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Strange construction: PS. If the conjecture 'You would rather that I had not...'



 
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Using common english phrases and idioms | The synonym for torch
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Strange construction: PS. If the conjecture 'You would rather that I had not...' #1 (permalink) Tue Jun 02, 2009 8:43 am   Strange construction: PS. If the conjecture 'You would rather that I had not...'
 

At the end of the article "How do we tell truths that might hurt?", Dr. E.W. Dijkstra wrote:

PS. If the conjecture "You would rather that I had not disturbed you by sending you this." is correct, you may add it to the list of uncomfortable truths.

What does this mean?
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Strange construction: PS. If the conjecture 'You would rather that I had not...' #2 (permalink) Tue Jun 02, 2009 9:20 am   Strange construction: PS. If the conjecture 'You would rather that I had not...'
 

If you think it would have been better if the sender had not sent this to you, then you might as well want to add it to your list of uncomfortable truths. The guy who wrote this is implying that the article contains truth and you should better deal with it.

This is what I think it means. Native speakers might explain it better and probably more correctly.
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Strange construction: PS. If the conjecture 'You would rather that I had not...' #3 (permalink) Tue Jun 02, 2009 11:26 am   Strange construction: PS. If the conjecture 'You would rather that I had not...'
 

Well Gray, much as what Daemon suggests is correct. The good Doctor is suggesting that the reader deals with the problem immediately, and not to just shelve it, which is his usual answer to such problems. The Doctor supposes that his advice will be ignored though.

Kitos.
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Strange construction: PS. If the conjecture 'You would rather that I had not. #4 (permalink) Tue Jun 02, 2009 17:28 pm   Strange construction: PS. If the conjecture 'You would rather that I had not.
 

Meaning is fine but is it correct grammatically? --

"You would rather that I had not disturbed you by sending you this."

1) "...disturbed you by sending you this." -- second 'you' is not only redundant but also sounds disturbing

2) I am not able to point out exactly which grammar rule it violated, but the construction sounds awkward to me.

I hope grammar-people are reading this :)

**********

If it is correct grammatically then how should I read aloud?

1) "You would rather [PAUSE] that I had not disturbed you by sending you this."

2) What you think? ...........
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Strange construction: PS. If the conjecture 'You would rather that I had not. #5 (permalink) Tue Jun 02, 2009 18:36 pm   Strange construction: PS. If the conjecture 'You would rather that I had not.
 

Gray, this is very obviously old English language (manner of speaking, and can probably be still heard in English universities even today), from a time gone by. Just enjoy the peculiarities of speech in those days.
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Strange construction: PS. If the conjecture 'You would rather that I had not. #6 (permalink) Tue Jun 02, 2009 19:12 pm   Strange construction: PS. If the conjecture 'You would rather that I had not.
 

Oh yes, Dr. E. W. Dijsktra was a well known computer scientist. And he wrote that article around 1975. It was about his observations about the uncomfortable truths in the programming world and as you said its audience was the academic community.
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