[Ads-l] odd sequence of tenses

[Jonathan Lighter]

Superficially, but it's substituting for a conditional "would have," not a
past "won."

JL

On Mon, Oct 11, 2021 at 6:21 PM Barretts Mail <mail.barretts at gmail.com>
wrote:

> Isn’t that just the narrative present?
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historical_present <
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historical_present>
>
> Benjamin Barrett (he/his/him)
> Formerly of Seattle, WA
>
> > On 11 Oct 2021, at 05:40, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> wrote:
> >
> > David Axelrod, former Obama official, on CNN:
> >
> > "If there had not been a coronavirus in 2020,  Trump probably wins that
> > election."
> >
> > Note the formality of "had not" before the weirdness sets in.
> >
> > JL
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>


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