conditionals - What does “would not have been possible had I remained” mean?

What does this mean?

I am sure this would not have been possible had I remained a typical Anglophone North American.

I have never heard that before and I really find it strange.

I deduce that it means

I am sure this would not have been possible if I kept remaining Anglophone North American.

But I might be wrong in this.

Answer

A conditional statement has two separate clauses, each with its own subject and verb: the condition itself, and the consequent that occurs only should that condition be met. There are fancy Greek words for these two pieces (protasis and apodosis), but I’ll stick to condition and consequent here.

The important thing for you to understand is that the ordering of the conditional’s two clauses doesn’t matter, because it is always clear which is the condition. You can have condition followed by consequent, or you can have consequent followed by condition — which is what’s going on with your particular example.

Additionally, clauses are also potentially subject to auxiliary inversion:

For the condition, this inversion is mandatory when the conjunction (generally if or unless) is omitted under if-deletion. This is a special inversion rule.

For the consequent, any inversion that happens occurs under normal inversion rules not special one as with the condition, like saying So will I or Neither will I instead of I will too.

Here follow several simple examples, saying which sort of production is operative in each in the parentheses following.

condition → consequent

If you don’t go, I will. (condition → consequent)

If you go, so will I. (condition → consequent-in-inversion)

If I had anything better to do, I’d aleady be doing it. (condition → consequent)

Had I anything better to do, I’d aleady be doing it. (condition-in-inversion → consequent)

Unless you’ve something better to do, come with me. (condition → consequent)

If you should have nothing better to do, you can come with me. (condition → consequent)

Should you have nothing better to do, you can come with me. (condition-in-inversion → consequent)

Had you anything better to do, you wouldn’t be here. (condition-in-inversion → consequent)

consequent ← condition

I'll go if you do. (consequent ← condition)

I'll go unless you do. (consequent ← condition)

I’d already be doing it if I had anything better to do. (consequent ← condition)

I’d already be doing it had I anything better to do. (consequent ← condition-in-inversion)

You can come with me you if you’ve nothing better to do. (consequent ← condition)

Come with me you unless you’ve something better to do. (consequent ← condition)

You can come with me should you have nothing better to do. (consequent ← condition-in-inversion)

Rewriting Your Sentence

As the linked-to questions show, your example sentence is one of the lattermost variety: it places the consequent before the condition, and it uses if-deletion and inversion in that condition. Rewriting your sentence through successive transformations shows you exactly what it means:

I am sure this would not have been possible had I remained a typical Anglophone North American. (consequent ← condition-in-inversion)

I am sure this would not have been possible if I had remained a typical Anglophone North American. (consequent ← condition)

Had I remained a typical Anglophone North American, I am sure this would not have been possible. (condition-in-inversion → consequent)

If I had remained a typical Anglophone North American, I am sure this would not have been possible. (condition → consequent)

English has always supported bare conditionals like this, those without a conjunction. Back when it was more strongly inflected, this was always clear because that inversion also triggered a subjunctive inflection. Our last productive vestige of that is with the special form were.

Were there any other way, I’d have tried it. (condition-in-inversion → consequent)

Be it ever so humble, there’s no place like home. (condition-in-inversion → consequent)

Nowadays a bare conditional is most easily recognized by the obligatory inversion it demands.

etymology - Origin of the greeting "Sweet dreams".

Does anybody know the etymology of the phrase "sweet dreams"? I tried googling but did not find anything satisfying. Is this a relatively new phrase of the modern world or has this been in use for some time? I think it's the latter one. Answer The OED has the interjection as "a farewell to someone going to bed" from the 20th century: 1908 Sears Roebuck Catal. 198/1 Tenor Solos..Good Bye, Sweet Dreams, Good Bye. But it goes back until at least the 19th and possibly 18th centuries. John Wolcot, writing under the pseudonym of Peter Pindar, used it in his poem "Orson and Ellen; A Legendary Tale" published in 1801: Also from 1801 in The infernal Quixote (Page 287) by Charles Lucas: In the March 1776 of The Universal Magazine was published "The Serenade. A Pastoral Tale. From the German of Gesner" , where the shepherd Daphnis watches over his beloved as she sleeps and sings: The same tale appears in 1776's as Idyl XI, " Daphnis ...

Is there a word/phrase for "unperformant"?

As a software engineer, I need to sometimes describe a piece of code as something that lacks performance or was not written with performance in mind. Example: This kind of coding style leads to unmaintainable and unperformant code. Based on my Google searches, this isn't a real word. What is the correct way to describe this? EDIT My usage of "performance" here is in regard to speed and efficiency. For example, the better the performance of code the faster the application runs. My question and example target the negative definition, which is in reference to preventing inefficient coding practices. Answer This kind of coding style leads to unmaintainable and unperformant code. In my opinion, reads more easily as: This coding style leads to unmaintainable and poorly performing code. The key to well-written documentation and reports lies in ease of understanding. Adding poorly understood words such as performant decreases that ease. In addressing the use of such a poorly ...

What are the similarities between the relationships of the characters in The Outsiders and Romeo and Juliet?

At first glance, it might appear as if the characters in The Outsiders by S. E. Hinton and Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare do not have much in common; however, when one isolates the core of the conflicts, it becomes clear that the relationships in both stories are rooted in rivalry and secrecy. In both The Outsiders and Romeo and Juliet , an overarching theme is rivalry. While socioeconomic status separates the greasers from the Socs in The Outsiders , last names separates the Montagues from the Capulets, who appear to be relatively equal in terms of socioeconomic status. Due to these rivalries, there are instances of deadly interactions in both stories. In The Outsiders , Johnny kills Bob (whether his actions were justified or not is debatable). In Romeo and Juliet , Romeo kills Tybalt and Paris, and Tybalt kills Mercutio. These deaths have profound effects on the main characters. In Ponyboy's case, the Johnny's death and other events in the novel inspire h...

Notes

Search This Blog