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The English present subjunctive

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 June 2016

W. H. Hirtle
W. H. Hirtle*
Affiliation:
Laval University
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Extract

An examination of the comments by linguists on the present subjunctive in current English reveals a surprising degree of unanimity of opinion concerning it. Most grammarians consider its extinction either imminent or accomplished. Thus, for example, Whitehall states that “the subjunctive is gradually dying out of the language.” Close considers that “apart from a few archaic remains it has disappeared from English altogether.” And Kruisinga says flatly: “living English has no subjunctive at all.” Other writers say that it “has very little vital power left”; that it “has disappeared”; that it is “moribund”; that it is “extinct”; that it is “fossilized”; and so on. Several authors suggest that its death throes can be observed in “literary English.” It is the purpose of the first part of this article to examine the arguments supporting these conclusions and to comment on their validity. Two types of argument can be discerned: the historical and the morphological.

Type
Research Article
Information
Canadian Journal of Linguistics/Revue canadienne de linguistique , Volume 9 , Issue 2 , Spring 1964 , pp. 75 - 82
Copyright
Copyright © Canadian Linguistic Association 1964

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References

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39 Ibid., p. 102; our emphasis.

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