Conditional perfect

Themenin · January 12, 2008, 10:07am

If you injure yourself, we will cancel the game.
If you injured yourself, we would cancel the game.
CP If you had injured yourself, we would have canceled the game.

so far so good, these three cases seem to cover most verbs and most situations.
However in some situations, some verbs such as want, think, feel, believe etc. seem to have an extra case - a kind of mix of past conditional and conditional perfect.

If you want me to know, you will tell me.
If you wanted me to know, you would tell me.
CP If you had wanted me to know, you would have told me. The (not) wanting’s in the past and the (not) telling’s in the past.
If you wanted me to know, you would have told me. The (not) wanting’s in the present and the (not) telling’s in the past.

Is this 4th case correct ? Is the meaning any different from the conditional perfect ? “If you wanted to see the show, you should have bought a ticket.” seems to be what the guy at the booth would say as he turns you away from a sold-out show, where “If you had wanted to see the show, you should have bought a ticket.” sounds like what your annoying friend would say the day after the show. In fact, had wanted just sounds kind of clumsy.

So, any cunning linguists around ?

Cunctator · January 12, 2008, 11:03pm

Themenin:

If you want me to know, you will tell me.
If you wanted me to know, you would tell me.
CP If you had wanted me to know, you would have told me. The (not) wanting’s in the past and the (not) telling’s in the past.
If you wanted me to know, you would have told me. The (not) wanting’s in the present and the (not) telling’s in the past.

Is this 4th case correct ? Is the meaning any different from the conditional perfect ? “If you wanted to see the show, you should have bought a ticket.” seems to be what the guy at the booth would say as he turns you away from a sold-out show, where “If you had wanted to see the show, you should have bought a ticket.” sounds like what your annoying friend would say the day after the show. In fact, had wanted just sounds kind of clumsy.

I’d say that “had wanted” in the pluperfect tense is correct, followed by “would have told” in the perfect conditional tense. To me, your fourth example above just seems like a shorthand version that people often use in place of the pluperfect.