1a. That's not the man I married, these days he will sit
in front of the telly for hours watching football.
1b. At the beginning of our relationship, he would write some romantic letters for me,
he would send me flowers every day.
3a. I can swim the distance of 400m in 90 seconds!
3b. As a teenager I could swim the distance of 400m in 90 seconds! |
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JTT: {Korin, please go to the "Can/Could & Will/Would" thread for a discussion on these examples. You are more than welcome to move them there if you'd like.}
Korin examples:
2a. I'm afraid we have to hail a cab, the engine won't start.
2b. I got into the car but the engine wouldn't start so I had to hail a cab.
As you can see, within the verb groups contaning modals, it is only the modals
that are marked for the category of tense. Hence, the relationship between
1a will - 1b would, 2a will not - 2b would not,etc. seems that of tense. |
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JTT: It does seems that way, doesn't it, Korin? But what of the millions upon millions of other sentences, like,
1."She might go." OR 2. "You should take an aspirin" OR 3. "They would do that" OR 4."I could go to the library".
Are these also "marked for the category of tense"? If so, and because all are marked by "past tense" modals, we have a contradiction that goes deep, for none of the meanings in 1,2,3 or 4, are past tense or past time.
Let's look more closely at your examples.
2a. I'm afraid we have to hail a cab, the engine won't start.
2b. I got into the car but the engine wouldn't start so I had to hail a cab.
For the sake of this argument, ie. this context, I'm going to assume that 2a and 2b refer to the same incident.
Number 2b is a report of the incident that occured in 2a. Since the backshifting that occurs in indirect reported speech doesn't necessarily convey a past meaning, this 'wouldn't' is not reflective of a past situation. It is merely reflective of a reporting situation. Take it a step further and this becomes clear.
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Bill: [to Bonnie, his date] I'm afraid we have to hail a cab, the engine won't start.
Bonnie: Okay, let's get out of here. [takes a taxi and drops B at home]
Bill: [reporting to his father] I got into the car but the engine wouldn't start so I had to hail a cab.
Father: Let's go back and get the car.
Bill: I tell you Dad, it won't start.
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The condition of the car, as expressed by this one person, Bill, is that the car won't start. It is merely the modal emotive feeling of this person. It doesn't necessarily speak to the actual truth of the situation. It's merely Bill's opinion. Bill can, according to the REAL rules governing reported speech choose either a or a .
Bill: {tried the car; it won't start. Phones his father} Hi Dad, it's me. The car won't start. I triED everything and it won't start. {or "I've triED ..." for BrE speakers}
Now remember, Bill is away from the car, the attempts at starting it have finished, yet he can use "won't". This ability to shift back and forth between and points to this not being a REAL past tense.
That English allows a singular modal to operate in past tense/time, present tense/time and future tense/time situations clearly indicates that these modals are tenseless.