Timeline for What does Pope Francis “called out him (Pope Emeritus Benedict) on it” mean?
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
6 events
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| May 5, 2013 at 2:12 | comment | added | Fortiter | My comment was intended as a light-hearted reference to your "complaint" (on english.stackexchange.com/a/113169/28951) about unexplained down-votes. I thought that someone with 17k rep could stand the loss for the sin of responding without appropriate reference to context (or in this case, plausibility) of the question. At least you get the opportunity to confirm why "I irritate a lot of people here & elsewhere". | |
| May 4, 2013 at 14:12 | comment | added | user21497 | "When the going gets tough, the tough get going" (present active) = "If the going were to get tough, the tough would get going" (subjunctive). | |
| May 4, 2013 at 14:06 | comment | added | user21497 | Rereading the link, I see it's a May Fool's joke. Never heard of Borowitz before. Both Yocihi & J.R. missed that this was a humor-blog post. Why didn't you mention it in your comment to me? I didn't read the last two paragraphs till just now. And if you're gonna be this petty, I recommend that you be consistent & downvote J.R. for his equally "egregious" reference to the Times rather than the New Yorker. (I won't, of course.) You can also explain why simple present doesn't satisfy the subjunctive function in this case. But you'd have to be a dishonest linguist to do it. | |
| May 4, 2013 at 13:36 | comment | added | user21497 | @Fortriter: Did you read the article? The condition was met. The chastisement ("reprimand") happened. It was not hypothetical. I don't mind being downvoted for errors, but when you have to make something up to justify the insupportable, I can't accept it. You'll have to show me some kind of proof that "the subjunctive is required", especially when most professional linguists have declared that the subjunctive is as dead as whom (except in set phrases) & as optional as fewer in supermarket checkout lanes labeled "10 items or less". | |
| May 4, 2013 at 13:08 | comment | added | Fortiter | Downvote for the use of the expression "When the current pope chastises" when the subjunctive "If the current pope were to chastise..." is required. | |
| May 4, 2013 at 6:03 | history | answered | user21497 | CC BY-SA 3.0 |