Give yourself a gold star for courage, Tim, conditional tenses have always proved difficult to comprehend, no matter what in grammatical linguistics, and nearly impossible to teach! In this respect, I understand that "Frank" reads Plato’s Cratylus before a class in the original Greek; you could try needling him for help in the optative & subjunctive moods, a lesson more advanced than anything found in the English paradigm.
Oh I see, you think Tim is some novice, so that explains it. See Tim is an expert who speaks English perfectly. Btw obfuscatorial language is the hallmark of those who want to appear intelligent, not being obfuscatory is not being stupid, it means he can speak with anyone, and be understood.
You might first do the intelligent turn and ask Tim himself, if he thinks I called him stupid, then point out exactly where I did so, because I cannot find it anywhere--likewise, go shopping for some new epithets, thou abominable cretin, because your seismically tactful style exhibits all the linguistic eloquence of King Kong himself, the undisputed lord of literary bombast!
You might first do the intelligent turn and ask Tim himself, if he thinks I called him stupid, then point out to me exactly where I did so, because I cannot find it anywhere--
I did.
likewise, work on some new epithets, you abominable cretin, for your seismically tactful style exhibits all the linguistic eloquence of King Kong, the undisputed master of literary bombast!
Nice, I can’t see how you managed to take offence at that but I guess you did, oh well, Now, what epithets did I use against you? You mean like cretin? Literary bombast? I believe anyone who uses the word paradigm is bombastic, but who am I to say for sure? I’m a cretin? All I was saying is that just because Tim wasn’t tossing out a boatload of multi-syllabic words doesn’t make him a novice or stupid.
"Fee, fi, fo, fum"--methinks I smell the all too familiar blood, sweat & tears of yet another over-worked, under-paid instructor of the English language! So why not let Senor Bandito make it easy, poor dear, if you will only recall five kinds of traditional theater, that flourished during the 17th cent. zenith of Tokugawa renaissance in feudal Japan? By the tone & structure of your latest assault, just worded above, you may already be acquainted with at least one type of performance, a comic exchange between dual antagonists on stage. Yet I shall begrudge thee just one hint anyway: They all five deployed but two actors of a sort, or else players. See if you can do it right off hand, without even having to describe it for everybody! Just one, two, three, four & five--what are they?
I see your colors Bandito, we will have no further correspondance. FINI!
hakkol hevel Qohelet 1:2 "All is vanity!"
So, Tim, as regarding could/can, I don’t know how it is in Spanish, but In the situation of "the phone is ringing it could be your mother", could here is making a different statement than can would be.
Here >could< would be saying it is probable that the ringing is heralding a call from mom, and >can< designates that the call has the remote possibly of it being your mother. Subtle but different. I know you are a liguist of some note and will correct me if I’m mistaken.
Okay, messa Kofi-babe, whatever you say, yessuh, juss promise you ain’t gonna report it none, boss messa, to the big, baaad United Nations, suuuh, or whup me poor, li’l white arse witcho’ black, leathery "shoe"--oooh, it hurrrrrts suh’em awful, oh hey ooooh!
You know what to do, Dano m’boy, and don’t quit your day job anytime soon--for I have yet to discover a single IE language, i.e. minus any record of subjunctive or "conditional" verb, attested in its entire paradigm!
--for I have yet to discover a single IE language, i.e. minus any record of subjunctive or "conditional" verb, attested in its total paradigm!
I’m not sure that I have understood what you mean, but if you are looking for a language that doesn’t inflect verbs for mood or voice, and in addition to that rarely for tense, you should have a look at Afrikaans.
How good of you to reply, noble Anders, but if I recall correctly, Boer Afrikaans has been unmistakably shown to count as a diachronic kinsman of Low Franconian Dutch, another IE Gemanic tongue, and that pedigree alone should establish a verifiable history of subjunctive, and therefore "conditional", inflection in the verb paradigm!
How good of you to reply, noble Anders, but if I recall correctly, Boer Afrikaans has been unmistakably shown to count as a diachronic kinsman of Low Franconian Dutch, another IE Gemanic tongue, and that pedigree alone should establish a verifiable history of subjunctive, and therefore "conditional", inflection in the verb paradigm!
So, since PIE had a subjunctive, all IE languages have "verifiable history of subjunctive, and therefore "conditional", inflection in the verb paradigm". Verrry interesting.
should establish a verifiable history of subjunctive, and therefore "conditional", inflection in the verb paradigm!
History apart, please show me contemporary examples of subjunctive or conditional inflection, differing from just adding a verb-like particle, because I can’t find them myself.
