Re: Final text of GPL v3 (original) (raw)

Francesco Poli frx@firenze.linux.it writes:

Is "I am afraid it cannot" a definite answer? It does not even seem to express certainty...

(I am not a professor of English)

The usage of "I am afraid that " in English has changed.

At one point it expressed both uncertainty and anxiety about the assertion; "I fear that this assertion might be true". Then it was used euphemistically to be polite about an assertion one was certain about, but felt was bad for the other party so wanted to soften the statement. Eventually this euphemistic usage became the main understanding.

Most native English speakers, I think, would read the above as "Though I regret the fact, I am certain that ". To express uncertainty, it might be clearer to say "I fear that " or "I think that ".

-- \ "About four years ago, I was -- no, it was yesterday." -- | `\ Steven Wright | o_) | Ben Finney

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