| 词组 | may |
| 释义 | may 1. See can, may. 2. May, might. Quite a few commentators include this heading, but most of them are content to offer ordinary dictionary-like explanations of the words' basic uses. There is nothing mysterious or controversial about these uses; if you have any question about them, we think you will find all the explanation you need in any good dictionary. On a more mysterious note, a few commentators— Longman 1984, Barzun 1985, Howard 1984, Copperud 1970, 1980, Barnard 1979, Robert F. Ilson in Green-baum 1985, Follett 1966—do note the puzzling use of may where might would be expected. There seem to be two places where such substitution occurs: in describing hypothetical conditions, and in a context normally calling for the past tense. Perhaps some examples would make things clearer. The first describes a hypothetical situation; it is taken from speech, as the'd have for had also indicates. It was spoken by a color analyst on a professional football telecast: • If he'd have released the ball a second earlier—when [the pass receiver] made his cut—he may have had a touchdown —Dan Dierdorf, CBS television, 20 Dec. 1986 Here "might have had a touchdown" would have been expected. In the second example we have a context where the past is called for: • Born in Buffalo, N.Y., he may have gone to Princeton ... but he made his reputation as a railroader — Forbes, 15 Sept. 1970 This one is especially confusing since may in such surroundings suggests that the writer does not know whether he went to Princeton; might (which is the verb we would have expected) would suggest that he could have gone if he had wanted to. No one has a satisfying explanation for why these substitutions occur, and we are as stumped as everyone else. Here is about all we can tell you: we have more British evidence for the substitution (and more notice is taken of it by British commentators) than we have American evidence. But we do have both. The substitution is more frequent in speech than in writing. British evidence and British comment suggest that in print it is most likely to be found in the newspapers. It can be a puzzler when it occurs; notice in this example how you are at first led to believe that the boy survived: • At first it was believed that the boy may have survived in a pocket of air, but when divers reached him yesterday it became obvious that he drowned soon after the trawler went over —The Guardian, 30 Oct. 1973 It will probably be some years before we know much more about this use of may for might. It receives but a brief footnote in Quirk et al. 1985; there it is related to some speakers' not perceiving any difference between "you may be right" and "you might be right." (The American example from sports broadcasting, however, could also be related to an often observed preference of players and other sports figures for casting what would be, in more formal circumstances, a past conditional sentence in the present tense: "If the pitcher doesn't walk [for hadn't walked] in the run, the Yankees win [for would have won] the game.") Until more is known about this usage, we advise you to use might in all contexts where the past tense is appropriate or where a hypothetical or highly unlikely situation is being referred to. |
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