For example is it this:
While Rahner and others might be right in urging a broadening of the concept of martyrdom...
or this:
While Rahner and others may be right in urging a broadening of the concept of martyrdom...
and why?
And who cares?
or this:
While Rahner and others may be right in urging a broadening of the concept of martyrdom...
and why?
And who cares?
21 comments:
Ahh, the great beauty and frustration of English modals! I care.
This is one of those questions that varies more than usually with which english you speak. The main problem being that ability, probability and allowability get squished together.
You can sort out can/could, will/would, shall/should for me next.
Hi Michael,
I think "may" in your example sentence sounds like you tend to agree with the statement. Putting "might" instead creates a tiny bit more uncertainty about your own position vis-a-vis the statement.
But that's just how it sounds to me. I guess you could ask whether you would be happy to say "While Marcion might be right to tear the Old Testament out of my Bible" or "While Marcion may be right to tear the Old Testament out of my Bible..."? While statement are you least happy with personally? (Probably neither!). Isn't the rest of the sentence also quite important...?
Lee G
Maybe the (US) Economist style guide can help you out :)
This might help:
may–auxiliary verb, present singular 1st person may, 2nd may or (Archaic) may·est or mayst, 3rd may; present plural may; past might.
Michael. I asked an editor/grammar guru friend of mine and this was her response:
'I can't answer it easily. 'May' basically is to do with permission. Most times 'may' can be changed to either 'can' or 'might', and you can work out which one by whether it is to do with being able. 'Might', however, often sounds odd and pretentious, so that I often leave those ones as 'may'.
Hope that helps.
I had this argument with my doctoral supervisor several times!!!
There may be a distinction between might and may, but then there might not be.
Might applies to what is possible; may to what is permissible.
"May be right" sounds a little less clumsy than "might be right".
You pays ya money and makes ya choice.
personallly I use "may" to sound more objective and "might" to indicate a personal situation... as if I have more of an emotional stake in what "might" happen, whereas I am cooly analytical about what "may" happen, which perhaps reaches back to that distinction between permissable and possible.
"Might be right" therefore sounds a bit wrong in an academic context usually, unless you are making a subtle rebellion about the quasi-authority conferred by academic jargon, and the fiction of objectivity, which gives it its only appeal to me.
However on balance that appeal is a distraction from the main game of telling the story of the paper, and what tips it over the edge for me is the overly cute rhyming staccato of the "ites" in "might be right"
In a paper I got a low mark in this year, I was told that my use of semi-colons had caused a significant argument between examiners; this is; to say; you never know when a semi-colon may be of great; doctrinal significance!
all i know is when i tell my kids we "may" go out for ice cream, there's a very good chance we will... when i tell them we "might" go out for ice cream, there's a good chance we won't...
I am a BIG fan of the semi-colon, I have to say...
Might is another word for strength: You may have more might than I.
May is the fifth month of the year: Might it be May?
"May" is most probably right here, but like most things it ultimnately depends on what you want to say :-)
May/might is an example of a modal auxiliary verb. The distinction between may and might has to do with the tense (present, past etc.) and/ or mood (indicative/ subjunctive). "May" is the present indicative and "might" is either the past indicative (which isn't relevant to your particular query) or the past subjunctive. Your question therefore ultimately boils down to a more general question about when to use the present indicative and when to use the past subjunctive of a modal auxiliary verb.
A particular problem is that in certain varieties of spoken English we often use the past subjunctive ("might") when a simple present indicative ("may") is appropriate. This use of the past subjunctive may be acceptable in informal spoken English, but in careful written English you really ought to use the indicative unless the subjunctive is required.
*may ==> present indicative. e.g. "Tom may go to the Canary Islands for Christmas".
*might ==> (1) past indicative [not relevant to your query!] e.g. "Tom might have gone to the Canary Islands last Easter"
*might ==> (2) past subjunctive e.g. "If Tom were to win the lottery this year then he might go to the Canary Islands for Christmas". Such usages of the subjunctive can often be rephrased using the indicative mood. Thus - "If Tom wins the lottery this year he may go to the Canary Islands for Christmas." A conditional counterfactual, however, always requires the past subjunctive ("might"). Thus - "If Christmas were in July then Tom might go to the Canary Islands for Christmas".
I respectfully disagree with Mr Allberry's distinction between may and might. The present indicative "may" already indicates both possibility and permissibility. To imply that the difference between may and might is between permissibility and possibility (if that is what Mr Allberry was intending) is not correct. As already mentioned the distinction is essentially between the indicative and subjunctive moods.
The Economist style guide (already mentioned above) provides some good advice on may/might. Basically you should always use "may" except in the few instances when "might" is appropriate.
* The present indicative ("may") already implies possibility and you don't need to use the past subjunctive ("might") to express this fact. If you are expressing a mere possibility that Rahner & co are right then you ought to say "may". Thus: "While Rahner and others may be right in urging a broadening of the concept of martyrdom..."
*If for some reason you want to express diminished possibility then you may want to consider using "might".
*"Might" is correct if you are writing a conditional sentence using the subjunctive mood.
Please refer to .... http://www.translationdirectory.com/article245.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_modal_auxiliary_verb
I used may be twice here. Should I have said might be instead?
I don't have a premium membership either, but my guess is if you pay for premium membership, there may be more on the page, as you don't have to put up with the advertisements. This is only a guess on my part. I know the ads definately go away with a paid membership, but for all I know there may be blank spaces where the ads would be instead of recipe content moving up to fill the void. Maybe a premium member will enlighten us about that.
Very simple: MIGHT is possibility (maybe I will, maybe I won't), MAY is permission (I'm allowed to). But regrettably, poor public education and lax grammar standards have led to MIGHT and MAY being approved as interchangeable. People, we're losing our ability to communicate clearly. Today, if 2 + 2 happens to equal 5, they say it's okay, but I'm not biting.
Hello,
I couldn't help but notice your blog and mine are on such similar topics, and didn't know where else to post but to leave a comment.
Anyways, this is a puzzling question. Isn't may an indicator of the subjunctive and might merely an adverb?
Doesn't this answer make you smile?
Anonymous said...
"Very simple: MIGHT is possibility (maybe I will, maybe I won't), MAY is permission (I'm allowed to)."
I agree with "apodeictic", and disagree with Anonymous's claim about possibility and permission.
Consider:
"well, you might have told me that!"
versus
"well, you may have told me that".
In the first sentence I'm denying that you told me, and protesting that you ought to have. In the second I'm conceding that perhaps you did (and I've forgotten, or some other consideration entered in - "well, you may indeed have told me that this was a poison, but the label said it was safe").
So, (here, at least) "might" is subjunctive while "may" is indicative.
Again: I could say:
"the employer seemingly failed to make the appropriate provision, though they might have easily done so";
but that doesn't at all mean the same as
"the employer seemingly failed to make the appropriate provision, though they may easily have done so".
The first is subjunctive ("had they wished to, they could easily have done this thing") whereas the second is indicative ("although I haven't seen any evidence of it, it is perhaps the case that they did this thing").
So, OK: back to Rahner. I think the answer depends on how you gloss the sentence.
"While (under other circumstances) Rahner and others might (have been) right in urging a broadening of the concept of martyrdom..."
"(However unlikely this might seem, I have to concede that) Rahner and others may (indeed) have been right in urging a broadening of the concept of martyrdom...
Post a Comment