| Grammatical Mood |
Article Index for Grammatical |
Website Links For Mood |
Information AboutGrammatical Mood |
| CATEGORIES ABOUT GRAMMATICAL MOOD | |
| grammatical moods | |
| linguistics lists | |
|
In Linguistics , many Grammar s have the concept of grammatical mood (or '''mode'''), which describes the relationship of a Verb with reality and intent. Many languages express distinctions of mood through Morphology , by changing ( Inflecting ) the form of the verb. DEFINITION Because modern English does not have all of the moods described below, and has a very simplified system of verb inflection as well, it is not straightforward to explain the moods in English. (The English moods are indicative, subjunctive, and imperative). Note, too, that the exact sense of each mood differs from language to language. Grammatical mood ''per se'' is not the same thing as Grammatical Tense or Grammatical Aspect , although these concepts are conflated to some degree in many languages, including English and most other modern Indo-European languages, insofar as the same word patterns are used to express more than one of these concepts at the same time. Currently identified moods include conditional, imperative, indicative, injunctive, negative, optative, potential, subjunctive, and more. Infinitive is a category apart from all these Finite Forms , and so are Gerund s and Participle s. Some Uralic Samoyedic languages have over ten moods; Nenets has as many as sixteen. The original Indo-European inventory of moods was indicative, subjunctive, optative, and imperative. Not every Indo-European language has each of these moods, but the most conservative ones such as Avestan , Ancient Greek , and Sanskrit have them all. It should be noted that not all of the moods listed below are clearly conceptually distinct. Individual terminology varies from language to language, and the coverage of (e.g.) the "conditional" mood in one language may largely overlap with that of the "hypothetical" or "potential" mood in another. Even when two different moods exist in the same language, their respective usages may blur, or may be defined by syntactic rather than semantic criteria. For example, the Subjunctive and Optative moods in Ancient Greek alternate syntactically in many subordinate clauses, depending on the tense of the main verb. The usage of the Indicative , subjunctive and Jussive Mood s in Classical Arabic is almost completely controlled by syntactic context; the only possible alternation in the same context is between indicative and jussive following the negative particle ''lā''. CLASSIFICATION Realis moods See Also: Realis Realis moods are a category of grammatical moods which indicate that something is actually the case, or actually not the case. The most common realis mood is the indicative mood or the declarative mood. Declarative The declarative mood indicates that the statement is true, without any qualifications being made. It is in many languages equivalent to the indicative mood, although sometimes distinctions between them are drawn. It is closely related with the inferential mood (see below). Energetic Found in Classical Arabic and various other Semitic Languages , the energetic mood expresses something which is strongly believed or which the speaker wishes to emphasize, e.g. ''yaktubunn'' يَكتُبُنَّ ("he certainly writes"). Generic See Also: Generic mood The generic mood is used to make generalizations about a particular class of things, e.g. in ''"Rabbits are fast",'' one is speaking about rabbits ''in general'', rather than about particular fast rabbits. ''the'' implies specific, particular rabbits, whereas omitting it implies the generic mood simply by default. Ancient Greek had a species of generic mood, the so-called '' Gnomic utterance'', marked by the Aorist indicative (normally reserved for statements about the past). It was used especially to express philosophical truths about the world. Indicative (evidential) The indicative mood is used for factual statements and positive beliefs. All intentions that a particular language does not categorize as another mood are classified as indicative. In English, questions are considered indicative. It is the most commonly used mood and is found in all languages. Example: "Paul is reading a book" or "John reads books". Irrealis moods See Also: Irrealis Irrealis moods are the set of grammatical moods that indicate that a certain situation or action is not known to have happened as the speaker is talking. Cohortative See Also: Cohortative mood The cohortative mood (alternatively, hortatory) is used to express plea, insistence, imploring, self-encouragement, wish, desire, intent, command, purpose or consequence. It does not exist in English, but phrases such as "let us" are often used to denote it. In Latin, it is interchangeable with the jussive. Conditional See Also: Conditional mood The conditional mood is used to speak of an event whose realization is dependent on a certain condition, particularly, but not exclusively, in Conditional Sentence s. In Modern English, it is a Periphrastic Construction , with the form ''would'' + infinitive, e.g. ''I would buy''. In other languages, such as Spanish or French, verbs have a specific conditional Inflection . Thus, the conditional version of "John eats if he is hungry" is: : ''John would eat if he were hungry'', in English; : ''Jean mangerait s'il avait faim'', in French; : ''Juan comería si tuviera hambre'', in Spanish. In the Romance Languages , the conditional form is used primarily in the Apodosis (main clause) of conditional clauses, and also in a few Set Phrase s where it expresses courtesy or doubt. The main verb in the protasis (dependent clause) is either in the subjunctive or in the indicative mood. This is not a universal trait; in Finnish , for example, the conditional mood is used both in the apodosis and the protasis. An example is the sentence "I would buy a house if I earned a lot of money", where in Finnish both clauses have the conditional marker ''-isi-'': ''Ostaisin talon, jos ansaitsisin paljon rahaa''. In English, too, the ''would'' + infinitive construct can be employed in main clauses, with a Subjunctive sense: "If you would only tell me what's troubling you, I might be able to help". Dubitative See Also: Dubitative mood The dubitative mood is used in Ojibwe , Turkish , and other languages. It expresses the speaker's doubt or uncertainty about the event denoted by the verb. For example, in Ojibwe, ''Baawitigong igo ayaa noongom'' translates as "he is in California today." When the dubitative suffix ''-dog'' is added, this becomes ''Baawitigong igo ayaadog noongom'', "I guess he must be in California. Ontario Curriculum Support Document for the Teaching of Language Patterns Eventive The eventive mood is used in the Finnish epic poem '' Kalevala ''. It is a combination of the potential and the conditional. It is also used in dialects of Estonian . In Finnish, there are theoretically forms such as ''kävelleisin'' "I would probably walk". Hypothetical See Also: Hypothetical mood The hypothetical mood, found in Russian , Lakota , and other languages, expresses a Counterfactual but possible event or situation. Imperative The imperative mood expresses direct commands, requests, and prohibitions. In many circumstances, using the imperative mood may sound blunt or even rude, so it is often used with care. Example: "Paul, do your homework now". An imperative is used to tell someone to do something without argument. Many languages, including English, use the bare verb stem to form the imperative (such as "go", "run", "do"). Other languages, such as Seri , however, use special imperative forms. In English, second-person is implied by the imperative except when first-person plural is specified, as in "Let's go" ("Let us go"). The Prohibitive Mood , the negative imperative, may be grammatically or morphologically different from the imperative mood in some languages. Inferential The inferential mood is used in some languages such as Bulgarian and Turkish to convey information about events which were not directly observed or were inferred by the speaker. It is usually impossible to translate in English. For instance, indicative Bulgarian "той отиде" and Turkish ''o gitti'' will be translated the same as inferential "той отишъл" and ''o gitmiş'' — with the English indicative "he went". Using the first two forms, however, implies very strongly that the speaker either witnessed the event or is very sure that it took place. The second pair implies either that the speaker did not in fact witness it take place, that it occurred in the some past or that there is considerable doubt as to whether it actually happened. If it is absolutely necessary to make the distinction, then the English construction "he must have gone" would translate a past inferential. Interrogative See Also: Interrogative mood The interrogative mood is used for asking questions. Most languages do not have a special mood for asking questions, but Welsh and Nenets do. Jussive The jussive mood is similar to the cohortative mood, in that it expresses plea, insistence, imploring, self-encouragement, wish, desire, intent, command, purpose or consequence. In some languages, the two are distinguished in that cohortative occurs in the first person and the jussive in the second or third. It is found in Arabic , where it is called the '''مجزوم''', ''majzum''. The Rules Governing The Jussive in Arabic are somewhat complex. Negative The negative mood expresses a Negated action. In many languages, rather than inflecting the verb, negation is expressed by adding a Particle :
Standard English usually adds the , because of its zero semantic content. In Indo-European Language s, it is not customary to speak of a negative mood, since in these languages negation is originally a Grammatical Particle that can be applied to a verb in any of these moods. Nevertheless, in some, like Welsh , verbs have special inflections to be used in negative clauses. In other language families, the negative may count as a separate mood. An example is Japanese , which conjugates verbs in the negative after adding the suffix ''-nai'' (indicating negation), e.g. ''tabeta'' ("ate") and ''tabenakatta'' ("did not eat"). It could be argued that Modern English has joined the ranks of these languages, since negation in the indicative mood requires the use of an Auxiliary Verb and a distinct Syntax in most cases. Contrast, for instance, "He sings" → "He '''doesn't''' sing" (where the auxiliary ''to do'' has to be supplied, inflected to ''does'', and the Clitic form of ''not'' suffixed to derive the negative from "He sings") with ''Il chante'' → ''Il '''ne''' chante '''pas'''''; French adds the (discontinuous) negative particle ''ne... pas'', without changing the form of the verb. Optative See Also: Optative mood The optative mood expresses hopes, wishes or commands and has other uses that may overlap with the subjunctive mood. Few languages have an optative as a distinct mood; all forms of the Persian language ( Avestan , Old Persian , Middle Persian , New Persian ), Albanian , Ancient Greek , Sanskrit , Japanese , and Finnish are some that do. In Finnish, the mood may be called an "archaic" or "formal imperative", even if it has other uses; nevertheless, it does express formality at least. For example, the 9th Article of the Universal Declaration Of Human Rights begins with ''Älköön ketään pidätettäkö mielivaltaisesti'', "Not anyone shall be arrested arbitrarily", where ''älköön pidätettäkö'' "shall not be arrested" is the optative of ''ei pidätetä'' "is not arrested". (Also, using the conditional mood ''-isi-'' in conjunction with the clitic ''-pa'' yields an optative meaning, e.g. ''olisinpa'' "if I only were". Here, it is evident that the wish is not, and probably will not be fulfilled.) In Japanese the verb inflection ''-tai'' expresses the speaker's desire, e.g. ''watashi wa asoko ni ikitai'' "I want to go there". Oddly enough, this verb form is treated as a pseudo-adjective: the auxiliary verb ''garu'' is used by dropping the end ''-i'' of an adjective to indicate the outward appearance of another's mental state, in this case the desire of a person other than the speaker (e.g. ''Jon wa tabetagatte imasu'' "John wants to eat"). Sometimes this is called a "desiderative mood", since it indicates desires. Occasionally distinctions are made between different optative moods, e.g. a mood to express hopes as opposed to a mood to express desires. (Desires are what we want to be the case; hope generally implies an optimism toward the chances of a desire's fulfillment. If someone desires something but is pessimistic about its chances of occurring, then one desires it but does not hope for it.) Potential The potential mood is a mood of probability, indicating that in the opinion of the speaker, the action or occurrence is considered likely. It is used in Persian , Finnish , Japanese , in Sanskrit and in the Sámi Languages . (In Japanese it is often called something like '''tentative,''' since '''potential''' is used to refer to a Voice indicating capability to perform the action.)
In English, it is formed by means of the auxiliaries ''may'', ''can'', ''ought'' and ''must''. Presumptive The presumptive mood is used in : ''De-o fi una, de-o fi alta... Ce e scris i pentru noi,'' : ''Bucuroi le-om duce toate, de e pace, de-i război.'' : Be it one, be it the other... Whatever fate we have, : We will gladly go through all, be it peace or be it war shows the use both in a conditional clause ''de-o fi'' "suppose it is" and in a main clause showing an attitude of submission to fate ''le-om duce'' "we would bear". Subjunctive See Also: Subjunctive mood The subjunctive mood, sometimes called conjunctive mood, has several uses in , of expressing this might be "I suggested that Paul should read some books", derived from "Paul should read some books." Other uses of the subjunctive in English, as in "And if he be not able to bring a lamb, then he shall bring for his trespass..." ( KJV Leviticus 5:7) have definitely become archaic. Statements such as "I will ensure that he leave immediately" often sound archaic or overly formal, and have been almost completely supplanted by constructions with the indicative, like "I will ensure that he leave'''s''' immediately". The subjunctive mood figures prominently in the Grammar of Persian and the Romance Languages , which require this mood for certain types of dependent clauses. This point commonly causes difficulty for English speakers learning these languages. In certain other languages, the dubitative or the conditional moods may be employed instead of the subjunctive in referring to doubtful or unlikely events (see the main article). CATEGORY OF MOOD AFTER M. Y. BLOKH The category of mood is the most controversial category of the verb (immanent category). The category of mood expresses the character of connection between the process denoted by the verb and the actual reality, either presenting the process as a fact that really happened, happens or will happen, or treating it as an imaginary phenomenon, i.e. the subject of a hypothesis, speculation, desire. speaker’s interpretation of the process, measures it as real/ non-real . It follows from this that the functional opposition underlying the category as a whole is constituted by the forms of oblique mood meaning, i.e. those of ''unreality'', contrasted against the forms of '''direct mood''' meaning, i.e. those of ''reality'', the former making up the strong member, the latter, the weak member of the opposition. The procedures of investigation under the umbrella of the category of mood are based on: morphological/ formal evidence (quite poor) and on functional arguments. a. formal difference > there is a form of a different mood: be happy! – we are addressing 2nd person but we do not use the form of the 2nd person (are happy). With other verbs it is not possible to illustrate this – they’ve lost the inflexions b. morphological evidence > If I were (indicative form is was for the 1st and 3rd pers) = contradicts this form <; a signal that we deal with another mood; be has preserved a variety of forms. Further we should mention the fact that we can encounter: Present subjunctive = mood of attitudes = spective mood. It expresses attitudes of: suggestion, supposition, speculation. A particular case is the pure spective which implies the use of bare infinitive for both be and other verbs. "pure" spective is expressed by native morphemic means (morphemic zeroing). The imperative mood for its form (bare infinitive) and its attitude (suggestion, command, recommendation) goes under the category of mood of attitude. /Be off!, Do as I ask you! Stop it!/ Modal spective (modal verb combining with the infinitive) has 3 types: 1. Desiderative = combination may/might + Infinitive. It is used to express wish, desire, hope. Cf.: May it be as you wish! May it all happen as you desire! 2. Considerative = the combination should + Infinitive. It is used to express supposition, speculation, suggestion, recommendation, inducements of different kinds and degrees of intensity. Cf.: ''Orders were given that the searching group should start out at once.'' 3. Imperative = the combination let + Objective Substantive+Infinitive. It is used to express inducement (i.e. an appeal to commit an action). Cf.: ''Let's agree to end this wait-and-see policy. Let our military forces be capable and ready.'' For the past subjunctive we have here morphological evidence from the verb be as the only native manifestation of the categorial expression of unreal process. E.g.: Oh, that he were together with us now! If I were you, I'd only be happy. For the past subjunctive we have 2 pairs of names/ 2 parallel terms: A. one pair refers to form: posterior = smth that will happen after > would come = (main clause);; '''unposterior''' = (if clause ) came/ had come NB! It is called by some grammarians “subjunctive two”/// B. one pair refer to the content: '''consecutive''' vs '''stipulative'''. The 2 pairs are related to each other as form to meaning.The categorial meaning of the unposterior form corresponds to the stipulative one (it stipulates a condition). The meaning of the posterior forms correspond to the conscutive ones (the meaning of a consequence).--> Admirative and Renarrative The admirative mood is used to express surprise, but also doubt, irony, sarcasm, etc. The '''renarrative mood''' is used to report a nonwitnessed event without confirming it, but the same forms also function as admiratives in the Balkan languages in which they occur. In Indo-European languages, the admirative, unlike the optative, is not one of the original moods, but a later development. Admirative constructs occur in Balkan Slavic (Bulgarian and Macedonian), Albanian, Megleno-Romanian and Ukrainian Tosk Albanian . A form of the admirative, derived from the Albanian pattern, can be found in Frasheriote Arumanian. It seems that the Dubitative/inferential Patterns Of Turkish — a non-Indo-European language — influenced Albanian and Balkan Slavic languages in this regard. Writing on the typology of Evidentiality in Balkan languages, Victor Friedman systematizes the facts in the following way: Language Contact and the Typology of Evidentials in the Balkans , [http://humanities.uchicago.edu/depts/slavic/friedman.html A. Victor Friedman] "As grammaticalized in the Balkan languages, evidentiality encodes the speaker's evaluation of the narrated event, often, but not always, predicated upon the nature of the available evidence. These evidentials can be of two types: Confirmative (sometimes called 'witnessed') and nonconfirmative (sometimes called 'reported', 'inferential', and/or 'nonwitnessed'). The nonconfirmatives can, in Austin's terms, be felicitous (neutral) or infelicitous. Felicitous nonconfirmatives are used for reports, inferences, etc., for which the speaker chooses not to take responsibility. An infelicitous nonconfirmative expresses either acceptance of a previously unexpected state of affairs (surprise, i.e. something the speaker would not have been willing to confirm prior to discovery, the mirative or admirative) or sarcastic rejection of a previous statement (doubt, irony, etc., the dubitative)." ''Ibid.'', "Illustrative data (interlinear glossing is omitted to save space): {Link without Title} Toj bil bogat! :Той щял да ме набие. (Bulgarian, doubtful future: He's going to beat me up, but I don't think that would be possible because I think that I am stronger than him) :Ама вие сте били тук. (Bulgarian, present tense: You are/have been here, but I didn't know it, I've just found out and I'm surprised at the fact) O zenginmiş! Ai qenka i pasur! :He is rich! (to my surprise; the nonconfirmative refers to discovery of pre-existing state) Ku qenka mjeshtri? Kade bil majstorot ? Patron neredeymiş? :Where is the boss? (I am surprised at his absence; Albanian can have true present meaning, Balkan Slavic/Turkish cannot) Present and future tenses also exist for such a mood in the above-mentioned languages, but, with the exception of the Albanian ''true nonconfirmative present'' illustrated above, these "nonconfirmatives, (from perfects), always have a past reference to either a real or a putative narrated event, speech event, or state of mind. They cannot be used with true nonpast reference." Do t'u hapka një universitet privat Varacakmış REFERENCES SEE ALSO
EXTERNAL LINKS From SIL:
|
|
|