Б. С. Хаймович, Б. И. Роговская теоретическая грамматика английского языка

Subjunctive Mood Grammemes in Speech

§ 293. As we know, there is not a single subjunctive mood grammeme which has no homonyms in the indicative or in the imperative mood (or both). The discrimination of homo­nymous grammemes rests on the combinations they form and on their occurrence in certain types of sentences and clauses.

§ 294. As already mentioned (§ 240), subjunctive mood grammemes represented by live, be invited, be coming (we may call them 'former present' subjunctive, or 'subjunctive I' ¹) are rapidly falling into disuse, being replaced by the corresponding should grammemes (should live, should be invited, should be coming). Both types of grammemes present an action as problematic, though not actually contrary to reality.

Subjunctive I grammemes are decidedly uncolloquial (save in American English), being generally confined to official, elevated style. They are felt to impart official fla­vour, solemnity, bombastic tinge. The should grammemes are stylistically neutral and are therefore employed in dif­ferent stylistic varieties of speech.
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1} The term was introduced by A. 1. Smirnitsky to denote a separate mood. See op. cit., p. 346—350.

§295. Representatives of subjunctive I grammemes can be distinguished from their indicative and imperative mood homonyms as follows.

1) By their left-hand combinability with he, she, it and 'singular' nouns. Cf. ... he (she, Tom) invite (subjunctive), i n v i t e! (imperative), I (we, you, they, students) invite (indicative or subjunctive). In other words, subjunctive I grammemes contain no person and number distinc­tions, unlike their indicative counterparts.
2) By their being for the most part interchangeable (neg­lecting stylistic differences) with corresponding should gram­memes. Cf. ... he invite — ... he should invite.
Should grammemes have no number and person distinc­tions either. The should — would opposeme is neutralized in the environments in which subjunctive I grammemes are used, the member of neutralization being should.
3) By their regularly occurring in certain types of subor­dinate clauses (as well as their should-synonyms), though they sometimes occur in simple sentences expressing a real­izable wish (Success attend you!), in formulas like Long live ..., God save ..., Far be it from me, etc.

§ 296. Following are some types of clauses in which should grammemes and their synonyms are regularly used.

a) After expressions of subjective appraisal (It is neces­sary, important, desirable, essential, unavoidable, shameful, disgraceful, terrible, appalling, inevitable, surprising, im­probable, curious, ironical, etc.).
It is essential that he should approach it with an open mind. (Linklater).
It is absolutely imperative that he remain at his post. (People's World).
b) Clauses dependent on such verbs as suggest, demand, insist, recommend, move, vote, propose, require, etc.
He suggested that collective bargaining should be made legally binding on both sides. (Daily Worker).
The second step of any experiment demanded that he p о s -sess three separate techniques. (Wilson).
c) Clauses dependent on nouns of kindred lexical mean­ings (suggestion, demand, urging, also reason, idea, wish, plan).
E. g. He wound it up with the suggestion that the Com­mittee should resume its work. (Daily Worker).
She was hurt by his demand that she stop visiting her sister-in-law. (Christie).
d) Adverbial clauses introduced by lest, for fear, that.
E. g. Take steps at once lest the shooting should be
resumed. (Daily Worker). She stayed away lest he t h i n k her obtrusive. (Linklater).

§ 297. The invited, wrote, were, etc. grammemes of the subjunctive mood system and all the grammemes containing the grammatical word:morphemes had and were (had come, were brought, etc.) may be called 'former past' subjunctive or subjunctive II grammemes.

Subjunctive II grammemes are correlated with should grammemes but in a way different from that of subjunctive I grammemes. The latter are related to should grammemes paradigmatically, as synonyms: either these or those are used in certain clauses. Subjunctive II grammemes are relat­ed to should grammemes syntagmatically; i. e. they are often used together in the same complex sentence: a 'subjunctive II' verb in the subordinate and a should-verb in the prin­cipal clause.
E.g. If I were you I s h о и l d be more attentive. If she hadn't interfered I should have gone too far. (Williamson).
We must only bear in mind the following: should gram­memes correlated with subjunctive II grammemes have would opposites,¹ i. e. they contain the meaning of 'first person' as opposed to 'non-first person'. It would be more correct therefore to call them should-would grammemes (or, shorter, would grammemes) to distinguish from the synonyms of subjunctive I grammemes.
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1}Would grammemes tend to oust should grammemes, see § 265.

§ 298. Both members of subjunctive II grammemes and those of should-would grammemes present an action as con­trary to reality.

E. g. If he were older and understood the real meaning of his act, he w о и l d n' t dream of going there. (Browne).

§ 299. As usual, the perfect forms express 'priority', the non-perfect ones expressing no specification in this re­spect; they may denote an action imagined as simultaneous with some real action or following, it. If no real action is mentioned in the sentence priority is expressed with refer­ence to the act of speech.

E. g. I wish you were more reliable.
I wish you h a d n' t f о 11 о w e d his advice.
If he were to say it, she would reply "All right". (Wilson).
Even had she not known, she would have guessed he was a good tennis player. (Mau­gham).

§ 300. Besides being regularly used in subordinate clauses of condition (or concession, introduced by even if) subjunctive II grammemes are actually obligatory in clauses following the verb 'wish'.

E. g. I wish you were more attentive. I wish you h a d n't done it.
Likewise, they regularly occur after as if, as though (in predicative and comparative clauses).
E. g. He looked as if he were an animation of a La Fontaine fable. (Wilson).
Eric listened entranced as though Haviland himself had b e e n the discoverer rather than the bearer of tidings. (Wilson).

§301. Should-would subjunctive grammemes, besides being used in principal clauses of complex sentences (in com­bination with subjunctive II grammemes in subordinate clauses) may occur in simple sentences, e. g. But for you the wrong man would have been punished, occasionally in subordinate clauses, e. g. This plan which would have b e e n a success a week before, now failed through (The Worker), in which case they are distinguished from their indicative homonyms in not having those surround­ings which regularly bring about the appearance of the corresponding indicative grammemes.

Cf. I know he would say exactly the same thing under the circumstances. (Wilson). He said that they would be back in an hour or so.
Would say cannot be mistaken for a member of an indic­ative grammeme (relative posteriority), non-perfect, active, etc.), its distribution, its environment being different from that of posteriority grammemes.