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Anonymous Posted 12 years ago
Vocabulary
Conditional
Hi.
"Emmerson said there should be sufficient number of lawyers from the PDS [Public Defence Service] available in January [2015] for an adjourned trial. "A defendant who chose not to go to the PDS and then sought to argue that it was unfair [that he was not represented by an independent QC] would be in a position where he was voluntarily without a lawyer." [From The Guardian.]
Am I right with my interpretation that the verbs "chose" and "sought" are in conditional tense (type 2) whereas the verb "was" (used three times in the sentence) is the back-shift from the verb "is" in this context?
Thank you.
"Emmerson said there should be sufficient number of lawyers from the PDS [Public Defence Service] available in January [2015] for an adjourned trial. "A defendant who chose not to go to the PDS and then sought to argue that it was unfair [that he was not represented by an independent QC] would be in a position where he was voluntarily without a lawyer." [From The Guardian.]
Am I right with my interpretation that the verbs "chose" and "sought" are in conditional tense (type 2) whereas the verb "was" (used three times in the sentence) is the back-shift from the verb "is" in this context?
Thank you.
Top answer
Anonymous Am I right with my interpretation that the verbs "chose" and "sought" are in conditional tense (type 2) whereas the verb "was" (used three times in the sentence) is the back-shift from the verb "is" in this context? No. Your interpretation is rather unconventional.
- Anonymous Am I right with my interpretation that the verbs "chose" and "sought" are in conditional tense (type 2) whereas the verb "was" (used three times in the sentence) is the back-shift from the verb "is" in this context?
- No.
- Your interpretation is rather unconventional.
- These are all past tenses (except would be ), and perhaps you mean 'conditional structure' rather than 'conditional tense'.
- The structure implies a Type 2 conditional: If a defendant chose not to ...
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3 Answers
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AnonymousAm I right with my interpretation that the verbs "chose" and "sought" are in conditional tense (type 2) whereas the verb "was" (used three times in the sentence) is the back-shift from the verb "is" in this context?No. Your interpretation is rather unconventional. These are all past tenses (except would be), and perhaps you mean 'conditional
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Forms such as sought and chose are always past-tense forms even if the situation they denote is not a past-time one. Most grammarians do not recognise a 'conditional tense' Those who do speak of a conditional tense are referring to such modal forms as I would choose, I would seek.
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