I could have been a lawyer vs. he could have been looked after

[shootingstar]

There is the sentence "I could have been a lawyer". Did this really happen or didn't it?

Well then. What about this:

Nora was hot with agitation now. 'That's even worse! You sent me into that life knowing Volts (Nora's cat) would be dead. And Volts was dead. So, nothing changed.'
Mrs Elm's eyes twinkled again. 'Except you.'
'What do you mean?'
'Well, you don't see yourself as a bad cat owner any more. You looked after him as well as he could have been looked after. He loved you as much as you loved him, and maybe he didn't want you to see him die. You see, cats know. They understand when their time is up. He went outside because he was going to die, and he knew it.'
Nora tried to take this in . . . .
(The Midnight Library by Matt Haig, episode The Only Way to Learn Is to Live)

Now, did this really happen, did Nora really looked after her cat Volts (diminutive of Voltaire) as well as possible? Does "(as) he could have been looked after" express a reality that has come true?

 

[Matthew Wai]

There is the sentence "I could have been a lawyer". Did this really happen or didn't it?

I could have been a lawyer if I had been admitted into the Faculty of Law.

I think it did not happen.

 

[emsr2d2]

There's a complete difference in meaning between the "could have"s in those sentences.

"You looked after him as well as he could have been looked after" - You looked after him in the best way imaginable. No one would have been able to look after him better. The "looking after" is real. You can't add "if" after the "could have" part.

In "I could have been a lawyer", you're suggesting an alternative reality. It's easy to add "if" to it and give multiple explanations for why you're not a lawyer.

 

[jutfrank]

Now, did this really happen, did Nora really looked after her cat Volts (diminutive of Voltaire) as well as possible? Does "(as) he could have been looked after" express a reality that has come true?

A possibility that became a reality, yes. Nora looked after him so well that it is not possible to have done it any better.

 

[shootingstar]

Thank you all.
Nevertheless, three questions remain:

1) Do you read "could have been" in "I could have been a lawyer" as the conditional?

2) Do you read "could have been looked after" in "as well as he could have been looked after" as the conditional in this context?

Or . . ,.
3) . . . do you read "could have been" and "could have been looked after" as the modal perfect form (modal perfect passive of "can be someone"/"can be looked after")?

​

 

[Matthew Wai]

I consider "could have been" a modal perfect rather than a condition.
If you want to learn about the third conditional, see below:

The Third Conditional

Information about the third conditional, including lots of practice exercises.

www.perfect-english-grammar.com

 

[shootingstar]

I consider "could have been" a modal perfect rather than a condition.

Indeed? Even though you quoted the example . . .

I could have been a lawyer if I had been admitted into the Faculty of Law.

. . .and you commented . . .

I think it did not happen.

 

[Matthew Wai]

I could have been a lawyer if I had been admitted into the Faculty of Law.

In the above sentence, "could have been" is a modal perfect, while the if clause is a condition.

 

[5jj]

@shootingstar:

A conditional sentence is a sentence in a natural language that expresses that one thing is contingent on another, e.g., "If it rains, the picnic will be cancelled." They are so called because the impact of the sentence’s main clause is conditional on a subordinate clause. A full conditional thus contains two clauses: the subordinate clause, called the antecedent (or protasis or if-clause), which expresses the condition, and the main clause, called the consequent (or apodosis or then-clause) expressing the result.

There are no condtional tenses in English.

The main clause usually contains one of these:
an unmarked modal form (eg, will, may, can),
a marked modal form (eg, would, might, could),
a modal perfect form (eg, would have, might have, could have).

 

[shootingstar]

I take "conditional" to mean "conditional sentence", like Cambridge Dictionary. Please have a look at the following definition and link .

conditional​

adjective, noun (SENTENCE FORM)​

(relating to) a sentence, often starting with "if" or "unless", in which one half expresses something which depends on the other half:
"If I won a lot of money, I'd travel the world" is an example of a conditional (sentence).

When I say 'Do you read "could have been" in "I could have been a lawyer" as a conditional' I mean 'Do you read "could have been" as part of a conditional sentence'. And I take "I could have been a lawyer" and "he could have been looked after" as the main clause of a conditional (sentence).
That is, the sentences "I could have been a lawyer" and "he could have been looked after" provide a part of a conditional (sentence) in this context (in my opinion)- namely the main clause of a conditional (sentence), as you have already said:

The main clause usually contains one of these:
an unmarked modal form (eg, will, may, can),
a marked modal form (eg, would, might, could),
a modal perfect form (eg, would have, might have, could have).

And therefore, there is no contradiction or discrepancy between "conditional" (sentence) and "modal perfect" in my opinion: modal perfect is the verb form of the main clause (the result, third conditional) and it has future-in-the-past meaning in this context. Do I have this right?

 

[emsr2d2]

When I say "Do you read "could have been" in "I could have been a lawyer" as the conditional" I mean "Do you understand

You appear to have failed to finish your post!

 

[jutfrank]

When I say 'Do you read "could have been" in "I could have been a lawyer" as a conditional' I mean 'Do you read "could have been" as part of a conditional sentence'.

As I understand you, you're asking whether there's an implied condition. If that's what you mean, then yes, that would be the most obvious interpretation given no extra context. You could have been a lawyer if you'd gone to law school and studied law, etc.

And I take "I could have been a lawyer" and "he could have been looked after" as the main clause of a conditional (sentence).

As I've mentioned above, the former, which is a sentence can be understood as the logical result of an implied condition, but the latter, which is just part of a sentence, is different.

And therefore, there is no contradiction or discrepancy between "conditional" (sentence) and "modal perfect" in my opinion: modal perfect is the verb form of the main clause (the result, third conditional) and it has future-in-the-past meaning in this context. Do I have this right?

The 'could have been' part is what we formally call modal perfect, yes. The modal 'could' part expresses possibility and the perfect 'have been' part expresses past time. There's no conditionality, implied or otherwise, in this context, neither is there any future-in-the-past meaning. The sentence means that there is no possible history where he was better looked after than the actual history where Nora looked after him.

 

[Matthew Wai]

If you want to know more about "could have + past participle", see below:

Could have, should have, would have.

How to use the past modals, could have, should have and would have.

www.perfect-english-grammar.com

 

[emsr2d2]

You appear to have failed to finish your post!

@shootingstar Thank you for finishing your post. However, please be careful when clicking buttons to post a reply. Twice in the last 48 hours, you've hit "Report" instead of "Reply".

 

[shootingstar]

There's no conditionality, implied or otherwise, in this context, neither is there any future-in-the-past meaning. The sentence means that there is no possible history where he was better looked after than the actual history where Nora looked after him.

I think you are referring to the sentence with the words "as well as he could have been looked after".

What about this sentence:

You looked after him as well as he could have been looked after, if there had been anyone else but you at all (to look after him).

I think there is conditionality implied, right?

 

[Matthew Wai]

You looked after him as well as he could have been looked after, if there had been any other person like you at all.

Do you think it makes sense to say the following?

If there had been any other person like you at all, you looked after him as well as he could have been looked after.

 

[emsr2d2]

Do you think it makes sense to say the following?

If there had been any other person like you at all, you looked after him as well as he could have been looked after.

Not at all. The whole opening clause makes no sense.

 

[Matthew Wai]

I think the OP has to accept the fact that "could have + past participle" can be used without conditionality.

 

[emsr2d2]

@shootingstar and @Matthew Wai I don't know why both of you tried to incorporate some idea of the unspecified other person (who didn't look after the cat) as being like the person who did look after the cat.

The whole phrase simply means that no one in the whole world could possibly have looked after the cat better than Nora did.

"You looked after him just as well (as nicely!) as anyone else in existence could possibly have looked after him".

 

[Matthew Wai]

@shootingstar and @Matthew Wai I don't know why both of you tried to incorporate some idea of the unspecified other person (who didn't look after the cat) as being like the person who did look after the cat.

I did not try to incorporate the idea.
I tried to show that the idea did not make sense by putting the if-clause at the beginning.