Re: Rating Languages

In a message dated 9/27/01 7:44:59 PM, fortytwo@GDN.NET writes:

<< >     I think they emphasize different things.

But, your "conditional" only occurs with an "if" clause, and your
promisary only occurs without an "if" clause.  They sound the same to
me! >>

    I forget exactly which examples they were, but I think I remember.  Note
the difference between...

I'd go, but...
I'll go, but...

    Clearly NOT the same thing.  One, the action isn't getting done; the
other it is, but the "but" indicates some sort of phrase like "I'm not going
to like it".  However...

I'd go, if...
I'll go, if...

    The first is a hypothetical, not a conditional.  Why?  Because it IS
hypothetical.  It's setting up a hypothetical situation in which if something
occurs, then the following you suggest will happen.  However, nothing's
holding you to that.  Say you say, "I'd go, if you were Superman", and the
person to whom you're talking (Clark Kent) suddenly reveals that he is
Superman.  You could still say, "Well, but..." and make up some sort of
excuse--because you're only talking hypothetically.  However, with "I'll go
if..." you're setting up a proposition whereby if the conditions of the "if"
clause are met, then you agree/promise to go.  That's the difference I'm
talking about.  It's subtle, but it's the subtle distinctions I love.

-David

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