[Grammar] meanings of "can" in general and particular contexts

[NAL123]

A: What does "take" mean in this sentence?

B:1) You'll need to provide more context for a good answer. In the sentence, The verb "take" can/could mean "remove" or it can/could mean "move" or it can/could mean "accept", depending on context.


A: What does the verb "take" mean (in general)?

B:2) The verb "take" can mean "remove" or it can mean "move" or it can mean "accept", depending on context. ("could" is not possible here, right?)


Qa) Can I say that "can" or "could" in sentence 1) relates to a particular use of the verb in question, whose context - when established - will quickly resolve the issue of interpretation?

Qb) Can I say that "can" in sentence 2) would be a general statement of possible meanings?

 

[Tarheel]

What does "take" mean in this sentence?

There is no sentence to look at, so all I can say is it can mean any of a number of things. There are several possibilities. What do you want to say?

 

[NAL123]

What does "take" mean in this sentence?

There is no sentence to look at, so all I can say is it can mean any of a number of things. There are several possibilities. What do you want to say?

This is not what I meant. "A" is supposed to be a student asking questions and "B", their teacher.

 

[jutfrank]

A: What does "take" mean in this sentence?

B:1) You'll need to provide more context for a good answer. In the sentence, The verb "take" can/could mean "remove" or it can/could mean "move" or it can/could mean "accept", depending on context.

This is not a good example. Person B seems to be mixing general meaning with specific meaning. Forget this example. However, despite it being a poor example, I can see that you're thinking that could would give a specific meaning, so you're on the right line of thinking. Well done.

A: What does the verb "take" mean (in general)?

B:2) The verb "take" can mean "remove" or it can mean "move" or it can mean "accept", depending on context. ("could" is not possible here, right?)

Yes, that's much better. Here, the speaker uses can in the general sense. For that reason, can is appropriate, yes.

Qa) Can I say that "can" or "could" in sentence 1) relates to a particular use of the verb in question, whose context - when established - will quickly resolve the issue of interpretation?

I don't completely understand this question. I think I'd advise you simply to think of this as being a case of specific meaning.

Qb) Can I say that "can" in sentence 2) would be a general statement of possible meanings?

Yes.

 

[NAL123]

This is not a good example. Person B seems to be mixing general meaning with specific meaning. Forget this example. However, despite it being a poor example, I can see that you're thinking that could would give a specific meaning, so you're on the right line of thinking. Well done.

OK. So let me get this straight:

A: What does "take" mean in this sentence?

B:1) You'll need to provide more context for a good answer. In the sentence, The verb "take" can/could mean "remove" or it can/could mean "move" or it can/could mean "accept", depending on context.

In sentence 1) above, speaker B is trying to say that from whatever context they have right now, they can only conclude that in the particular sentence, the verb "take" will have any one of the only three possible meanings (mentioned in sentence (1)). He can't say which one it is, because he doesn't have sufficient context. He will need more context to do that.

In your comment above, do you mean "can" is not possible, but "could" is, with this interpretation of sentence (1)?

 

[Tarheel]

A: What does "take" mean in this sentence?
B:1) You'll need to provide more context for a good answer. In the sentence, The verb "take" can mean "remove" or it can mean "move" or it can mean "accept", depending on context.

The key is those last three words: depending on context.

(Something you will never see me do is fail to choose which verb I want to use.)

(This one has been addressed several times.)

 

[jutfrank]

In your comment above, do you mean "can" is not possible, but "could" is, with this interpretation of sentence (1)?

Don't worry about what's possible and what's impossible.

You've got the right basic idea: Use can for general cases and could for specific ones.


Generally speaking, each modal verb can have lots of different meanings, depending on context. [a general case]

In this specific sentence, the word 'take' could mean X, and it could mean Y. It's not clear what the speaker means. [a specific case]