Re: SURVEY: Idiomatic Expressions In Your ConLang Or ConCulture

Steg Belsky wrote:

> On Nov 13, 2005, at 6:30 PM, Ph.D. wrote:
>  > "I will try and attend the meeting."
> >
> > Here, "and" doesn't quite make sense. The expected word
> > would be "to."  (To me, the use of "and" implies "I will try the
> > meeting and I will attend the meeting.")
>
>
> In my experience, or maybe just in my own idiolect, "try and" has a
> greater degree of certainty than "try to".  As in, if i say i'll 'try
> TO' do something there's a possibility that it won't happen, but if i
> say i'll 'try AND' do something i'm saying that there's very little
> chance that it won't happen.
>
How odd...my reaction is just the opposite, or maybe it all depends on
context?

"I'm going to try to climb Mt.Everest" --- yes indeed.
"I'm going to try and climb Mt.Everest" -- at some point, maybe

OTOH I feel very little difference between--

"I'll try to be there at 9 o'clock" vs. "I'll try and..." (but even here
"try to" seems to me a more certain promise)

Interesting that "try and" only works with "try" in the infinitive,
imperative and future--

INF. to try to... ~ to try and...
IMP. Try to... ~ Try and...
FUT. exs. already given
I feel, too, that these work best in the positive, not in the negative.

In other tenses, all are * with "and"--
Pres: he tries to..., I'm trying to...
Past: he tried to..., he was trying to...
Perfect tenses: he has/had/will have tried to... etc.

Of course, "he tried and succeeded/failed" is another matter entirely.

My grade-school grammar teachers railed and railed against "try and...", but
with minimal success :-)

ObConlang!! Kash avoids the problem by using a serial verb construction--
e.g. maçasa(to) manahan... 'he (will) try to eat...'

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