Re: English Subjunctive

Andreas Johansson scripsit:

> > English doesn't really have a seperately inflected subjunctive in normal
> > speech.
>
> That's too bad, isn't it. My solution - make German courses obligatory.
What a hideous thought.  :-)

The present subjunctive still survives in American (but not British)
usage in certain kinds of complement clauses.  "Harriet suggests that
Joan plays Ophelia" is opposed to "Harriet suggests that Joan play
Ophelia".  The former means that Harriet does not know the fact of the
matter and is conjecturing; the latter, that there is no fact of the
matter yet and Harriet is proposing.

In British usage, "should play", with unstressed "should", is used in
place of subjunctive "play".  This is one of the few genuinely grammatical
differences between the dialects.

--
John Cowan    http://www.ccil.org/~cowan   <jcowan@...>
    "Any legal document draws most of its meaning from context.  A telegram
    that says 'SELL HUNDRED THOUSAND SHARES IBM SHORT' (only 190 bits in
    5-bit Baudot code plus appropriate headers) is as good a legal document
    as any, even sans digital signature." --me