Path: news.nzbot.com!not-for-mail
From: Miss Elaine Eos <Misc@*your-shoes*PlayNaked.com>
Newsgroups: alt.languages.english
Subject: Re: Is this sentence correct ?
Organization: Very little. Maybe some on weekends.
References: <1133415731.180964.22860@f14g2000cwb.googlegroups.com> <VBRjf.34855$6e1.27926@newssvr14.news.prodigy.com> <Misc-B6E703.20230203122005@newsclstr02.news.prodigy.com> <slrndpdsna.ldo.chris@ccserver.keris.net>
User-Agent: MT-NewsWatcher/3.4 (PPC Mac OS X)
Message-ID: <Misc-A659E3.08102607122005@newsclstr02.news.prodigy.com>
Lines: 31
NNTP-Posting-Host: 4.246.42.43
X-Complaints-To: abuse@prodigy.net
X-Trace: newssvr27.news.prodigy.net 1133971823 ST000 4.246.42.43 (Wed, 07 Dec 2005 11:10:23 EST)
NNTP-Posting-Date: Wed, 07 Dec 2005 11:10:23 EST
X-UserInfo1: OPXWS\[EWJSWC_\YBBHD]_\@VR]^@B@MCPWZKB]MPXHBTWICYFWUQBKZQLYJX\_ITFD_KFVLUN[DOM_A_NSYNWPFWNS[XV\I]PZ@BQ[@CDQDPCL^FKCBIPC@KLGEZEFNMDYMKHRL_YYYGDSSODXYN@[\BK[LVTWI@AXGQCOA_SAH@TPD^\AL\RLGRFWEARBM
Date: Wed, 07 Dec 2005 16:10:23 GMT
Xref: news.nzbot.com alt.languages.english:1064
In article <slrndpdsna.ldo.chris@ccserver.keris.net>,
Chris Croughton <chris@keristor.net> wrote:
> > "If I were to be born again, I shall be a great scholar" sounds a bit
> > off to my [American] ear. It's not QUITE mixed-tenses, but it has that
> > same "not quite right" ring to it.
> The subjunctive is difficult to get right, and is often mangled in
> modern English (and American), many people use 'was' instead of 'were'.
> It's one of the oddities of English tenses that an apparent past plural
> ('were') is used for a singular future. In modern English the present
> is often heard instead ("If I am to be born again") with an implication
> of slightly more certainty (or at least less uncertainty).
Actually, now that I look at it again, wouldn't the matching tenses be
more along the lines of "if I am to be born again, I shall be a great
scholar" or "if I were to be born again, I would be a great scholar"..?
Even though it's clear that to be born again is some future event, "if I
were" seems to have an already-completed feeling, even with the
following "to be", which is clearly future. The whole "if I were to be"
phrase seems to carry a sort of "once it's over and done with, and we
are in THAT event's future" type of meaning.
I realize that you are more expert than I in this area, and so pose the
preceding as a question.
--
Please take off your shoes before arriving at my in-box.
I will not, no matter how "good" the deal, patronise any business which sends
unsolicited commercial e-mail or that advertises in discussion newsgroups.
|
|