Quote:
Originally Posted by Perikles
Out of context, the expression is ambiguous. What I think Henry James is saying, having read the whole paragraph, is that not only great fortunes, but also great reputations can be made. I still think the Spanish book is incorrect.
I find Irish literature very difficult because there are idiosyncracies which lead to this kind of misunderstanding. But taking it to be actual English, this is what it probably means.
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Hi, Perikles, I get what you write and I understand that this is one acceptable option. However...
I don't want to be a pest or a pain in the neck, if not terribly hard to please/so choosy and so fuzzy.
In this very sentence I just wrote, "if not" is adding "insult to injury", i.e., I am a pain in the neck BUT ALSO I am very fuzzy and choosy. (Even though I am saying "I don't want to be it".)
It is like in the Oxford bilingual (Superlex)
she was very offhand,
if not downright rude = estuvo muy brusca,
por no decir verdaderamente grosera
Another nuance (also Superlex)
they were undernourished,
if not (yet) actually starving = estaban desnutridos,
si bien no se estaban muriendo de inanición;
If one reads more of the context, not just the paragraph, I think one may get the ambiguity solved.
Great fortunes,
if not great reputations, are made, we learn, by writing for schoolboys, and the period during which they consume the compound artfully
Se hacen grandes fortunas, si bien no reputaciones magníficas,
Se hacen grandes fortunas, por no decir reputaciones magníficas,
These two translations mean the opposite, yet, both are 'correct'. And the book seems to be 'correct' or at least not downright wrong, in the context of what I said before...
I do not like to leave a "maybe" in my mind, but at this point, I feel certainly, positively sure of the ambiguity, that you could go either way, you you could not be wrong, if not [otherwise/else] right. QED.
(Conclusion: we fully agree on your first statement, "Out of context, the expression is ambiguous." No kidding!)
