Languages & Linguistics
Subjunctive Mood
The subjunctive mood is a grammatical mood used to express hypothetical, unreal, or uncertain situations. It is often used to convey wishes, recommendations, or possibilities. In English, the subjunctive is marked by specific verb forms, such as "were" instead of "was," and is commonly found in clauses following certain expressions like "if," "wish," or "suggest."
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10 Key excerpts on "Subjunctive Mood"
eBook - ePub- Geoffrey N. Leech(Author)
- 2014(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
UNREAL supposition (referring to an imaginary or hypothetical state of affairs). Nowadays the Indicative Mood has become all – important, and the Subjunctive Mood is little more than a footnote in the description of the language.While the contrast between the Subjunctive and Indicative Moods has largely disappeared from present-day English grammar, the distinctions of meaning which Mood used to express are still important within the language. Modern English has a threefold distinction between FACTUAL, THEORETICAL and HYPOTHETICAL meanings, corresponding to the Mood distinctions mentioned above, and in the title of this chapter I use the term ‘mood’ loosely to refer to these meanings.The Subjunctive 162 The Subjunctive Mood survives to a limited degree, in modern English, in both Present Tense and Past Tense forms.It is proposed that the Assembly elect a new Committee. | William insisted that Sarah go to his doctor in Harley Street. | If an Association member be found guilty of misconduct, his membership will be suspended and appropriate dues refunded.Present Subjunctive Mood is here shown by the absence of – s from the third – person singular Present Tense verb, and by the use of be in place of the Indicative am / is / are. Whether it occurs in conditional, concessive, or that clauses, the Present Subjunctive is an indicator of non – factual or THEORETICAL meaning (see §§163 – 4 ). However, it is in that-clauses, illustrated in the first example above, that the Present Subjunctive occurs most. This construction, called the MANDATIVE SUBJUNCTIVE , is more common in AmE than in BrE.The Past Subjunctive, on the other hand, expresses HYPOTHETICAL MEANING . It survives as a form distinct from the ordinary Indicative Past Tense only in the use of were, the Past Tense form of the verb to be, with a singular subject: She looks as if she WERE accusing me of fraud
eBook - ePub- Ana Fairchild, Juan Mendez(Authors)
- 2011(Publication Date)
- Collins Reference(Publisher)
CHAPTER 4The Subjunctive Mood
T he Subjunctive Mood is a difficult subject to learn for English-speaking students. The difficulty lies in that you can not easily recognize this mood in the English language. The use of the Subjunctive Mood can be easily applied if the concept of the mood is first learned.We must compare and contrast the indicative and the Subjunctive Moods. The indicative mood expresses facts and states objectivity. The actions or events stated or described by the indicative mood can be objectively proven or disproven.Juan estudia mucho.John studies a lot .María y Josefina desean un millón de dólares.Mary and Josephine want a million dollars .Jorge va a la escuela.George goes to school .Ellos no fueron a la conferencia.They did not go to the conference .In all of these sentences, facts are stated about the different individuals. In the first sentence, it is stated that John studies. In the second sentence, Mary and Josephine want money. It is a fact that they feel this way. In the third sentence, a fact is also stated: George goes to school . In the fourth sentence, it is denied that they went to the conference.Unlike the indicative mood, the Subjunctive Mood implies subjectivity. This mood expresses opinion, emotion, desire, feeling, doubt, necessity, request, uncertainty, wish, and other subjective desires that may or may not be true. Normally, the Subjunctive Mood appears in dependent clauses which are introduced by conjunctions or relative pronouns.Juan desea que su hermano estudie.John wants his brother to study .El profesor quiere que sus alumnos obtengan buenas notas.The professor wants his students to obtain good grades .Yo dudo que José hable español.I doubt that Joseph speaks Spanish .In all these sentences, subjective opinions are expressed about different situations. In the first sentence, John wants his brother to study. In the main clause, the indicative mood is used because it is a fact that John feels this way. However, it is not John’s task to see that his brother studies; it is up to his brother to do so. For this reason, the Subjunctive Mood is used in the dependent clause. The same occurs in the second and third sentences. It does not depend on the professor for the students to do well. The students have to do well themselves. The ability to speak a language rests on Joseph, not on the subject of the sentence.
eBook - ePubA Modern English Grammar on Historical Principles
Volume 7. Syntax
- Otto Jespersen, Niels Haislund(Authors)
- 2013(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
Chapter XVIII
Mood
18.11 . A mood, in accordance with PhilGr 313, may be defined as a grammatical form, or the function of such a form, which expresses a certain attitude of the mind of the speaker or writer towards the contents of the sentence, though in some cases the choice of the mood is determined not by the attitude of the actual speaker, but by the clause itself and its relation to the main nexus on which it is dependent.18.12 . In English we distinguish three moods, the Indicative, which has been termed ‘fact-mood’, the Subjunctive, which has been termed ‘thought-mood’, and the Imperative, termed ‘will-mood’. For a general discussion of the functions or meanings of the three moods see PhilGr ch 23.On the Imperative see vol V ch 24 (p. 467 ff.).Indicative and Subjunctive
18.21 . The indicative and the subjunctive will be treated together, mainly because the indicative has for centuries been encroaching upon the function of the subjunctive.As said above, the indicative has been termed ‘fact-mood’. It may be said to be the mood of the most neutral character, as it is the mood most used, the form used when the speaker only wants to state a fact without any special attitude of mind. Though it may be objected that actually the indicative is encroaching upon the sphere of the subjunctive, still the means to express the special attitude of mind generally connected with use of the subjunctive is not now the indicative as such, but generally a combination of a modal vb, without any distinction between indicative and subjunctive, and an infinitive (may go, should go , etc).18.22 . The subjunctive has been termed ‘thought-mood’, but this seems insufficient. Various grammarians distinguish between the optative subjunctive, which represents the utterance as something desired or intend-ed, and the potential
eBook - ePub- José Ignacio Hualde, Antxon Olarrea, Erin O'Rourke(Authors)
- 2012(Publication Date)
- Wiley-Blackwell(Publisher)
19
Mood: Indicative vs. Subjunctive
IGNACIO BOSQUE1 Introduction: syntactic contexts for moods
Moods constitute a manifestation of modality. This category reflects the speaker’s attitude towards propositional contents, more specifically the various forms in which statements are interpreted under the influence of semantic environments, whether hypothetical or real. Moods are verbal inflections reflecting modality. They may directly encode grammatical differences related to speech acts, as in the subjunctive form tenga in ¡Tenga un buen día! ‘Have a nice day!,’ as opposed to the indicative tiene in Tiene un buen día ‘S/he is having a nice day.’ In many cases, moods are induced or triggered by various grammatical categories in restricted syntactic contexts, for example the preposition sin ‘without’ in sin que tú lo {supieras/*sabías} ‘without you {knowing-SUBJ./knowing-IND.}.’There exists an abundant theoretical literature on the Spanish verbal moods, written in several frameworks, as well as many traditional and descriptive studies on this topic. Overviews may be found in Lleó (1979), Manteca Alonso-Cortés (1981), Borrego et. al. (1986), Bosque (1990), Porto Dapena (1991), and Ahern (2009), among others. Extensive chapters are devoted to the description of moods in recent grammars of Spanish. See Ridruejo (1999), Pérez Saldanya (1999) and RAE-ASALE (2009: ch. 25). General presentations of the Subjunctive Mood in current theoretical linguistics may be found in Portner (1999), Quer (2005), and Laca (2010). Studies on Spanish moods from pragmatic, functional, or discourse-oriented perspectives include Lunn (1989, 1995), Mejías-Bikandi (1994), Maldonado (1995), Gregory (2001), Haverkate (2002), and Travis (2003).
eBook - ePubLessons on the English Verb
No Expression Without Representation
- Walter Hirtle(Author)
- 2007(Publication Date)
- McGill-Queen's University Press(Publisher)
preserve in these examples represent their event as a possibility permits the grammarian-observer to conclude that both are in the subjunctive. That is, when the signs do not indicate which meaning is being expressed, the observer has recourse to other means for discerning the speaker’s meaning. In each case the aim is to understand the meaning expressed by the verb in order to understand the sentence. A mood is therefore ultimately identified on the basis of the meaning expressed by the verb, but this meaning must lie within the range of what the sign can signify. This brings us back to the more general view of a grammatical form as a sign linked to a grammatical significate. Thanks to its position in the system of mood, the subjunctive has a potential meaning: universe time represented without the present. Identifying a subjunctive involves recognizing the meaning of a finite verb in a given sentence as expressing an event situated in “presentless” time. This is why it is essential for a grammarian to have the system of mood in mind when examining usage.We have seen that all the uses in our brief survey arise from a representation of universe time as an unbroken, boundless stretch ascending toward the future. Most of the above examples are taken from US and Canadian dialects, which are noted for a more frequent use of the subjunctive. Since, according to the grammars, usage varies from one dialect to another, this survey cannot be considered complete if only because an examination of different dialects of English is called for, a task that cannot be undertaken here. It remains for us to examine briefly the ‘past-oriented’ subjunctive before turning to the question of methodology this lesson raises.
eBook - ePubKierkegaard and Levinas
The Subjunctive Mood
- Patrick Sheil(Author)
- 2017(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
Chapter 5 The Moodiness of the SubjunctivePol. : It shall do well: but yet do I believe, The origin and commencement of his grief Sprung from neglected love […].1 Far more important than the rate of interest and the supply of credit is the mood.2Mood before Grammar
In the previous chapter we looked at what, according to Levinas, metaphysics had ‘forgotten’ to represent. Merleau-Ponty has made similar points: ‘Idealism overlooks the interrogative, the subjunctive, the aspiration, the expectation, the positive indeterminacy of these modes of consciousness, for it is acquainted only with the consciousness in the present or future indicative, which is why it fails to account for class’.3 So let us begin with the ‘indeterminacy’ that Merleau-Ponty ascribes to the subjunctive and interrogative modes. Teachers explaining the use of the subjunctive may do so by giving an account of a situation whose description calls for it. This account may be philosophical, even if it is accidentally so. The epistemological notions latent in grammatical rules fascinate Johannes Climacus:The Greek Teacher presented grammar in a more philosophical way. When it was explained to Johannes that the accusative case, for example, is an extension in time and space, that the preposition does not govern the case but that the relation does, everything expanded before him. The preposition vanished; the extension in time and space became like an enormous empty picture for intuition. (PH/JC 121; Pap. IV, B #1, p. 107 )But a teacher may reassure a class that good usage will in time be grasped intuitively and spontaneously. The mood of the subjunctive, this teacher might add, will arise when the moment is right ; learners may acquire the habit of feeling the way towards a usage in an almost musical way. Grammar is firmly set but it is eventually ‘followed’ unconsciously.4 ‘In the end’, says Kierkegaard, ‘it’s all a question of ear.’ He continues: ‘The rules of grammar end with ear – the edicts of law end with ear – the figured bass ends with ear – the philosophical system ends with ear – which is why the next life is also represented as pure music […]’ (PJS 91; JP V, H-#5161, p. 74 ; Pap. I, A #235, p. 112 ). On the subjunctive in particular, he writes: ‘A remarkable transition occurs when one begins to study the grammar of the indicative and the subjunctive, because here for the first time one becomes conscious that everything depends on how it is thought, accordingly how thinking in its absoluteness follows upon a seeming reality’ (PJS 90; JP III, H-#2309, p. 4 ; Pap. II, A #155, p. 83 ). The subjunctive can be learnt; it can even be understood, but it will be used when the mood is right. Uncertainty, incomplete knowledge and the imperative are not the only precipitators. French sometimes places the subjunctive at the service of an indicative statement. Take this sentence from Baudelaire: ‘Un de mes amis, le plus indolent rêveur qui ait existé […]’ (‘One of my friends, the most indolent dreamer who ever existed […]’).5 Here the auxiliary verb (infinitive: avoir ) is in the subjunctive (giving us ‘ait’) and is used to bolster a superlative (‘le plus indolent rêveur’). The poet does not doubt that his friend is most indolent of all dreamers. No, the friend in question definitely qualifies, in this world, for what Kripke would call the ‘accidental’ or ‘non-rigid’ designator6 of ‘le plus indolent rêveur’. But the subjunctive in ‘qui ait existé’ anticipates objections from those who think they know of more indolent dreamers; despite all such protest, the claim of this friend would still win out. The subjunctive here ‘imagines’ the competition for the title ‘most indolent dreamer’. Moreover, the imagined competition, that is, each one of the other indolent dreamers, implicitly becomes part of the subject
eBook - ePub- Roger Hawkins, Richard Towell(Authors)
- 2015(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
11 The subjunctive, modal verbs, exclamatives and imperatives11.1 The attitude of the subject to events: the subjunctiveThe subjunctive is expressed by a particular set of forms which verbs can typically take only in subordinate clauses (but see 11.4.4 for an exception). Verb forms that are not those of the subjunctive (e.g. the simple present, imperfect, simple past, compound past, and so on) are traditionally called the indicative . This distinction is used in this chapter for expository purposes. The selection of the subjunctive in a subordinate clause (rather than the normal indicative) is always determined by the nature of the clause on which it is dependent.It should be noted that in many cases there is no choice about whether to use the subjunctive or indicative: certain types of main clause ALWAYS select the subjunctive in a dependent subordinate clause; others ALWAYS select the indicative. However, some main clause constructions are ambiguous, and allow the verb in a dependent subordinate clause to be either subjunctive or indicative: the choice of one or the other produces different meanings.The majority of main clause constructions which select the subjunctive have a general property in common, and it is useful to consider the subjunctive from this perspective. The subjunctive is selected in a subordinate clause where the subject of the main clause views the event described in the subordinate clause with a significant degree of personal interpretation.
eBook - ePub- Goold Brown(Author)
- 2004(Publication Date)
- Perlego(Publisher)
Cooper's New Gram., p. 63.OBS. 8.—The true Subjunctive mood, in English, is virtually rejected by some later grammarians, who nevertheless acknowledge under that name a greater number and variety of forms than have ever been claimed for it in any other tongue. All that is peculiar to the Subjunctive, all that should constitute it a distinct mood, they represent as an archaism, an obsolete or antiquated mode of expression, while they willingly give to it every form of both the indicative and the potential, the two other moods which sometimes follow an if. Thus Wells, in his strange entanglement of the moods, not only gives to the subjunctive, as well as to the indicative, a "Simple" or "Common Form," and a "Potential Form;" not only recognizes in each an "Auxiliary Form," and a "Progressive Form;" but encumbers the whole with distinctions of style,—with what he calls the "Common Style," and the "Ancient Style;" or the "Solemn Style," and the "Familiar Style:" yet, after all, his own example of the Subjunctive, "Take heed, lest any man deceive you," is obviously different from all these, and not explainable under any of his paradigms! Nor is it truly consonant with any part of his theory, which is this: "The subjunctive of all verbs except be, takes the same form as the indicative. Good writers were formerly much accustomed to drop the personal termination in the subjunctive present, and write 'If he have,' 'If he deny,' etc., for 'If he has,' 'If he denies,' etc.; but this termination is now generally retained, unless an auxiliary is understood. Thus, 'If he hear,' may properly be used for 'If he shall hear' or 'If he should hear,' but not for 'If he hears.'"—Wells's School Gram., 1st Ed., p. 83; 3d Ed., p. 87. Now every position here taken is demonstrably absurd. How could "good writers" indite "much" bad English by dropping from the subjunctive an indicative ending which never belonged to it? And how can a needless "auxiliary" be "understood," on the principle of equivalence, where, by awkwardly changing a mood or tense, it only helps some grammatical theorist to convert good English into bad, or to pervert a text? The phrases above may all be right, or all be wrong, according to the correctness or incorrectness of their application: when each is used as best it may be, there is no exact equivalence. And this is true of half a dozen more of the same sort; as, "If he does hear,"—"If he do hear,"—"If he is hearing,"—"If he be hearing,"—"If he shall be hearing,"—"If he should be hearing
eBook - ePubMood, Aspect, Modality Revisited
New Answers to Old Questions
- Joanna Blaszczak, Anastasia Giannakidou, Dorota Klimek-Jankowska, Krzysztof Migdalski, Joanna Blaszczak, Anastasia Giannakidou, Dorota Klimek-Jankowska, Krzysztof Migdalski(Authors)
- 2017(Publication Date)
- University of Chicago Press(Publisher)
not exploit the C position (though perhaps they do covertly; see Baunaz 2015); expressive agreement targets the next available head: Mood. Languages vary as to whether they have the lexical items ‘emotive subjunctive’ or ‘emotive C’. Languages in the Romance family (group (i)) have emotive subjunctive; languages in group (iii) have emotive C. Languages in the middle group, (ii) are in transition—either developing or discontinuing the emotive subjunctive (Portuguese, Turkish).These ideas are quite new, and certainly more detailed study is needed. I want to offer here a framework useful for addressing the cross-linguistic variation observed with the emotives. We proceed next to dual mood patterns, which reveal a third function of evaluative subjunctive.6 The Subjunctive as Preference Ordering Recall the initial examples from Greek:As indicated, the verb pistevo is not interpreted as a verb of belief, but it seems to be akin to ‘hope’. Note also the importance of first person:In the third person, na is impossible. The sensitivity to first person suggests that the use of na is tied to the speaker; it is therefore distinct from the emotive subjunctive, which concerns the main clause subject. This subjunctive cannot be of the epistemic kind either, since epistemic subjunctive does not affect the meaning of the attitude; there is a contrast between (80) with the subjunctive and the sentence in (82) with indicative and a possibility modal:Here, with the indicative and an embedded epistemic modal, the speaker asserts his belief that it is possible for John to win. This is a very different meaning from (80), where the verb meaning appears to be affected and we no longer have a belief. Given the similarity to ‘hope’, it seems reasonable to assume that in this case the subjunctive introduces a preference
eBook - ePubBasics of Latin
A Grammar with Readings and Exercises from the Christian Tradition
- Derek Cooper(Author)
- 2020(Publication Date)
- Zondervan Academic(Publisher)
amā́rēs . However, as you can see, I chose to translate each one a slightly different way: “were to have,” “you would rejoice,” and “loved,” respectively. What is going on here? This sentence perfectly captures both the opportunities and challenges involved in translating the subjunctive into English. In Latin, the subjunctive is a piece of cake. One word communicates everything we need to know.In English, however, it is a different story. In our maternal language, we signal contingency, possibility, and uncertainty in many different ways. Do not be concerned if you translated these verbs differently than I did. Here is what is really important: First, you recognize the imperfect tense is being used in Latin and, second, you attempt to convey the Subjunctive Mood into English as best as you can.520.5 Translating the Imperfect Active Subjunctive: I “Might” Help You. I hate to continue throwing English under the wagon, but the ubiquity of options available to us to communicate uncertainty in this language makes it difficult for us to systematically choose one stock translation over another. In English, we like our options and are used to saying things in lots of different ways. This is foreign to Latin. But since we are translating from Latin into English, we need to think more about translation options.We know by now that the subjunctive is all about possibility, potential, hypotheticals, and non-factual actions and events, but we have added a new layer of complexity with the introduction of the imperfect tense. Put simply, how do you convey uncertainty about a past event? There are many ways, to be sure. As with the previous capítulum
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