Definition:
The mood of a verb expressing wishes, stipulating demands, or making statements contrary to fact.
Etymology:
From the Latin, "subjoin, bind, subordinate"Examples and Observations:
- "If music be the food of love, play on."
(William Shakespeare, Twelfth Night) - "If I were two-faced, would I be wearing this one?"
(Abraham Lincoln) - "Teachers call this by a formidable word, subjunctive, meaning lacking in reality. What it refers to is actually the Fairy Tale Syndrome. If I were a rich man, could be such a mood. It refers to something that is not possible. If the possibility exists, the sentence would read: If I was a rich man. . . .
"The old subjunctive is disappearing as language usage becomes modified and simplified. Current business usage recognizes it only as a wish mood."
(Val Dumond, Grammar for Grownups, HarperCollins, 1993) - "Far be it from me to force anyone into either chess or dressage, but if you choose to do so yourself, in my opinion there is only one way: follow the rules."
(Lars von Trier) - "Subjunctives occur as main clauses only in a few more or less fixed expressions, as in God bless you, Long live the Emperor, etc."
(Rodney Huddleston and Geoffrey Pullum, A Student's Introduction to English Grammar, Cambridge University Press, 2006) - If there were a death penalty for corporations, Enron may have earned it.
- "It is imperative that, when thousands of selfless volunteers respond to those who have incurred the wrath of a natural disaster, legal liability need not be hanging over their heads."
(Jon Porter) - "The subjunctive mood is in its death throes, and the best thing to do is put it out of its misery as soon as possible."
(Somerset Maugham)
Pronunciation: sub-JUNG-tif mood
