On 09/04/2015 5:22 AM, Yurui Liu wrote:
> Guy Barry:
>> "Yurui Liu" wrote:
>>> The following is an excerpt of the lyrics of To the Moon and Back
>>> by Savage Garden:
>>> ---------------------------------------- She can't remember a
>>> time when she felt needed If love was red then she was color
>>> blind All her friends they've been tried for treason And crimes
>>> that were never defined ---------------------------------------
>>> Could'if love were red, then she would be color blind" have been
>>> used instead without any change in meaning? Is there any
>>> difference?
>> They have completely different meanings and are not
>> interchangeable.
>> "If love were red then she would be colour blind" refers to present
>> time, and is a counterfactual conditional; it necessarily implies
>> that love is not red, but imagines the consequences of a state of
>> affairs where love is red. "If love was red then she was colour
>> blind" refers to past time, and is not a counterfactual; it refers
>> to the consequences of a state of affairs where love was red.
> But to describe love as 'red' is odd; it cannot be a factual state of
> affairs.
You could call it a metaphorical state of affairs. She dismisses love
without seeing it, as a colour-blind person might walk past a sign
printed in red on a green background. I think there is an odd
resemblance to a counterfactual condition in the use of the past tense,
which may be meant to convey some distance from reality without
triggering the whole counterfactual pattern, but I agree with Guy that
the two forms are different (note that the tense in the main clause is
different too).