Timeline for What does this "would" mean?
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
10 events
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| Jun 16, 2020 at 9:11 | history | edited | CommunityBot |
Commonmark migration
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| Mar 28, 2014 at 13:49 | comment | added | FumbleFingers | @Zhanlong: By and large, sarcasm is extremely complex, delicate, and highly context-dependent. You may or may not have noticed that even native speakers often get it wrong in contexts such as online comments (where the writer often doesn't know his audience very well, there are few "non-verbal cues" such as intonation, and no significant "instant reaction" to establish how things are being received). Most non-native speakers could significantly improve their apparent fluency by simply avoiding sarcasm completely, since they often overuse it in noticeably "unnatural" ways. | |
| Mar 28, 2014 at 13:32 | comment | added | Kinzle B | I wonder if the speaker can say "That could be right!" or "That might be right!" instead without a lessening of sarcasm. Is would the best choice of modal-verbs here to add a sarcastic overtone to his speech? @FumbleFingers | |
| Mar 3, 2014 at 10:26 | history | edited | hunter | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
i think this is more politically neutral.
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| Mar 3, 2014 at 9:56 | history | edited | J.R.♦ | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
let's tone down the political opinion
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| Mar 3, 2014 at 5:39 | comment | added | FumbleFingers | @Jim: Using "would" as a "suspense-heightening" device sounds a bit unlikely to me. Apart from anything else, I think it would sound decidedly mean-spirited to say "That would be wrong!". So if our hypothetical game show host were in the habit of saying it, everyone would know what was coming next as soon as they heard "That [would...]". | |
| Mar 3, 2014 at 5:34 | comment | added | FumbleFingers | I agree "That would be right" is highly likely to be used with (often, very subtle) undertones of sarcasm. OP is quite correct that usually, "would" implies a weakening of assertiveness. Where the context makes that unlikely, it's probably just the standard "meaning reversal" feature kicking in. That's because all deviations from standard verb forms tend to be used with some significance, and two "opposite" meanings are often easy to adopt because context usually makes it easy to see which applies. It extends the available possibilities of language use with minimal effort. | |
| Mar 2, 2014 at 17:46 | comment | added | hunter | Good point. I assumed this was political because the word "verbatim" struck me as someone who was angry at Obama. But game show hosts do this all the time for exactly that reason. | |
| Mar 2, 2014 at 17:36 | comment | added | Jim | You're right- without context this is difficult to answer, but when I read it I imagined a radio game show in which the host is asking a contestant this question. The host then might use would to extend and heighten the suspense in revealing whether the contestant answered correctly or not. | |
| Mar 2, 2014 at 16:26 | history | answered | hunter | CC BY-SA 3.0 |