20.2929, Qs: Tense Selection in English Conditionals

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LINGUIST List: Vol-20-2929. Mon Aug 31 2009. ISSN: 1068 - 4875.

Subject: 20.2929, Qs: Tense Selection in English Conditionals

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1)
Date: 29-Aug-2009
From: Les Zsoldos < lgz at hknu.ac.kr >
Subject: Tense Selection in English Conditionals
 

	
-------------------------Message 1 ---------------------------------- 
Date: Mon, 31 Aug 2009 09:16:44
From: Les Zsoldos [lgz at hknu.ac.kr]
Subject: Tense Selection in English Conditionals

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In English we can classify conditionals as Types 0, 1, 2, and 3.  For
example, we have:

If I go to bed late, I wake up late.  0
If I go to bed late, I'll wake up late. 1
If I went to bed late, I'd wake up late. 2
If I'd gone to bed late, I'd have woken up late. 3

However, people often use structures such as ''Would you mind if I smoke''?
rather than ''Would you mind if I smoked?''  Why is this?  Is present tense
OK here?  Is it a case of confusion where present should be with ''do you
mind'' as in ''Do you mind if I smoke?''

Les Zsoldos 

Linguistic Field(s): Syntax




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