A question for GPY

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Hello, Mr. GPY. For starters, I thank you for your great help with my various questions all the time.

I have asked about the questions about modals last time. This time it's "could have pp" that confuses me. I have read the content in this website which does a great job in explaining "couldn't have pp".

http://www.pearsonlongman.com/ae/azar/grammar_ex/message_board/archive/articles/00108.htm

But the positive form of "could have pp" still confuses me. I have some examples.

1. When he had moved away, Tyrion could have sworn that the beast’s empty eye sockets had watched him go.

2. she said. “You have done all I could have asked of you, and a hundred times more...

3. "The thing is, you did not know the Starks. Lord Eddard is a proud, honorable, and honest man, and his lady wife is worse. Oh, no doubt she would have found a coin or two for you when this was all over, and pressed it in your hand with a polite word and a look of distaste, but that’s the most you could have hoped for..."

I don't quite understand these "could have pp"s. They don't seem to mean "missed possibility" or "ability in the past". What do they mean?

Could you please shed light on it?

Thank you.

Others' opinions are also welcomed.

Anonymous · Accepted Answer

1. First of all, note that if the sentence had been instead: "When he had moved away, Tyrion swore that the beast's empty eye sockets had watched him go.", this would indicate a certainty, in Tyrion's mind - Tyrion was sure that the beast's empty eye sockets had watched him go. But what if Tyrion was not absolutely certain of this? How would this be expressed? This less certain situation would be expressed by "could have": "When he....away, Tyrion could have sworn that..." Here, Tyrion is not 100% certain that the beast's empty eye sockets had watched him go.

2. Note that if the sentence had been: "...she said, 'You have done all I asked of you...', this would indicate a straightforward statement of certainty by the woman - she is saying that he had done all that she asked. But the statement is, instead, "...all that I could have asked...". What, then, does this indicate? The meaning here is still that he did all that she asked, but using "could have asked," instead of merely "asked," adds the element of possibility to the sentence: what the man did was capable of satisfying anything that the woman was capable of asking in this context.

3. Note that if the sentence had been: "Oh, no doubt she would have....in your hand with a polite word and a look of distaste.", this would be a straightforward conjecture: she almost surely would give you a coin or two in this situation. By adding the, "but that's the most you could have hoped for...", this adds further conjecture: and those one or two coins are almost surely all that she would give in this situation.

GPY · Answer

zuotengdazuoI don't quite understand these "could have pp"s. They don't seem to mean "missed possibility" or "ability in the past". What do they mean?

I would describe them as "unactioned past possibility/ability".

"could swear" / "could have sworn" is approaching a set phrase.

Anonymous · Answer

You need to get away from trying to interpret modals as something to do with ability - this is what is keeping you from understanding them. They have nothing to do with ability, which is a quality of certainty, which modals are the antithesis of. For example, in the first question in your original post, "....Tyrion could have sworn...", where is the statement of ability here? There is nothing to do with ability here. And in the second question, "...done all I could have asked...", where is the statement of ability? There is none. This has nothing to do with ability. And in the third question, "...that's the most you could have hoped for...", where is the statement of ability? There is none.

Anonymous · Answer

I would like to add one thing here. 'Could've' could also be a third conditional. Like:

I could have have won the match, if you had helped me.

Sherpa

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