you WOULD {PAST} NOT have
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We have marked our HAVES: If you HAD eaten the cookie, you WOULD NOT HAVE had it then.
The syntactic HAVE is green. The head verb, the notional HAVE is mauve and underlined. It may mean keeping, tolerating, or. . . eating something.
We may compare examples about Chantelle Règle having her extra Larousse, in SUB-CHAPTER 8.1.
Syntax can make us prone to interpret the notional HAVE as keeping something, in examples as 91a―d, though we can eat meals as well as have them.
Do we have to adopt the Conditional, to use Conditional patterns? Let us compare ideas.
Some grammars will say we use the First Conditional when the probability of something is high, and we use the Second for things more probable than those in the Third.
Grammars that reject the Conditional may support structures they name the Unreal Past. Let us consider the probability for saying,
89. If I WERE you, I WOULD . . .
(Please find the comment on the use of WERE also in exercise 62.)
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Skimming can be part an effective learning strategy. We can go backward and forward in our study guides, to get a picture of the language itself. The more study guides, the better.
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The PROBABILITY to become another human individual literally and ever really is ZERO, for everyone.
90. *I AM you . . . / *You ARE me . . . ?
(There is zero probability, even if someone pretends another person.)
Example 92 could be the Second Conditional or Unreal Past. Regardless of the label, it conveys zero probability, for the PRESENT, PAST, as well as FUTURE.
What would be if he were …
… if he were her … and if she were him …?
Bob says an unreal past could not exist without an unreal present or future, and he really wants to go to the Himalayas.
Alice says there never could be literally such a time as unreal time; just as well, you could try to have a cat for an unreal dog.
She pretends she is seeing bubbles, when it comes to unreal reality, and practices that too, sometimes.
Feel welcome to the GRAMMAR GRAPEVINE.
Chantelle says the world’s worst advice she ever got always came with someone saying, “If I were you…”
She skips the phrase owing to her language economy, also when she listens. She feels different about saying or hearing, “If I were in your shoes…”
“I’d have fresh veg every morning.”
Bob is not thinking about the high Himalaya: he is too small. It is not only in highest mountainous areas we may want to manage, however.
91. If you HAD NOT taken care of it, this handle WOULD HAVE broken off.
Within the probability approach, example 91 is the 3rd Conditional, which tells about the least probable events. The example yet might be telling about a prevented thing.
Let us think about probability a little further.
92. If you take care of this handle now, it still MIGHT work.
(The probability is low.)
We can transform the example and say,
92a. If you take care of this handle now, it WILL work.
(The probability is very high.)
Both 92 and 92a could receive the same label — of the First Conditional — and they differ in PROBABILITY very much.
In 92, taking care of the handle is probable to result in its working.
In 92a, the probability amounts to CERTAINTY. Taking care of the handle is sure to bring a working condition.
PROBABILITY is not going to explain on the use of forms. Let us try LINGUISTIC RELATIVITY.
“It is common sense to take a method and try it. If it fails, admit it frankly and try another. But above all, try something.”
Franklin Delano Roosevelt, American President
Let us sum up. For theory or guesswork, we can use
PRESENT verb forms to speak about the FUTURE,
PAST forms to speak about the PRESENT,
and
ANTECEDENT PAST forms to speak about the PAST.
Feel welcome to
10.1. THE CONDITIONAL OR UNREAL PAST: REAL TIME.
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