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Re: Subjunctive

From:Joe <joe@...>
Date:Monday, January 27, 2003, 16:29
On Monday 27 January 2003 12:40 am, John C. wrote:
> I am new here and would like to thank the people who helped direct > me to registration at Listserv. But... > I have a problem here. I am new to language design (I'm 15 and > started last fall) and I need some help. I'd really appreciate it. I'm > designing a language and so far I > have created a Conditional mood (I could run, You may go), an Indicative > mood (I come, You are seeing), and an Imerative mood (Come here), but I am > having trouble designing a Subjunctive mood (or atleast something close to > it... something that expresses hypothesis or a "what if" scenario). To be > honest, I am not sure I understand this mood completely. English barely has > one and its hard to think outside the "box" on this one for me... damn > those English mental constraints! I am trying to express a "what if" mood, > like (I would go, The car could have broken down) but am having trouble as > to setting it up. Is it a division of the conditional? What auxilary verbs > can you use with it... I know you can use "can" and "will" i.e. could and > would, but how extensive does it go?Does anyone have any suggestions? Can > you use it with a past, present, AND future tense (my language has a future > tense unlike English)? Does anyone have a website completely describing > their language's Subjunctive or anything close to it? I would like to model > mine off of that...I'd really appreciate it. >
Subjunctive's kind of fuzzy. 'may, or might' is another verb you could use. I'm not 100% sure of it myself...