he admits that she did not actually do any of the things she thinks she should have. But her brain persists in arguing that reality is wrong.
This is interesting. We use the word “should” both as to command ourselves and others. “You should eat vegetables”, and to make predictions “This should work”. Both types has a similar type of uncertainty, we do not know if the suggestion will be obeyed or if our prediction will be right.
I’m not sure how much one should read in to linguistic quirks like this.
I don’t think the word is the critical part. The critical part is the underlying sense of “supposed to (have) happen(ed), and if anyone disagrees, then they’re wrong”. There are a lot of different words that can be used to describe that state, including should, have to, ought to, supposed to, must, required, etc.
This type of “should” is effectively a statement of moral rectitude or righteousness, coupled with condemnation. It’s not the same as e.g.
I would be better off if I did this
It would be a good idea if I did this
I wish something else had happened
etc. These are also expansions of “should”, but lack the implication “and it’s a violation of propriety if not implemented” or “you’re a less righteous person if you don’t”.
This is interesting. We use the word “should” both as to command ourselves and others. “You should eat vegetables”, and to make predictions “This should work”. Both types has a similar type of uncertainty, we do not know if the suggestion will be obeyed or if our prediction will be right.
I’m not sure how much one should read in to linguistic quirks like this.
I don’t think the word is the critical part. The critical part is the underlying sense of “supposed to (have) happen(ed), and if anyone disagrees, then they’re wrong”. There are a lot of different words that can be used to describe that state, including should, have to, ought to, supposed to, must, required, etc.
This type of “should” is effectively a statement of moral rectitude or righteousness, coupled with condemnation. It’s not the same as e.g.
I would be better off if I did this
It would be a good idea if I did this
I wish something else had happened
etc. These are also expansions of “should”, but lack the implication “and it’s a violation of propriety if not implemented” or “you’re a less righteous person if you don’t”.