Re: Moody Moods ...

Andreas Johansson scripsit:

> The trouble is that I don't know much of moods. I'm somewhat familiar with
> the German conjunctive (and the few surviving or fossilized bits of the
> Swedish conjunctive),
Just to avoid confusion:  the German Konjunktiv is translated in English
by "subjunctive", following the practice of the Romance languages.
It is mostly fossilized too, although the construction "I suggest that
he do [not does] X" is still alive, at least in American English.

> but what about other moods? Can anybody give me a
> description of common moods (name and usuage in different natlangs), or
> alternatively point me to a webpage with a good description?
We have of course the imperative, for commands.  In Latin that is all
(indicative, subjunctive, imperative): in Classical Greek there is also
the optative, for wishes.  Non I-E languages probably have others.

--
John Cowan                                   cowan@ccil.org
One art/there is/no less/no more/All things/to do/with sparks/galore
        --Douglas Hofstadter

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