Re: Subjunctive
| From: | John Cowan <jcowan@...> |
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| Date: | Monday, January 27, 2003, 11:14 |
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Christophe Grandsire scripsit:
> (French, my mothertongue, is not a good example. In
> French, the subjunctive is nearly fossilised and has nearly completely lost its
> meaning to become just the mandatory form the verb must have in certain
> constructions, without reference to whether the action is certain or not.
This is already true in Latin for about 25% of the constructions requiring
the subjunctive: you cannot figure them out from first principles.
Although indeed in the development of the Romance languages, sometimes
subj. becomes ind., sometimes (more rarely) vice versa.
--
I suggest you call for help, John Cowan
or learn the difficult art of mud-breathing. jcowan@reutershealth.com
--Great-Souled Sam http://www.ccil.org/~cowan