Mood Quirk

Quirk, Randolph and Sidney Greenbaum. 1990. A Student's Grammar of English. Harlow: Longman.
The subjunctive mood
Forms of the subjunctive
323 There are two forms of the subjunctive. They are traditionally called the
present and past subjunctive, although the distinction relates more to
mood than to tense.
The present subjunctive is expressed by the base form of the verb. For
the verb be, the subjunctive form be is distinct from the indicative forms
am, is, and are. For other verbs, the subjunctive is distinctive only in the
3rd person singular:
I insist that we reconsider the Council’s decisions. U]
[indicative or subjunctive]
Tinsist that the Council reconsider its decisions. 2]
[subjunctive]
I insist that the Council’s decision(s) be reconsidered )]
[subjunctivel
The past subjunctive (or were-subjunctive) survives only in were as a
past form of. It is distinguishable from the past indicative of BE only in
the Ist and 3rd persons singular:
If she was leaving, you would have heard about it.
[indicative]
If she were leaving, you would have heard about it.
[subjunctive]
The indicative was is more common in less formal style.
NOTE [a] Only were is acceptable in as it were (‘so 10 speak’): were is usual in if T were you.
[b] Negation of the present subjunctive does not require an operator. Hence,
reconsider in [1a] is unambiguously subjunctive:
Linsist that we not reconsider the Council’s decision [1a]
Uses of the subjunctive
324 We distinguish two main uses of the present subjunctive:
(a) The MANDATIVE SUBJUNCTIVE is used in a that-clause after an
expression of such notions as demand, recommendation, proposal,
intention (eg: We insist, prefer, request; It is necessary, desirable,
imperative ; the decision, requirement, resolution). This use is more
characteristic of AmE than BrE, but seems to be increasing in BrE. In
BrE the alternatives are putative should (14.14) and the indicative.
resign. (esp AmE)
The employees demanded that he { should resign. (esp BrE)
resigns.
(b) The FORMULAIC (or ‘optative’) SUBJUNCTIVE is used in certain set
expressions:
God save the Queen. Heaven forbid that . . .
Long live the King. Be that as it may.
Come whatmay, ... Sufficeit tosay that
The past subjunctive is hypothetical in meaning. It is used in
conditional and concessive clauses and in subordinate clauses after wish
and suppose:
If T were a rich man, Twould . . .
T wish the journey were over.
Just suppose everyone were to act like you.
Subjunctive were is often replaced in nonformal style by indicative was.
Directives
Directives without a subject

1115 Directives typically take the form of an imperative sentence, which differs
from a declarative sentence in that:
(i) it generally has no subject;
(ii) it generally has a verb in the base form.
Otherwise, the clause patterns of imperative sentences show the same
range and ordering of clements as declaratives (cf 10.1); for example;
Jump.
Be reasonable.
(S) VOC: Consider yourself lucky.
The imperative verb lacks tense distinction and does not allow modal
auxiliaries. The progressive form is rare, and the perfect even rarer:
Be listening to this station the same time tomorrow night.
Passives with be occur chiefly in negative directives, where they
generally have the meaning *Don’t allow yourselfto be
Don’t be deceived by his looks.
Don’t be bullied into signing.
They are less common in positive directives: Be guided by what I say. What
might be analysed as passives occur with get: Get washed: Don't get
dressed yet.
Imperatives are restricted to verbs used dynamically, hence the
incongruity of *Be old. Many predications that are stative with respect to
disallowing the progressive (cf 4.11) are available with a dynamic
interpretation: Forgive us; Love your enemies; Don't be a stranger.
Directives with a subject
11.16 The meaning of a directive implies that the omitted subject is the 2nd
person pronoun you. The implication can be demonstrated by the
occurrence of you as subject of a following tag question (Be quiet, will
you?), by the occurrence of only yourself or yourselves as the reflexive
(Behave yourselfor Help yourselves), and by the occurrence of only the
emphatic possessive your own (Use your own comb).
There is, however, a type of directive in which the stressed subject you is
added. You may be noncontrastive and admonitory:
‘You be Quiet!
"You 'mind your own BUsiness, and 'leave this to ME!
'You ‘take the BOOK.
It frequently expresses strong irritation or (as in the last example) merely
insistence. On the other hand, noncontrastive you may be persuasive:
I know you can do it if you try hard enough. 'You 'show me what
you can DO.
You may also be contrastive in the sense of singling out one person or one
set of persons.
Don’t tell ME to be QUIET. YOU be quiet!
Third person subjects are also possible:
Somebody open this door.

Parents with children go to the front.
Nobody move.
NOTE There is blurring of subject and vocative (¢f 10.31f) in these commands. But
whereas the subject always precedes the verb, the vocative is an element that can
. occur in final and medial, as well as initial, positions in the sentence. Another
difference is_that the vocative, when initially placed, has a separate tone unit
(typically fall-rise); the subject merely receives ordinary word stress:
VOCATIVE: MARY, play on MY side.
Play on MY side, MARY.
SUBJECT: ‘Mary play on MY side.
The distinctness of vocative and imperative subject is confirmed by the possibility

of their cooccurrence: JOHN, 'you listen to ME!
Vocative you, as opposed to imperative subject you, is very impolite: YoU, ‘come
HERE.
Directives with /et

1117 First person imperatives can be formed by preposing the verb let followed
by a notional subject in the objective case:
Let us work hard. ['We must work hard.’]
Let me see now. Do I have any money on me? [‘I must consider this
now.’]
The same applies to 3rd person subjects:

Let no one think that a teacher’s life is easy. ['No one must think . . .’]
Let each man decide for himself. [‘Each man must decide . . "]
Except for the let me type, these are generally rather archaic and elevated
in tone. A colloquial alternative to /et us, however, is the common
abbreviated form let’s: Let’s have a party.
Negative imperatives
11.18 To negate imperatives, one simply adds an initial Don't or Do not,

replacing assertive by nonassertive items where necessary:
Open the door. Don’t open the door.
Get some wine. Don’t get any wine.
You open the door. Don’t you open the door.
Someone open the door. Don’t anyone open the door.
NOTE Imperatives with /et are informally negated with don't:

Don't let’s say anything about it. {esp BrE)
Let’s don't say anything about it. {esp AmE)
Don't let me disturb you. {esp BrE)
Don't let anyone fool himself he can get away with it.
Variants occur, especially with /et’s, where not is inserted after the pronoun: Let’s
not say anything about it.
Do with positive imperatives
1119 A positive imperative can be made more persuasive or insistent (esp in

BrE) by adding do (usually with a nuclear tone) before the verb:
DO have some more tea. DO let’s go for a walk.
This use of do applies only when a subject is absent or when /et s is present.
NOTE Do, like don'tand let’s, acts as an introductory imperative marker. When used with
imperatives, do and don’t are not acting as dummy operators (¢/3.11), and so they
can be used with be: Do be quiet; Don't be silly. (Contrast the unacceptability of
*They do be quiet.) The same applies in the quasi-imperative construction Why
don’t you be more careful?

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Quirk, Randolph and Sidney Greenbaum. 1990. A Student's Grammar of English. Harlow: Longman.

The subjunctive mood

Forms of the subjunctive

Directives without a subject

Don’t tell ME to be QUIET. YOU be quiet!

Third person subjects are also possible:

Somebody open this door.

The distinctness of vocative and imperative subject is confirmed by the possibility

Directives with /et

The same applies to 3rd person subjects:

11.18 To negate imperatives, one simply adds an initial Don't or Do not,

NOTE Imperatives with /et are informally negated with don't:

Do with positive imperatives

1119 A positive imperative can be made more persuasive or insistent (esp in

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