Re: Help!
| From: | Tristan McLeay <kesuari@...> |
|---|
| Date: | Sunday, May 25, 2003, 3:15 |
|---|
Joe wrote:
>----- Original Message -----
>From: "Garth Wallace" <gwalla@...>
>To: <CONLANG@...>
>Sent: Saturday, May 24, 2003 9:46 PM
>Subject: Re: Help!
>
>
>
>
>>Markus Miekk-oja wrote:
>>
>>
>>>* IIRC "would" is related to "will" - its subjunctive form.
>>>
>>>
>>I think "would" is actually the past tense of "will", just as "could" is
>>the past tense of "can" and "might" is the past of "may". F. R. Palmer
>>calls it the "modal-past".
>>
Was, yes, is no. There is nothing past about 'I might be going'.
>But in the phrase "would that it were not so!", it is a subjunctive.
>
>
Yes, but I've never heard that phrase before, and I imagine it's a fixed
phrase rather than anything productive, so arguments based on that can't
really be accepted. Otherwise English is V2.
--
Tristan <kesuari@...>
Reply