Subjunctive Mood

From: KevLAnder@aol.com
Date: Wed Jan 31 1996 - 13:29:37 EST


All this talk about a "Future Subjunctive" reminded me of the discussion of
the Subjunctive Mood in James Allen Hewett's grammar (pp. 162-63), which I
quote in part:

"Tenses in the subjunctive mood do not indicate time of action in and of
themselves. Like the participle (and the infinitive and imperative mood),
tenses in the subjunctive mood adopt a time of action that must be
ascertained from the context within which they occur. This much may be said
regarding the time of the action of the subjunctive per se: Because it is a
mood of contigency or possibility, it does bear a _futuristic_ orientation.
For example, one utters an exhortation (a function of this mood) only with
respect to the future. To say 'Let us thing yesterday' is nonsense. Even to
say: 'Let us think today' demands a future perspective--from the vantage
point of the one who is speaking. So there is a future time orientation, but
that springs from the mood, not the tense."

Kevin Anderson
Concord, CA



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