Conditional counter-factual, main verb past vs nonpast?


I'm seeing sentences using a conditional counter-factual statement, using both
the past and nonpast in sentences.

Examples:

> 安ければ買います

According to the _Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar_ (DBJG), it can mean
both the factual "I'll buy it if it's cheap" and the counter-factual "I would
buy it if it were cheap".

What about:

> もっと安ければ買いました。

According to DBJG, this translates to "I would have bought it if it had been
much cheaper".

Is there a difference? Perhaps this is more of a question about English than
in Japanese?




# Present

> 安ければ買います

Has this got two opposing meanings, or is it simple less-specific (or specific
in another way) compared to English? We could express the meaning as:

> when cheap → buy

If we turn to the English expressions, we find they both include this basic
meaning:

> counter-factual: when cheap → buy; but alas it's not cheap unfortunately
>
> factual: when cheap → buy; and there's every chance it's actually cheap

Or in other words, the difference between `is cheap` and `were cheap` is that
it's a different
[mood](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subjunctive_mood#English): indicative vs.
subjunctive. You could say the Japanese phrase is agnostic to mood; much like
the English `I give you a letter` is agnostic to the social status of both
speakers -- it could be used between two two equal or between a worker and his
superior.

(※※To put it into perspective, see the note below for a few thoughts on this.)

Back to the Japanese phrase, here's an example illustrating the "counter-
factual" usage:

> もうちょっと安ければ買おうと思うけど今は監視を続けているだけで満足ですわ。
>
> I think: (when a bit cheaper → let's buy). But...
>
> If it were cheaper I would consider buying it, but for now I'm contend just
> keeping my tabs on it.

If you wanted to emphasize it's not cheap, or won't get cheaper, you could
also use:

  * もうちょっと安くしてくれたら買いますよ。 (here you are polite and leave the possibility open for the seller not to sell it cheaper)
  * もうちょっと安かったら買いたいです♪
  * もうちょっと安かったら買いたいけどこの値段だとちょっとなぁ。

# Past

As for your second sentence, let us put it into context:

> ([昔日のイラク 1980年代](http://books.google.de/books/about?id=hOJ-P2ys_KwC))
> 「ウイスキーも、安ければとにかく買いました。」
>
> Whisky: at any rate, (when cheap → bought).
>
> And whisky too; I bought what was cheap.

But here the writer actually bought it, at least all the whisky that had been
cheap. Now consider:

  * お店のものよりも安ければ買ったのですが…。
  * 写真代がもっと安ければ買ったのになぁとちょっと残念です。

Here the speakers add a conccessive だが or のに because they didn't actually buy
it.

# Comparison

Now we can compare the two sentences:

> もう少し安ければ買ったのですが…
>
> もう少し安ければ買いますが…

The difference is simply one of tense: In the former expression the decision
has been made and you didn't buy it. In the latter sentence, you might as well
still be standing inside the shop wondering whether you should buy it or not.

And as for the two English sentences you mentioned, they work the same way:

  * I would buy it if it were cheap. [=it's price could suddenly drop and you end up buying it]
  * I would have bought it, if it had been cheaper. [=you decided not buy it, and there might not be another chance for buying it anymore]

# Note

※※

Something always gets left out. In natural languages, irrelevant or
unnecessary information is omitted. You can't always mention every little
detail and everything that could be said. There's no point in specifying the
position and velocity of every atom. But languages and customs differ in what
is or can be left out.

Japanese nouns can be both singular and non-singular (plural). Now this might
sound like two different, opposed meanings. But there's a way to resolve this
conflict: nouns are simply not marked for number and don't express any amount
explicitly.

Some languages have got a _dual_ form. For example, to a Gothic speaker the
English pronoun `we` would be ambigous and could translate to:

  * wit (=the two of us)
  * weis (=many of us)

You could say the English `we` has got two oppsing meanings. But the better
way to think about this is that `we` simply isn't as specific and stands for
2+.

As a last example, consider the verb `(to) give`. English doesn't put as
marcch focus on social relationships grammar-wise, and thus this kind of
information often gets omitted. This is the opposite of the plurals, here
Japanese is more specific: 差し上げる, 差し上げます, 上げる, 上げます, くれる, やる etc.




# Present

> 安ければ買います

Has this got two opposing meanings, or is it simple less-specific (or specific
in another way) compared to English? We could express the meaning as:

> when cheap → buy

If we turn to the English expressions, we find they both include this basic
meaning:

> counter-factual: when cheap → buy; but alas it's not cheap unfortunately
>
> factual: when cheap → buy; and there's every chance it's actually cheap

Or in other words, the difference between `is cheap` and `were cheap` is that
it's a different
[mood](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subjunctive_mood#English): indicative vs.
subjunctive. You could say the Japanese phrase is agnostic to mood; much like
the English `I give you a letter` is agnostic to the social status of both
speakers -- it could be used between two two equal or between a worker and his
superior.

(※※To put it into perspective, see the note below for a few thoughts on this.)

Back to the Japanese phrase, here's an example illustrating the "counter-
factual" usage:

> もうちょっと安ければ買おうと思うけど今は監視を続けているだけで満足ですわ。
>
> I think: (when a bit cheaper → let's buy). But...
>
> If it were cheaper I would consider buying it, but for now I'm contend just
> keeping my tabs on it.

If you wanted to emphasize it's not cheap, or won't get cheaper, you could
also use:

  * もうちょっと安くしてくれたら買いますよ。 (here you are polite and leave the possibility open for the seller not to sell it cheaper)
  * もうちょっと安かったら買いたいです♪
  * もうちょっと安かったら買いたいけどこの値段だとちょっとなぁ。

# Past

As for your second sentence, let us put it into context:

> ([昔日のイラク 1980年代](http://books.google.de/books/about?id=hOJ-P2ys_KwC))
> 「ウイスキーも、安ければとにかく買いました。」
>
> Whisky: at any rate, (when cheap → bought).
>
> And whisky too; I bought what was cheap.

But here the writer actually bought it, at least all the whisky that had been
cheap. Now consider:

  * お店のものよりも安ければ買ったのですが…。
  * 写真代がもっと安ければ買ったのになぁとちょっと残念です。

Here the speakers add a conccessive だが or のに because they didn't actually buy
it.

# Comparison

Now we can compare the two sentences:

> もう少し安ければ買ったのですが…
>
> もう少し安ければ買いますが…

The difference is simply one of tense: In the former expression the decision
has been made and you didn't buy it. In the latter sentence, you might as well
still be standing inside the shop wondering whether you should buy it or not.

And as for the two English sentences you mentioned, they work the same way:

  * I would buy it if it were cheap. [=it's price could suddenly drop and you end up buying it]
  * I would have bought it, if it had been cheaper. [=you decided not buy it, and there might not be another chance for buying it anymore]

# Note

※※

Something always gets left out. In natural languages, irrelevant or
unnecessary information is omitted. You can't always mention every little
detail and everything that could be said. There's no point in specifying the
position and velocity of every atom. But languages and customs differ in what
is or can be left out.

Japanese nouns can be both singular and non-singular (plural). Now this might
sound like two different, opposed meanings. But there's a way to resolve this
conflict: nouns are simply not marked for number and don't express any amount
explicitly.

Some languages have got a _dual_ form. For example, to a Gothic speaker the
English pronoun `we` would be ambigous and could translate to:

  * wit (=the two of us)
  * weis (=many of us)

You could say the English `we` has got two oppsing meanings. But the better
way to think about this is that `we` simply isn't as specific and stands for
2+.

As a last example, consider the verb `(to) give`. English doesn't put as
marcch focus on social relationships grammar-wise, and thus this kind of
information often gets omitted. This is the opposite of the plurals, here
Japanese is more specific: 差し上げる, 差し上げます, 上げる, 上げます, くれる, やる etc.

