Re: Grammatical Summary of Kemata

Quoting Anton Sherwood <bronto@...>:

> "Thomas R. Wier" wrote:
> >   (a) The judge suggested that he be put in confinement.
> >   (b) The judge suggested that he is put in confinement.
> >
> > The subjunctive in (a) implies that the judge wants some particular
> > action to occur; the indicative in (b) implies that the judge thinks
> > that a particular set of cirumstances is the case, but does not
> > comment on whether that is a good or a bad thing.
> >
> > (Not all English speakers distinguish between these two;  the
> > lack of such a distinction seems to be especially common in
> > Britain as opposed to any of her former colonies.)
>
> I think most Americans would use an auxiliary
> rather than a bare subjunctive: "...that he should be..."
> (or in this case, undoing the passive, a gerund:
> "...suggested putting him...")
While those are certainly options for achieving the same
result, I don't think "most Americans" [educated ones,
anyways] would find the bare subjunctive odd.  I, certainly,
use it all the time because that's what comes naturally,
and I never get the impression from people around me that
I'm speaking in a funny way.

=====================================================================
Thomas Wier <trwier@...> <http://home.uchicago.edu/~trwier>

             "...koruphàs hetéras hetére:isi prosápto:n /
Dept. of Linguistics  mú:tho:n mè: teléein atrapòn mían..."
University of Chicago "To join together diverse peaks of thought /
1010 E. 59th Street   and not complete one road that has no turn"
Chicago, IL 60637     Empedocles, _On Nature_, on speculative thinkers