Search results for 'tag:Dates tag:Modals' matching tags 'Dates' and 'Modals'

two questions: hyphenation and reported speech

Anonymous — Sat, 13 Sep 2008 02:44:21 GMT

Hi,

1. Mr. M wrote this sentence as a response in a thread named "Please correct the sentence." Why no hyphen is needed for the phrase "call forwarding" as I can tell from his sentence?One reason I can think of is that they are so often used in pairs, to use them separately would be very unusual.

Please send some call forwarding scenarios and call samples

2, I got this sentence from Google Book search and wonder why no back-shift in necessary (as it is done here).My assumption is that "she is a fool" is good as long as it still applies to her and "should go back" is OK since I think the modal "should" can accommodate both the present and past time frames; and "it is a free country" is OK if it still applies to the country, but "she can go where she pleases" with the modal "can"?

He told her she is a fool and should go back, but she said it is a free country and she can go where she pleases.

Why not?

He told her she is a fool and should go back, but she said it is a free country and she could go where she pleases.

One mroe question:  Can the wrord "where" be "whereever"?

Re: would

Tuongvan — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 03:07:21 GMT

Thank you very much Grammar Geek,but to be frank ,I'm still confused aout the use of' Would' here.Can we use WILL instead of WOULD in #1 ?and why don't they use WILL in # 2?Similarly your sentence is " If the candidate has such proficiency, it would be preferable .Why not "WILL be preferrable" ?

Normally my grammar books say " If + present tense , WILL +verb .For example :If I am free I will go out . It seems to me WOULD in the original #1 and #2 here refers to something uncertain in the present and future.
Could you help me use the modal WOULD exactly?

Best Wishes

Re: functionality of would and could in the present and past

Anonymous — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 05:31:01 GMT

Thank you, again.
I think I have seen Doll use this type of insertion technique to confirm the conditional nature of a sentence with the modal 'would'. Except the kind that is used for politeness, like your sentence here, would you say this is good to confirm the conditional nature of the modal 'would'? Can I do the same with what I consider to be conditional 'could'?

Your sentence with 'could' used for politness IMO:

Could you do me a favor? = Would you be able to do me a favor?
My example sentence:

I am sitting in a room and wonders what I would have to do to get the promotion >>> inserting element: (if I had to try to get the promotion).

Is this good for any sentences with present-time context that have 'would' in them?

Can I do this -- that is adding some words or phrases to validate the conditional nature -- with sentences with present-time context for 'could' too?

Your sentence:

Cheat on an exam? I could never do that! = Cheat on an exam? I would never be able to do that!

Can I insert this to confirm a conditional nature of 'would be able to'?

Cheat on an exam? I could never do that! = Cheat on an exam? I would never be able to do that >>> inserting element: (if you asked me to)!

Re: functionality of would and could in the present and past

Anonymous — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 03:23:38 GMT

Thank you.

Would you say that the second set lacks proper context for their present-time usage since for the present-time uses, 'would' and 'could' have a sense of conditional -- depending on something to make the one with 'would' and 'could' to make it a reality or make it true. Correct? I think I understand somewhat fully the modal 'would' being conditional but don't have the same level of understanding as to the use of 'could' as conditional. Can you help?

I think these reflect correct present-time use of two modals.

I am sitting in a room and am wondering if I could go to see a movie.
I am sitting in a room and wonders what I would have to do to get the promotion. -- Can I be able to input a possible if-factor into the sentence to validate the conditional nature of 'would' here like this?

I am sitting in a room and wonders what I would have to do to get the promotion (if I had to try to get the promotion).

Is this good for any sentences with present-time context that have 'would' in them?

Can I do this -- that is adding some words or phrases to validate the conditional nature -- with sentences with present-time context for 'could' too?

tense in quotation marks and conditional

Anonymous — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 01:46:41 GMT

Hi,

1. Let us say this was in quotation marks. How would you validate the use of the underlined tense?

The people who built houses; their walls have crumbled, as if they had never been!

2. TWO more questions:

Does 'as if' in normal sentential situations mean the same as 'if', like here.

He splurged as if he had unlimited amount of money. -- this wouldn't be a good example to confirm my argument but this would be good though.
He would splurge as if he had unlimited amount of money. -- no. 2 conditional?

I meant to ask you this. Could we have the modal word 'would' in the if-clause? I think 'would' has a sense of (conditional??) past, so this would be good.
If you would bring cake, I would bring cola to the party.

Re: Confused with verbs

Goodman — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 00:09:25 GMT

Marius Hancu wrote:
Goodman wrote:

Can i say: It is essential that we be informed of your plans. Yes!

Help him understand - Ok
It is essential that we ~~should~~ be informed of your plans.
We insist that he ~~must~~ be on time

There are those who use modal in subjunctive which in my opinion is improper but some considered it acceptable. I wouldn't not recommend it.

You may want to read (if you find it) the Grammar ... by G. Curme, the best treatment of subjunctive I know (published in the 30s, but re-issued). "Should be" is a legal subjunctive, weaker than "be," in his opinion.

Well there goes nothing! I had this debate many time over the same damned topic previously. You know what ! I was trying to confirm my own knowledge, I did some searching and 20 minutes later, the answers were 50/50 or inconclusive, but amazingly I accidentally came across this:

Moderator MrPedantic Join Date: Feb 2005

Country: England

Location: SE England

First Language: British English

Posts: 1,937

Hello Aurimas

If you leave out the "should" in those sentences, the meaning won't be changed; but in British English, you'll give a greater impression of formality.

For instance, if you were writing a strong letter of complaint about the ticket collector at your local station, you might use the subjunctive version:

1. He is rude, inconsiderate, and thoroughly obnoxious. I demand that he be sacked immediately.

While in conversation or less formal contexts, you would be more likely to use the "should" version:

2. I insisted that he should contact them immediately.

Incidentally, I copied and pasted a couple if interesting threads on this topic:

http://alt-usage-english.org/subjunctive_supplement.html

http://www.usingenglish.com/forum/ask-teacher/22159-try-tried.html

Re: subjunctive or past conditional

Goodman — Mon, 07 May 2007 23:03:25 GMT

Hi Bokeh,

Becasue of your reply, it made me take a second look at the original question. I also did some research and found this paper written on the subject of Semantic Composition of Subjunctive Conditionals by Michela Ippolito of MIT/TÃ¼bingen University. I am not completely sure if I understood all thwt he wrote, but I do agree whole-heartedly with his view from what I understood. It's obvious that there are several subjunctive moods and conditionals discussed in great legnth which was exactly the reason causing the confusions on this thread. I find it absoulutely useful so I've extracted a small portion which I beleive was related the posted question.

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=type+of+subjunctive

michela@alum.mit.edu

3. The Semantic Analysis of Subjunctive Conditionals

In answering the question of what the correct semantic analysis of subjunctive

conditionals is we will raise and answer the following questions too: (1) What is the

difference between indicative an subjunctive conditionals? (2) What is the role of the

past morphology in the composition of the meaning of a subjunctive conditional? (3)

What is the contribution of the second layer of past to the meaning of subjunctive

conditionals? As Iatridou observes, the past morphology in subjunctive conditionals is

not interpreted temporally, as the event of playing baseball in example (2) is supposed

to take place in the future (tomorrow). What follows in this paper is inspired by her

work and by the intuition behind it, i.e. that the temporal morphology we see in modal

constructions actively contributes to the construction of the modal meaning. However,

I depart from her idea that tense morphology has a âcore meaningâ that can apply to

different kinds of entities (i.e. her idea that if it applies to times, it is interpreted

temporally; if it applies to worlds, then it is interpreted modally). My claim is that

tense (aspectual) morphology has a single, definite interpretation: the temporal

(aspectual) one. The way tense morphology contributes to the composition of modal

meaning is by being interpreted in different positions in the structure of a modal

sentence, i.e. either in the restriction or in the nuclear scope of the modal operator.

Recall that I am arguing that accessibility relations are of type <s<i<st>> (where i is

the type for times and s the type for worlds): the notion of accessible world is relative

not only to a world but also to a time so that a world will be accessible if it satisfies

certain conditions with respect to an evaluation world and an evaluation time. The

past that we see in subjunctive conditionals such as If Charlie played baseball

tomorrow, we would lose the game is the morphological realization of a perfect

operator interpreted in the modal domain. I will develop an analysis of the meaning of

subjunctive conditionals and show how it solves the puzzle of the presupposition

projection for subjunctive conditionals discussed in Heim 1992; finally, I will answer

the three questions I raised above.

3.1 Felicity Conditions for Conditionals

Recall what the puzzle was. The antecedent of a subjunctive conditional can be

inconsistent with the common ground, and consequently, the set of worlds the modal

operator quantifies over cannot be restricted to the worlds in the context set (the

epistemically accessible worlds) (see (19) below). Furthermore, this set cannot be the

empty context (W) either because, if it were, we would expect conditionals with

antecedents with presuppositions to be infelicitous since the modal base does not have

the right entailments. However, this is incorrect: subjunctive conditionals whose

antecedents have presuppositions are felicitous, which means that the antecedentâs

presuppositions can be entailed by the modal base (cf. (20)). In fact, they must (cf.

(21)).

(19) Jack is dead. If he were alive, he would come to the ceremony.

(20) Jack smokes. If he quit smoking tomorrow, which he wonât, he would run

the marathon.

(21) Jack quit smoking last year. If he quit smoking tomorrow, he would run

the marathon.

Heim 1992 concluded that the only way to reconcile these two requirements of

subjunctive conditionals is to stipulate that the modal base is neither the set of

epistemically accessible worlds (the main context) nor the totally empty modal base

W, but the (largest) set of worlds obtained by suspending all the speakerâs

assumptions except the presuppositions of the antecedent, which then remain entailed.

However, I showed above that this stipulation does not work for all subjunctive

conditionals: in particular, it does not account for the difference between one-past

subjunctive conditionals and mismatched two-pasts subjunctive conditionals, as

shown below.

(22) Jack died last year.

a. #If he came to the ceremony tomorrow, he would be proud of Sally.

b. If he had come to the graduation tomorrow, he would have been proud

of Sally.

We are back where we were: how is the set of worlds to which modal operators apply

selected? Clearly, the felicity conditions for indicative, one-past and two-pasts

subjunctive conditionals are all different. But what is the difference and how is the

difference determined?

It seems correct to hold that for a sentence to be felicitously uttered in the

context c, c must entail the presuppositions of . In the common ground theory of

presuppositions developed by Stalnaker (1973, 1974, 1975), the common ground is

the set of all the propositions known or assumed to be true by all the participants in

the conversation, and the context set is the set of worlds where all the propositions in

the common ground are true. Assertions are meant to update the common ground. If

the assertion is made and accepted, the common ground expands and the context set

shrinks. Thus, if a sentence presupposes p, then asserting requires that the

common ground entail p, i.e. it requires that the speaker assume that it is true in the

common ground that p, modulo accommodation.10 It is explicit in Heimâs context

change semantics (and implicit in Stalnakerâs idea of a derived context) that a clause

(that is to say, the structural description of a clause at the level of Logical Form) is not

always evaluated with respect to the context of utterance: the context with respect to

which a structure is evaluated depends on the level of embedding of the clause, the

most unembedded clause being interpreted with respect to the main (utterance)

context. We can then reformulate the principle above: what is responsible for the

felicity of a sentence is not whether its presuppositions are entailed by the utterance

context but whether they are entailed by the evaluation context (which may be

identical to the utterance time in some cases). Call this principle PREP.

10 Stalnaker (1972, 1973, 1974, 1978, 1988, 1998). Kartunnen (1974), Lewis (1979), Heim (1982,

1983, 1992), Thomason (1990) and von Fintel (2000) also contributed important work in the tradition

of the common ground theory of presuppositions.

3.2 What Looks Like Past is Perfect

I propose that the past morphology we see in subjunctive conditionals in English is

the morphological realization of a perfect operator. The English perfect, and

especially the present perfect, has raised a lot of interest in the linguistic literature

because of the properties that distinguish it from both the present and the simple past

tense. McCoard (1978) offers a survey of possible theories of the perfect: the current

relevance theory, the indefinite past theory, the embedded past theory and, finally, the

theory that he argues to be the best, the Extended Now theory. Very briefly, according

11 The claim that the presuppositions of the antecedent of a conditional have to be entailed by the

context is a standard claim of a dynamic approach to meaning (Heim 1992). However, we will see later

that the issue is more intricate and I will have more to say on this topic later on in the paper.

Statement of Purpose in Food Science: correct me plz

Retsiger — Fri, 23 Feb 2007 19:47:17 GMT

Dear forum

I'm new here, finding this forum while searching for some paraphrases that are used in my Statement of Purpose (SoP), while applying for a PhD in Food Science.

Then, I am lucky to find this forum, and I post my SoP here with the hope that someone, probably with a same interest, may read with me and point out some flaws in my writing. I am not a native speaker so feel free to correct me.

Thanks alot for your time.

===============================================================================

Objective:

Having had opportunity to do research in both academic and industrial institutions, I have acquired the ability to demonstrate strong professionalism, competence, and interest in flavour chemistry, food structure and sensory analysis. Being prepared for further development, I wish to do a thesis in Food Science at the School of â¦.

Scientific background:

After graduation from âXYZ University of Technologyâ, Country X in Food Technology, I pursued the master in Food Science at XYZ, Country Y. Despite the fact that there were some main subjects I had not the opportunity to learn in Country X such as molecular biology and neurology, my performance on the theoretical examination was very satisfactory. Especially, through my diploma work entitled âInfluence of texture on the release of taste compounds while chewing cheese productsâ [1, 2], I have acquired a good knowledge and technical skills on the release of sodium and saltiness perception during food consumption. This work did lead me into the flavour research, a fascinating area which incorporates different aspects, from food ingredients and structure to their interaction with consumers and finally to understand food choice and acceptance.

With a perspective to strengthen my scientific competences, I challenged myself afterward in an industrial research environment, Research Centre ABC where I have been working on an interdisciplinary applied project entitled âMulti-modal mechanisms of fat perceptionâ as a research assistant. The project aims at understanding the principles and rules governing fat perception and covers studies on psychology, physiology and perceptual aspects. I involved into three out of six research themes of the project, including:

(1) Assessing the textural attributes affected byâ¦.. [3]

(2) Investigating whether there is a â¦.. [4, 5]

(3) Characterizing the release of â¦â¦..

From March 2006 to present, I have been focusing on the third theme, in which I have responsibility to do literature research, propose scientific questions, design and run experiments , and finally to delivery results. I have chance not only to reinforce my skills in sensory analysis, but also to take up the most powerful technique to analyze online aroma release, ABCDE (Project name). Besides, studying on different food models, from simple emulsion, isamulsion (a self-assembly structure), double emulsion to applied products, such as MNPQ sauce and mayonnaise, did give me a good understanding on food structure. In this activity, I have obtained very impressing results on isamulsion that may open some applications in food service and culinary. These findings are going to be patented in May 2007 and a scientific article is also under preparation [7].

Furthermore, I attended many scientific seminars, mini-symposiums frequently organized at Research Centre ABC, training courses (Course A, B, C), and particularly Workshop XYZ 2005 . That really helped me to get a larger view on research of Food Science. Finally, the most precious experiences I have actually gained through my time at Research Centre ABC are communication skills, the ability to manage research activity, a practical and critical mind in doing research.

Target project:

I am highly interested in the project entitled âABCDEFGHIKâ proposed by Dr. SomeOne, aiming to develop and demonstrate advanced technologies that allow up to XYZ% salt reduction in processed foods. With good skills in languages including English and French, strong background that meets the needs of project framework, I am confident to be a strong candidate for the position. Together with this personal statement, I enclosed a detailed proposal for this project.

References:

[1] Reference 1 (my paper/report)

[2] Reference 2 (my paper/report)

[3] Reference 3 (my paper/report)

[4] Reference 4 (my paper/report)

[5] Reference 5 (my paper/report)

Reference 6 (my paper/report)

[7] Reference 7 (my paper/report)

Reference 8 (my paper/report)

===============================================================================

Re: This is a variant of that and v.v.

milky — Fri, 01 Dec 2006 15:53:02 GMT

Alienvoord wrote:
"I might could be persuaded to try that."

Which dialect is this grammatical in?

http://www.randomhouse.com/wotd/index.pperl?date=20001120

Take a look here:

2.4 Modal stacking

The complement of a modal cannot be a Finite verb, as there is no room in INFL for a

second instance of Finite/Deixis. This explains why standard English, which has no nonÃnite

forms of modals in its lexicon, does not allow modals to be "stacked" as in (40b).

However, German and some non-standard dialects of English do allow stacking.

.....

"In stacking dialects of English, the infnitive forms of modals are generally phonologically identical with the present or past

finite forms. For example, in the sentences in (43) (taken from Di Paolo 1989: 195), can, should, and oughta function as infnitives.

(43) a. We might can go up there next Saturday.

b. This thing here I might should turn over to Ann.

c. Well, once we get under way, it shouldn't oughta take us very long.

Since the present and past forms of English modals have been diverging in their lexical semantics, it is not entirely surprising to observe that they are treated as uninflected forms of separate verbs in some dialects.

http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~danhall/hall.generals.2001.pdf

Re: Modal verbs

milky — Thu, 14 Sep 2006 08:54:09 GMT

These are examples of such a form from the BNC:

-in order to be pure, the boundaries of one's own body must not have been transgressed with anything impure.

-between the parties must have been sufficiently numerous to constitute a "course of dealing," (ii) The established course of dealing must have been consistent. (iii) The established course of dealing must not have been deviated from on the occasion in question. In Hollier v. Rambler Motors (1972 C.A.) the first of these requirements was not satisfied.

-The Product must already exist and must not have been registered. You must provide either the Product identifier

-We confirm that we have no objection to your request that our client be examined by [ ]. However, we would impose the following conditions. (1) The Consultant you have chosen must not have been involved in our client's treatment. (2) The date, time and place of the proposed examination must prove to be convenient to our client. (3)