Timeline for Varying modal verbs in counterfactual ("subjunctive") conditionals
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
6 events
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| Mar 8, 2023 at 22:28 | comment | added | John Lawler | Oh, there was subjunctive in Old English, and in some dialects of Middle English (and maybe some current local dialects -- I wouldn't know). But all there is now in Modern English is a bunch of set phrases and ritual proscriptions. If you want to call them all "subjunctive", no problemo. But it doesn't mean anything; and "subjunctive" in English is not a "form", but an imaginary inflection. | |
| Mar 8, 2023 at 21:42 | comment | added | Anton | @JohnLawler I believe you are too prescriptive on this one. Collins, for example has "The subjunctive was formerly used in English for situations that were improbable or that expressed a wish. It is only rarely used in modern British English. It is, however, found in certain set phrases and in very formal forms of speech and writing.", and EnglishCLub has "The English subjunctive is a special, relatively rare verb form that expresses something desired or imagined.". There are other examples. | |
| Mar 8, 2023 at 18:45 | comment | added | John Lawler | There is no "subjunctive form" in English. There are a couple of constructions (untensed that-complement clauses, like He demanded that she obey/*obeys him; and irrealis past usages like Wish you were/*are here) that various people sometimes call "subjunctive", but they don't agree, so it's better to simply not mention the term; it only upsets them. In any event, modals are not subjunctive, though they have meanings that are similar to subjunctives in other languages. | |
| Mar 13, 2022 at 15:48 | comment | added | Lambie | "must" does not have a subjunctive form.... | |
| Feb 16, 2021 at 18:03 | comment | added | Rick | Thank you for the reply, but this doesn't clearly answer either of my questions. "tries to use must in subjunctive form, which is not appropriate" comes close to answering, but the link you shared seems to be about an importantly disanalogous grammatical situation. | |
| Feb 16, 2021 at 8:09 | history | answered | Anton | CC BY-SA 4.0 |