language and mind

Grammatical and correct, say ye ‘Is this a lie?’ – them scholars tell you at school. You could say ‘Ain’t no real’ after the class. The phrase ‘if I were you’ happens to precede advice of worst of qualities. Could be that the one with the counsel knows he or she is not another person. One feels different about saying ‘if I were in your shoes’.

The Conditional has been criticized and disputed. It yet may help in language learning and teaching as a label. More, students usually compare the guidance they can get, and the Conditional is a real chapter title in quite a number of grammar books. Naturally, we do not need to think about conditioning to talk about the Conditional. Like with those Simple things: they happen to be difficult.

Well, language is not option-ridden, already if we look at the notions of THE truth and A lie. A truth would be less of THE truth. When we compare A lie, it could be THE lie, as well – the thing being just in the articles, the definite THE and the indefinite A, as for options.

The double negative, like ‘ain’t no real’ does not produce an affirmative. In question tags, asking ‘These are not beautiful flowers, are they?’ – about half-dead daisies? – we might get the answer ‘No, they are not’. Anything like ‘Yes, they are not’ would be harder to catch on.

The ‘subjunctive approaches’ in grammar would require option-making. We would need to ‘decide’ what is real and what is unreal – our grammars depending on our knowledge of the world. I like them grammar gimmicks, but wouldn’t swap shoes with an omniscient on this planet. (After all, it takes some reckoning to keep them shoes real, and I do not need my life too complicated.)

Conditionals can show RELATIVITY in time reference. Some people would say that if something ‘would have happened’, it sure did not. Some would say that the ‘have’ just marks an antecedent reference.

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