and speaking of English "subjunctives"...

[hw gray]

On Fri, Nov 8, 2013 at 11:56 PM, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu>wrote:

> OK on the "is", but for me "mattered" is natural in the counterfactual
> ("as if") context.  What's entirely unnatural, we can perhaps agree, is the
> reviewer's "were".


"mattered" is natural in the counterfactual ("as if") context.

I was juss mess in witcha. ;-) I can dig it.

What's entirely unnatural ... is the reviewer's "were".

To use antique in-group slang, "As a matter of fact."

I.e., "Yes." Though "As a matter of fact, no" is certainly possible, "As a
matter of fact" was interpreted, by convention, only as a (strong)
positive: "As a matter of fact, yes!"
--
-Wilson
-----
All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"---a strange complaint to
come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
-Mark Twain

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