Timeline for Perfect infinitive in sentences with implied condition
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
6 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nov 7, 2021 at 9:19 | comment | added | Eugene | I'm interested in the possibility of creating an unreal conditional construction of the 2-nd type out of the Future Perfect to implicate the idea of accomplishment of an action in the future. | |
| Nov 7, 2021 at 9:17 | comment | added | Eugene | One more inference on my part, if you please. With "would have been brought to an end..." I mean precisely the situation that is to be taken in as not going to come off unless scientists find an effectual treatment. I'm putting in a construction of an unreal condition derived from the Future Perfect. I.e., restating it a little, "The pandemic would be brought to an end by 2023 if the scientists happened to discover the effectual treatment in 2022". | |
| Nov 7, 2021 at 2:53 | comment | added | Luke Sawczak | @Eugene It should be "will have been brought to an end". On further reflection, the problem is that "would" here suggests that a condition has not been fulfilled — something that could have happened did not happen. Since 2022 isn't over yet, we can't use "would". On the other hand, in the previous examples, "would have liked to have met her", it assumes that the opportunity to meet her already happened and you missed the opportunity. | |
| Nov 6, 2021 at 22:38 | comment | added | Eugene | Will it make sense if restated in this way: "The pandemic would have been brought to an end by 2023 if the scientists happen to discover the effectual treatment in 2022"? I am trying to turn the Future Perfect that conveys the idea of the accomplishment of an action by a certain time in the future into the 2-nd Conditional denoting hypothetical/irrealis future hereby (I put it up as the 2-nd Conditional because I just transform "will have been brought..." into "would have been brought..." which is intended to relay a hypothetical future implication). | |
| Nov 6, 2021 at 14:11 | comment | added | Luke Sawczak | @Eugene No, I would say that's too much of a stretch. "would have liked to have met her tomorrow" is OK because the perfect there is from the standpoint of a hypothetical/irrealis future, but "if the scientists had opened up ... in 2022" suggests perfect from a past (pluperfect) standpoint -- and a past standpoint located in the future doesn't make sense. (Also, pandemic* rather than pandemia, and "opened up the effectual treatment" is unclear: do you mean "had discovered an effective treatment"?). | |
| Nov 3, 2021 at 2:33 | history | answered | Luke Sawczak | CC BY-SA 4.0 |