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Pastimes : SI Grammar and Spelling Lab

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To: Sowbug who wrote (1048)	4/3/1998 2:44:00 PM
From: Achilles	Read Replies (1) of 4710

>>"I'd never do anything ever to hurt you, unless I have to." It should be "unless I had to," right???<< Yes, correct, if the motive of the speaker/writer was to finish the statement as contrary-to-fact. There is a rhetorical figure called anacoluthon ('want of sequence') which we might want to consider: that is, abandoning a grammatical sequence in mid-stream for some rhetorical emphasis. Here the woman is almost saying "I would never hurt you (pause?), (but I will) if I have to'. The change in sequence, from contrary-to-fact, emphasizes the fact that the reason that she doesn't hurt you is that you have not given her a reason, yet!.

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