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Mon 6 May, 2013 08:23 am
A text from a dictionary: If he had been talking descriptively, he might have gone as far as 'she exhibited the deepest emotion'; not unless he had been apostrophizing her in verse as 'deepest emotion's Queen', or by whatever lyric phrase emotion might have inspired, shoud he have dared to cut out his THE and degrade the idiom sacred to the poets.'
SHOULD HE HAVE DONE is an inversion-type conditional, but how does it dovetail with NOT UNLESS? Besides, why is NOT UNLESS used in the text? I get the general meaning, but the writer's laying of the sentences is really baffling to me; could you help me?
What dictionary?
Anyhow "not unless" means "only if". Not unless he wished to burn down the house would he have sprinkled gasoline on the floor.
He would have sprinkled gasoline on the floor only if he wished to burn down the house.
@WBYeats,
Just as baffled as WB, I quit at the point of the dangling mod. Not unless what
@dalehileman,
dalehileman wrote:
Just as baffled as WB, I quit at the point of the dangling mod. Not unless what
It's pretty clear I would have thought. I spelled it out above.
Not unless he had been (intending something) would he have (done something).
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