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The Subjunctive Mood

The Subjunctive Mood - раздел Иностранные языки, Some General Remarks § 239. Probably The Only Thing Linguists Are Unanimous About With Regard To T...

§ 239. Probably the only thing linguists are unanimous about with regard to the subjunctive mood is that it repre­sents an action as a 'non-fact', as something imaginary,


1 M. Bryant, op. cit., p. 20.

2 А. И Смирницкий, op cit , p 361.

3 О Есперсен. Философия грамматики. M., 1958, p.


243.



desirable, problematic, contrary to reality. In all other re­spects opinions differ.

To account for this difference of opinion it is necessary to take into consideration at least two circumstances:

1) The system of the subjunctive mood in Modern English
has been and still is in a state of develompent. There are many
elements in it which are rapidly falling into disuse and there
are new elements coming into use.

2) The authors describing the subjunctive mood often
make no distinction between language and speech, system
and usage. The opposition of the three moods as systems is
mixed up with detailed descriptions of the various shades
of meaning certain forms express in different environments.

§ 240. The development of the modal verbs and that of the subjunctive mood — the lexical and morphological ways of expressing modality ] — have much in common.

The original 'present tense' forms of the modal verbs were ousted by the 'past tense' forms (may, can). New 'past tense' forms were created (could, might, must, ought). The new 'past tense' forms must and ought have again superseded their 'present tense' opposites and are now the only forms of these verbs.

The forms be, have, write, go, etc., which were originally forms of the 'present tense', 'subjunctive mood' grammemes, have suffered a similar process and are now scarcely used in colloquial English. They have become archaic and are found as survivals in poetry, high prose, official documents and certain set expressions like Long live ..., suffice it to say..., etc. The former 'past tense subjunctive' has lost its 'past' meaning, and its forms'are mostly used to denote an action not preceding the moment of speech.

The new analytical forms with should have replaced the former present subjunctive in popular speech. Compare the archaic Take heed, lest t ho и fall (Maxwell) and the usual Take heed, lest you should fall.

In American English where many archaic features are better preserved (Cf. gotten for got) the former present tense forms are more common.

E. g. She demanded furiously that the old man be left alone. (Dreiser).

See § 330.


§ 241. Some new elements have come and are still coming inte the system of the subjunctive mood. In Old English the subjunctive mood system did not contain any 'person' oppos­emes. They were introduced later together with should and would, but these distinctions are observed only in a few types of sentences.

With the loss of the -en suffix of the plural the subjunctive mood system lost all number opposemes in Middle English. At present such opposemes are being introduced together with the word was as opposed to were.

E. g. You'dbe glad if I w a s dead. (Bennett).

§ 242. Barring the archaic 'present tense' forms, the subjunctive mood system of Modern English makes use of those forms which express a 'past tense' meaning in the indic­ative mood system. Since they-are not opposed to the 'pre­sent tense' and 'future tense' grammemes, they have no 'tense' meaning. What unites them is the meaning of 'irreal­ity' as opposed to the meaning of 'reality' common to all the indicative mood gra'mmemes."

Having no 'tense' opposemes the subjunctive mood system makes extensive use of 'order' opposemes. The 'perfect' forms are used to express an action imagined as prior to some other action or event.

E. g. The'Married Woman's Property Act would so have interfered with him if he hadn't mercifully married before it was passed. (Galsworthy).

The 'perfect' forms, naturally, express actions imagined as prior to the event of speaking, i. e. actions imagined in the past.

E.g. If I had known that, I should have acted differently. It is strange that he s ho ul d have spoken so.

The non-perfect forms do not express priority. The action they denote may be thought of as simultaneous with some event or even following it. The order of the action in such cases is expressed not by the form of the verb but by the whole situation or lexically.

Cf. / wish he were here now. I wish he w e r e here to­morrow. Even if he с а т e to-morrow that will be too lerte. (Ruck).


§ 243. The 'passive voice' and 'continuous aspect' mean­ings are expressed much m the same way as in the indicative mood system.

E. g. In a moment he would have b e e n drewned. (Braddon).

She sat not reading, wondering if he w e r e с в т -i n g in... (Galsworthy).

§ 244. The various shades of meaning subjunctive mood grammemes may acquire in certain environments, and the types of sentences and clauses they are used in, are not part of the morphological system of moods and need not be treated here. Still an exception can be made.

Some linguists 1 think that would help in the sentence // he were here he w о и I d h e I p us represents a separate mood called 'conditional'.

The arguments are as follows:

1. The form would help expresses 'dependent unreality':
the realization of the action depends on the condition expressed
in the subordinate clause ((/-clause) 2.

2. It is 'mainly used in the principal clause
of a complex sentence with a subordinate clause of и n r e a I
condition'
3.

3. Should is used for the first person and would for the
other persons 4.

Let us analyse these arguments.

1. If the meaning of 'dependent unreality' is to be treated
as the meaning of a separate mood, then the meaning of
'dependent reality' in a similar sentence // he is here, he will
help us
must likewise be regarded as the meaning of a separate
mood which is to be distinguished from the indicative mood.
The meaning of tell in the sentence // you see her tell her to
come
can also be defined as 'dependent urging' and be regard­
ed as the meaning of a separate mood distinct from the
imperative mood.

2. The second argument deals with speech environment
and is of little value since the same authors produce examples
of the 'conditional mood' in different types of sentences.

1 Л. И Смирницкий, op. cit., p. 351; M. Ganshina, N. Va-
silevskya, op. cit., p 169.

2 M. Ganshina, N. Vasilevskaya, op. cit., p. 170.

3 Ib. p. 169—170.

4 А. И. С m и p h и ц к и и, op. cit., p. 350—351.

^ 153


Would you mind my opening the window? 1 I should I i k e to speak to you,2 etc.

3. The third argument is justly rejected by G. N. Vo-
rontsova who produces many literary examples to show that
'would-iorms' are used with the first person as often as
' shoutd-iorms' 3.

E. g. If I had held another pistol in my hand I would have shot him. I w о и I d I o v e to think that you took an interest in teaching me ... I wish I had a lot of money, I w о и I d n' t live another day in London. (Galsworthy).

Besides, the popular use of forms with -'d instead of should and would shows the oblitaration of 'person' distinc­tions.

4. The name conditional hardly fits, seeing that the forms
with shouldwould are as a rule not used in conditional
clauses. They are mostly used in principal clauses or simple
sentences, which distinguishes their distribution from that
of forms without should — would used almost exclusively in
subordinate clauses.

E. g. After all, ifhelostitwould not be he who paid. (Galsworthy). Under normal conditions Winifred would merely have locked the door. (Ib.).

§ 245. The difference between the two sets of opposemes /had written (order)


wrote


-were written


(voice)


 


should write


were writing (aspect) should have written (order) should be written (voice) should be writing (aspect) would write (person, irregular)


'А И Смирницкий, op cit,p 352

2 M Ganshina, N. Vasilevskaya, op cit , p 175.

3 Op cit , p. 289.


is thus a matter of usage. That does not exclude, of course, the possibility of a language category with speech signifi­cance (cf. the categories of case, voice). Hence the necessity of further investigation.

§ 246. What unites all the grammemes above and distin­guishes them from the homonymous grammemes of the indic­ative mood as a system is

1) the meaning of "non-fact", the presentation of the action
as something imaginary,

2) the system of opposemes, as contrasted with that of
the indicative mood.

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Some General Remarks

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SOME GENERAL REMARKS
§ 1. In this book the phoneme, the morpheme, the word,and the sentenceare regarded as the basic units of language and speech. The definitions of these units have n

INTRODUCTION
§ 6. There exist many definitions of the. term word and none of them is generally accepted. But in the majority of cases pedple actually experience no difficulty in separating one word from

THE STRUCTURE OF WORDS
§ 7. One of the main properties of a word is its double nature. It is material because it can he heard or seen, and it is immaterial or ideal as far as its meaning is concerned. We shall regard the

THE CLASSIFICATION OF WORDS
§ 19. A morpheme usually has more than one meaning. This is the case, for instance, with both the lexical and the grammatical morpheme in the word runs. The morpheme run- has the following m

THE NOUN
§ 64. As follows from our previous discussion of the parts of speech in English, the noun may be defined as a part of speech characterized by the following features: 1. The lexico-grammati

The Category of Number
§ 71. The category of number of Engl ish nouns is the system of opposemes (such as girl — girls, foot — feet, etc.) showing whether the noun stands for оде object or more than

Noun Grammemes in Speech
§ 87. An English noun lexeme may contain four words at most (boy, boys, boy's, boys'). Each of these words, as we know (§ 19), represents not only the lexeme, but a certain grammeme as well.

THE ADJECTIVE
§ 101. Adjectives are a part of speech characterized by the following typical features: 1. The lexico-grammatical meaning of 'attributes (of substances)'. It should be understood that

Adjective Grammemes in Speech
§ 110. An English adjective lexeme may contain three words at most (strong — stronger — strongest) representing three grammemes. The fourth grammeme contains words with the oblique me

THE ADVERB
§ 116. The adverb is a part of speech characterized by the following features: * 1. The lexico-grammatical meaning of "qualitative, quan­ titative or circumstantial characteri

THE NUMERAL
§ 130. The numeral as a part of speech is characterized by 1) its lexico-grammatical meaning of 'number', 2) the category of numerical qualification represented in opposemes l

PRONOUNS
, § 139. It has been shown above that words fall into classes known as parts of speech in accordance with their lexico-grammatical meanings, morphological categories, typi­cal stem-building element

Хаймович и др
      But what is more important, pronouns can be substituted «not only for nouns, but for othe

Generalizing Pronouns
§ 178. Here belong such pronouns as all, both, each, either, every and its compounds (everyone, everybody, every­thing, everywhere) which give a generalizing indication of persons, th

THE VERB
§ 187. Analysing the verb in Modern Russian, V. V. Vi-nogradov characterizes it as "the most complex and capacious part of speech" J. Likewise, A. I. Smirnitsky 2 st

The Category of Voice
§ 203. The category of voice is the system of two-member opposemes (loves — is loved, loving — being loved, to love — to be loved, has loved — has, been loved, et

The Category of Aspect
§ 218. The category of aspect is a system of two-member opposemes such as works — is working, has worked — has been working, to work — to be working showing the characte

The Indicative Mood
§ 229. The indicative mood is the basic mood of the verb. Morphologically it is the most developed system including all the categories of the verb. Semantically it is a fact mood. It serve

The Imperative Mood
§ 247. The imperative mood represents an action as a com­mand, urging, request, exhortation addressed to one's inter­locutor^). It is a direct expression of one's will. Therefore it is much more 's

Verb Grammemes in Speech
§ 251. When used in speech a word has but one of its lexical meanings and all of its grammatical meanings (see § 21). Thus in the sentence He writes to me every week, the verb writes

Indicative Mood Grammemes
The Present, Non-Continuous, Non-Perfect § 253. As a part of the verb system it may be said to pre­sent an action in the present (present tense) unspecified as to its character (non-contin

Voice Grammemes
§ 288. In the' system of the English language the active (non-marked) and the passive (marked) members of the voice opposeme are equal in rank, mutually complementing each other. This is not the ca

Subjunctive Mood Grammemes in Speech
§ 293. As we know, there is not a single subjunctive mood grammeme which has no homonyms in the indicative or in the imperative mood (or both). The discrimination of homo-nymous grammemes rests on

Imperative Mood Grammemes in Speech
§ 302. In most cases they serve to present an order, com­mand, exhortation, request, etc. as a direct expression of the speaker's will. In certain surroundings, however, mostly in

The Gerund
§ 321. The gerund is a verbid characterized by the follow­ing features: 1. Its dual lexico-grammatical meaning of an action partially viewed as a substance. 2. The categories

THE RESPONSE WORDS
§ 334. The response-words yes and no are characterized as a separate class by a) their meaning of 'response statement', b) their negative combinability, c)

THE INTERJECTION
§ 337. The interjection is a part of speech characterized by the following features. 1. It expresses "emotions or will without naming them. 2. It has no grammatical categorie

THE PREPOSITION
§ 342. The preposition is a part of speech characterized by the following features: Kits lexico-grammatical meaning of 'relations (of sub­stances)'. 2. Its bilateral combinability

THE CONJUNCTION
§ 353. The conjunction is a part of speech characterized by the following features. 1. Its lexico-grammatical meaning of 'relations between substances, actions, properties, situations,

THE ARTICLE
§ 364. The two words a(n), the form a separate group or class characterized by a) the lexico-grammatical meaning of '(in)definiteness', •b) the right-hand combinability with nouns,

THE PARTICLE
§ 372. The particle as a part of speech is characterized by the following features: 1. Its lexico-grammatical meaning of 'emphatic specifi­ cation'. 2. Its unilateral combina,

INTRODUCTION
§ 378. The basic unit of syntax is the sentence.There exist many definitions of the sentence, but none of them is generally accepted 1. But in the majority of cas

L/j8 Хаймсшич и
tences when the predicate verb contains no morphological word-morphemes. § 392. A unit of a higher level, as we know, contains units of the next lower level. A sentence contai

THE STRUCTURE OF A SENTENCE
§ 396. As defined (§ 3), when studying the structure of a unit, we find out its components, mostly units of the next lower level, their arrangement and their functions as parts of the unit.

A. As to Their Structure
§ 403. Sentences with only one predication are called simple sentences. Those with more than one predication have usually no general name 3. We shall call them

Combinations of Sentences
§ 416. The sentence is usually the limit of grammatical analysis. Conrbinations of sentences have never got adequate attention on the part of linguists. Yet the necessity of extending linguistic an

THE SIMPLE SENTENCE PARTS OF THE SENTENCE
§ 420. Traditionally the subject and the predicate are re­garded as the primary or principal parts of the sentence and the attribute, the object and the adverbial modifier — as the secondary parts

The Predicate
§ 430. The predicate is the member of a predication con­ taining the mood and tense (or only mood) components of predicativity. " E. g. This dictionary employs a pronunciat

G) Adverbials of attending circumstances
He sank down in his chair, resting his chin in his hand. (Dreiser). - §456. Qualitative and quantitative adverbial complements are more closely connected with their headword

Attributes
§ 459. Attributes are secondary parts of the sentence serv­ing to modify nouns or noun-equivalents in whatever func­tions they are used in the sentence. In simple sentences attributes can

Extensions
§ 467. Extensions are adjuncts of adjectives, adverbs and adlinks in a sentence. They differ from complements and attributes in being usually modifiers of modifiers, or ter-tiaries,

Connectives
§ 469. Connectives are linking-words considered as a second­ary part of the sentence. They are mostly prepositions and conjunctions. She played and sang to him. (London). C

Го-Specifiers
§ 471. The peculiar combinability and functions of particles distinguish them from all other words in the sentence. They .-are not adjuncts of definite parts of speech like complements, .attributes

Parenthetical Elements
§ 473. Parenthetical elements are peculiar parts of the sentence. a) They are characterized by negative combinability with the other words of the sentence. b) They are, as it

WORD-ORDER IN SIMPLE SENTENCES 1. The Position of the Subject and the Predicate in the Sentence
§ 477. We have already dwelt upon the fact that in Modern "English syntactical relations of words in the sentence are very often indicated by the position the words occupy in the sen­tence.

II. The Position of the Object
a) The Place of the Direct Object § 479. The direct object is usually placed after the verb unless the indirect object precedes it. He offered me his help. However

THE COMPOSITE SENTENCE
§ 492. Composite sentences, as we know (§ 403), divide into compound and complex sentences. The difference between them is not only in the relations of coordination or subordina­tion, as usually st

THE COMPOUND SENTENCE
§ 496. The clauses of compound sentences are of equal rank, but usually the clause preceding the conjunction is regarded as the initial clause to which the other clause is related. These relations

THE COMPLEX SENTENCE
§ 498. The principal clauses of complex sentences are usually not classified, though their meanings are not neutral with regard to the meanings of the subordinate clauses. Cf. He will c

Complement Clauses
a) Predicative Clauses § 509. The sentence The question is where he can be found consists of the principal clause the question is and the predi­cative clause where he can

Attribute Clauses
§ 518. Attributive clauses are postpositive adjuncts of nouns. They are commonly divided into relative and a'pposi-tiveclauses. Relative clauses are introduced by pronouns (or asyn

Extension Clauses
§ 520. Extension clauses are postpositive adjuncts of adjec­tives, adverbs and adlinks. E. g. It is indeed doubtful how he had become aware that Ro

Parenthetical Clauses
§ 521. Most authors who do not regard parenthetical ele­ments as parts of the sentence treat It is past ten, I think as a simple sentence 1. We do not find this view convin

COMPOUND-COMPLEX AND COMPLEX-COMPOUND SENTENCES
§ 523. Sometimes subordination and coordination may be combined within one sentence, in which case we may have compound-complex and complex-compound sentences. 1 See M. Ganshma,

DIRECT AND INDIRECT SPEECH
§ 524. Among the composite sentences of English and other languages we find a peculiar type differing from the rest. Cf. He said, "/ love you". (Greene). ,

CONCLUSION
§ 530. We have made a survey of the morphological and syntactical systems of Modern English, resorting, where ap­propriate, to comparison with Modern Russian. Now, by way of summing up, we shall ma

Теоретическая грамматика английского языка
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