| Subjunctive Mood |
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Wiener '' is a famous Advertising Jingle that uses a verb in the subjunctive mood.]] INDO-EUROPEAN The reconstructed . Many of its daughter languages combined or confounded these moods.
Among the Indo-European languages, only Greek, Sanskrit , and to some extent Old Church Slavonic kept the subjunctive and optative fully separate and parallel. However, in Sanskrit, use of the subjunctive is only found in the Vedic language of earliest times, and the optative and imperative are in comparison less commonly used. In the later language (from c.500BC), the subjunctive falls out of use, with the optative or imperative being used instead. However, the first person forms of the subjunctive continue to be used, as they are transferred to the imperative, which formerly, like Greek, had no first person forms. LATIN AND THE ROMANCE LANGUAGES
The subjunctive mood retains a highly distinct form for nearly all verbs in Portuguese , Spanish and Italian (among other Latin languages), and for a number of verbs in French . All of these languages inherit their subjunctive from Latin , where the subjunctive mood combines both forms and usages from a number of original Indo-European inflection sets (described above), including the original subjunctive and the Optative Mood . In many cases, the Romance languages use the subjunctive in the same ways that English does; however, they use them in other ways as well. For example, English generally uses the auxiliary ''may'' or ''let'' to form Desiderative expressions, such as "Let it snow." The Romance languages use the subjunctive for these; French, for example, would say, "Qu'il neige" and "Qu'ils vivent jusqu'à leur vieillesse." (However, in the case of the first-person plural, these languages have imperative forms: "Let's go" in French is "Allons-y.") Also, the Romance languages tend to use the subjunctive in various kinds of subordinate clauses, such as those introduced by words meaning ''although'' (English: "Although I'm old, I feel young"; French: ''Bien que je sois vieux, je me sens jeune.'') GERMANIC LANGUAGES
THE SUBJUNCTIVE IN ENGLISH Form The form of the subjunctive in Modern English is distinguishable from the Indicative in only three circumstances: # in the third person singular of the present indicative (excluding modal verbs), # with the verb ''to be'' in the present tense, and # in the first person singular and third person singular of verb ''to be'' in the past tense. Other than the verb ''to be'', the past subjunctive was distinguishable from the past indicative in Early Modern English in the second-person singular. For example: indicative ''thou sattest'', but subjunctive ''thou sat''. In some texts that use the pronoun Thou , a final ''-est'' or ''-st'' is sometimes added; for example, ''thou beest'' appears frequently in the work of Shakespeare and some of his contemporaries. Present and past subjunctive The terms ''present subjunctive'' and ''past subjunctive'' can be misleading, as they describe ''forms'' rather than ''meanings'': the past and present subjunctives are so called because they resemble the past and present indicatives, respectively, but the difference between them is a modal one, not a temporal one. For example, in "I asked that it be done yesterday," ''be done'' (a present subjunctive) has no present-tense sense; and likewise, in "If that were true, I'd know it," ''were'' (a past subjunctive) has no past-tense sense. The pluperfect subjunctive Though the "past subjunctive" is not in itself a true past tense, its perfect aspect — known as the ''past perfect subjunctive'' or ''pluperfect subjunctive'' — doubles as its past tense. A verb's pluperfect subjunctive is formed using ''had'' (the past subjunctive of ''to have'') plus the verb's past Participle . The pluperfect subjunctive is used like the past subjunctive, except that it expresses a past-tense sense. So, for example:
If a clause is in a past tense, then a clause subordinate to it cannot be in the past subjunctive, though it might be in the pluperfect subjunctive; however, if it is in a present tense, then a clause subordinate to it might be in either of the two, depending on meaning. All that said, the pluperfect subjunctive is often replaced with the past subjunctive in colloquial speech, a substitution that is commonly considered incorrect. (See '' Prescription And Description ''.) (Note that by contrast, the ''present'' perfect subjunctive — ''that he have done'' — while logically and theoretically possible, is not much used in modern English.) Future subjunctive A future subjunctive can be constructed using "were" plus the Infinitive . For example:
Construction by inversion Where the subjunctive is used after “if” in a counterfactual condition (see below), the same effect can be achieved by omitting the “if” and inverting the verb and subject.
Construction using a modal verb The subjunctive mood can be expressed using the modal verbs shall (should) and '''may''' (might).
Usage As well as being immortalised in fossil phrases, the subjunctive is used in English to express a command, desire, hypothesis, purpose, doubt or supposition. Set phrases The subjunctive is used in a number of fixed phrases, relics from an older form of the language where it was much more common. Common examples are:
To express a command or desire Some verbs of Command , Desire or Suggestion require a verb in a Subordinate Clause to be in the subjunctive. Such verbs include ''to propose, to suggest, to recommend, to move, to demand'' and ''to mandate'', and phrases formed from them include ''it is imperative that, it is necessary that, and it is mandatory that.'' It is important to note that the time reference of the sentence is conveyed by the tense of the main verb (usually in the indicative) rather than the subjunctive. Thus the following examples refer to the present (with possible relevance to the future):
The following examples refer to the past (with possible relevance to the present):
Note, however, that the following are, at worst, ungrammatical and, at best, Solecism s.
When the main verb of a sentence is in the subjunctive mood, it carries the force of a third person request. This is the usage found in many set expressions, such as ''God bless you''.
This use of the subjunctive is sometimes known as the "jussive" or "mandative" subjunctive. The traditional English text of the Aaronic blessing is cast entirely in the subjunctive, with jussive force: The Lord bless thee and keep thee. The Lord make his face to shine upon thee. The Lord lift up his countenance upon thee and give thee peace. To express a hypothesis The past subjunctive is used after the conjunction ''if'' in a contrary-to-fact Protasis . For example:
In the same vein, the past subjunctive is used following the conjunctions ''as if'' and ''as though'' to express a contrary-to-fact situation that reality is supposed to resemble:
As seen in the second of these examples, these constructions are often used derisively. Note that the past subjunctive is sometimes used in expressing situations that are not necessarily contrary to fact:
However, such uses are not universal, and are often regarded as ungrammatical. {Link without Title} To express a purpose The present subjunctive is used following the conjunction ''lest'' to express a negative possibility, and ''(so) that'' to express positive purpose.
To express a doubt or supposition The subjunctive is sometimes used after other conjunctions to express doubt or supposition, although this usage is nowadays more often replaced by the Indicative.
Hypercorrect usage The subjunctive has sometimes been used simply as a conditioned variant that follows "if" and similar words even in the absence of a hypothetical situation.
In the example quoted, "if" is a substitute for the unambiguous word "whether" ("Johnny asked me whether I was afraid"), and lacks the usual, "in the event that" meaning that it has in other usage such as "If we go to bed now, we'll be up at three o'clock". Demise of the subjunctive? In many dialects of English, the indicative can take the place of the subjunctive, although this is sometimes considered erroneous in formal or educated speech and writing.
However, in the context of the examples above, inversion cannot occur with the indicative as it would with the subjunctive.
Furthermore, many of the fossil phrases are often wrongly analyzed as imperative forms rather than as the subjunctive. W. Somerset Maugham said that "''The subjunctive mood is in its death throes, and the best thing to do is to put it out of its misery as soon as possible".'' H.W. Fowler said that ''"Subjunctives met with today, outside the few truly living uses, are either deliberate revivals by poets for legitimate enough archaic effect, or antiquated survivals as in pretentious journalism, inflecting their context with dullness, or new arrivals possible only in an age to which the grammar of the subjunctive is not natural but artificial."'' The subjunctive is not uniform in all varieties of spoken English. However it is preserved in speech, at least, in North American English , and in many dialects of British English . While some dialects replace it with the indicative or construct it using a modal verb (except perhaps in the most formal literary discourse) the reports of its demise have been exaggerated. THE SUBJUNCTIVE IN GERMAN In German it is generally accepted that there are two forms of the subjunctive mood - Konjunktiv I (present subjunctive, often abbreviated as KI) and Konjunktiv II (past subjunctive, often abbreviated as KII), both of which can be expressed in (almost) all tenses. The Konjunktiv I is normally used to express indirect (reported) speech. For example: ''Er sagte mir, er sei nicht bereit.'' — He told me that he wasn't ready. ''Es wurde gesagt, er habe keine Zeit für sowas.'' — I've heard that he has no time for this kind of thing. The Konjunktiv I for regular verbs in German is formed by adding ''-e'', ''-est'', ''-e'', ''-en'', ''-et'', ''-en'' to the stem. The verb ''sein'' (''to be'') deviates somewhat from this rule, producing ''ich sei; du seiest; er sei; wir seien; ihr seiet; sie seien''. While the use of Konjunktiv I for reported speech is considered "correct" German, its use in colloquial speech is in continual decline. It is possible to express the Konjunktiv I in various tenses, including the present (''er sei da gewesen'') and the future (''er werde da sein'') although the latter is rarely used. The Konjunktiv I in the imperfect and conditional does exist, but they are identical to their indicative equivalents and are not worth considering in day-to-day communication. The Konjunktiv II is used to form the conditional tense and, on occasion, as a replacement for the Konjunktiv I when both indicative and subjunctive moods of a particular verb are indistinguishable. Although every verb in the German language can be expressed in the Konjunktiv II, only a small number are actually used in this mood in colloquial speech, such as ''sein'' (''ich wäre''). The most common method of forming the conditional in German is to render the verb ''werden'' (''to become'') in the Konjunktiv II form and append the infinitive of the action, as in ''An deiner Stelle würde ich das nicht tun'' (I wouldn't do that if I were you), as opposed to ''Das täte ich nicht'', which, while also grammatically correct, is seldom used. It is formed from the stem of the Preterite (imperfect) form of the verb and appending the appropriate Konjunktiv I ending as appropriate, although in most regular verbs the final 'e' in the stem is dropped. In most cases, an Umlaut is appended to the stem vowel if possible (i.e. if it is ''a'', ''o'', ''u'' or ''au''), for example: ''ich war'' → ''ich wäre'', ''ich brachte'' → ''ich brächte''. The use of ''werden'' for some conditional clauses and the Konjunktiv II for others can lead to a mix of the two in a single sentence. ''See also'' German Grammar . THE SUBJUNCTIVE IN DUTCH Dutch has the same subjunctive tenses as German (described above), but they are used less commonly. The same two tenses as in German are sometimes considered subjunctive and sometimes conditional. THE SUBJUNCTIVE IN FRENCH In French, despite the deep phonetic changes that the language has undergone from the original Latin , which include the loss of many inflections in the spoken language, the subjunctive (''le subjonctif'') remains prominent, largely because the subjunctive forms of many common verbs are strongly marked phonetically; compare the indicative ''je sais'' (''I know'') and its subjunctive counterpart ''je sache''. (However, the present indicatives and present subjunctives of most verbs are homonyms when they have singular subjects: ''je parle'' (''I speak'') is both the present indicative and the present subjunctive.) Use of the subjunctive is in many respects similar to English:
But sometimes not:
French also has an imperfect subjunctive, which in older, formal, or literary writing replaces the present subjunctive in a subordinate clause when the main clause is in a past tense:
Also in older, formal, or literary writing, the imperfect and pluperfect subjunctives double as a "second form" of the conditional and conditional perfect, in which case they are used in both the Protasis and the Apodosis :
In the French version of Dune , when talking to Dr. Yueh, Lady Jessica appropriately employs an imperfect subjunctive when saying: ''J'ignorais que vous eussiez tant de raisons de les haïr'', reflecting the proper formality and correctness given her position. For more on the subjunctive in French, see '' French Verbs ''. THE SUBJUNCTIVE IN PORTUGUESE In Portuguese , the subjunctive (''subjuntivo'') is used in conjunction with expressions of emotion, opinion, or viewpoint. It also is used to described situations that are considered unlikely or are in doubt, as well as for expressing disagreement, denial, or wishes, similarly to Spanish. In Portuguese, the use of the subjunctive is similar to English:
It also bears similarities to the use in French:
Portuguese differs from other Romance languages in its conservation of a future subjunctive (''futuro do subjuntivo''), which was once widespread in Spanish, but however now is only used in extremely formal government documents. This is used to express a condition that is likely to be fulfilled or will be. This form is identical to the personal infinitive, except with twelve irregular verbs; and even with these, the future subjunctive and personal infinitive have the same endings. An example of this is someone (likely to be elected president) saying: Se (eu) for eleito presidente, acabarei com a fome. Compare this with: Se (eu) fosse eleito presidente, acabaria com a fome. Equally, someone talking about another could say: Quando (tu) fores mais velho... Like English, Portuguese and Spanish use the imperfect subjunctive in hypotheticals after ''se'' and ''si'' ("if"), respectively. In such a case, the main clause is in the Conditional Mood .
THE SUBJUNCTIVE IN SPANISH In Spanish , the subjunctive (''subjuntivo'') is used in conjunction with expressions of emotion, opinion, or viewpoint. It is also used to describe situations that are considered unlikely or are in doubt, as well as for expressing disagreement, denial, or wishes. There are many common expressions that commonly introduce subjunctive clauses. Examples include:
Spanish has two past subjunctive forms. They are almost identical, except that where the "first form" has ''-ra-'', the "second form" has ''-se-''. The second form is a literary, somewhat Archaic tense, and is not used in everyday speech; however, it can be found frequently in literature, poetry, and other writings. Spanish used to have a future subjunctive tense, but it is now all but extinct. It is never heard in everyday speech, and is usually reserved for literature, Archaic phrases and expressions, and legal documents. Phrases expressing the subjunctive in a future time-frame instead employ the present subjunctive. For example: "I hope it ''will rain'' tomorrow" would simply be "Espero que mañana ''llueva''" (where ''llueva'' is the third-person singular present subjunctive of ''llover'', "to rain"). THE SUBJUNCTIVE IN ARABIC In Standard/Literary Arabic the verb in its imperfective aspect (''almudāri‘'') has a subjunctive form called the ''mansūb'' form. It is distinct from the indicative in either ending in ''-a'' or dropping the final ''na'': Indicative=> Subjunctive and Jussive 2 sing. fem. taktabiina=>taktabii 3 plur. masc. yaktabuuna=>yaktabuù
The subjunctive is used in ''that''-clauses, after Arabic ''an'': ''urīdu an aktuba'' "I want to write". However in conditional and precative sentences, such as "if he goes" or "let him go", a different form of the imperfective aspect, the jussive, ''majzūm'', is used. In many spoken Arabic dialects there remains a distinction between indicative and subjunctive, but there it is not through endings but a prefix. In Levantine Arabic , the indicative has ''b-'' while the subjunctive lacks it:
Egyptian Arabic has a similar prefix ''bi-'', while Moroccan Arabic uses ''ka-'' or ''ta-''. THE SUBJUNCTIVE IN HEBREW Final vowels disappeared from Hebrew in prehistoric times, so the distinction between indicative, subjunctive and jussive is nearly totally blurred even in Biblical Hebrew. A few relics remain for roots with a medial or final semivowel, such as ''yaqūm'' "he rises / will rise" versus ''yaqom'' "may he rise" and ''yihye'' "he will be" versus ''yehi'' "let him be". In modern Hebrew the situation has been carried even further, with the falling into disuse of forms like ''yaqom'' and ''yehi''. In the precative sense, modern Hebrew speakers often prepend the conjunction ''she-'' ("that") to mark the verb: ''hu yavo'' "he will come" → ''sheyavo'' "let him come." The subjunctive of the verb ''likhyot'' ("to live"), however, is still used in the expression ''y'khi ___'' ("long live ___"). REFERENCES Chalker, Sylvia (1995). "Dictionary of English Grammar". Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-860055-0 Fowler, H. W. (1926). "A Dictionary of Modern English Usage". Oxford University Press. Hardie, Ronald G. (1990). "English Grammar". Harper Collins. ISBN 0-00-458349-3 Nesfield, J. C. (1939). "Manual of English Grammar and Composition". Macmillan. EXTERNAL LINKS
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