Re: A prioi vs. A posteriori ?

Peter Bleackley wrote:
> "I did it because I could" - an opportunity arose, and I took it.
>
> "I did it because I can" - I can do it, so I did do it, and I'm quite
> prepared to do it again.
>
> The infinite subtlety of English strikes again!
As I said in my reply to Tristan, the second is simply ungrammatical for
me.  Were I to hear someone say that, I would interpret it as meaning
the same as the first, which is neutral in regards to whether or not I
can still do whatever it was I did.

Interesting that some dialects have such a distinction and others
don't.  :-)  On the other hand, I also have a distinction between "might
be able to" and "might could", while the second is flatly ungrammatical
in most other dialects.  The distinction is subtle, but the first is
less definite.  "Might could" implies a greater likelihood of success;
plus "might be able to" has, for me, a vague connotation of being more
dependent on outside factors than "might could".

--
"There's no such thing as 'cool'.  Everyone's just a big dork or nerd,
you just have to find people who are dorky the same way you are." -
overheard
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