In Subjunctives^x, Modals^x

When we talk about a subjunctive construction, I think it is easier to understand it without the 'inserted clause, I would think' becasue that way one can clearly see the cause-and-effect relationship beteween the conditional clause and the main clasue. 1. If someone tells you that you may...

How many tenses are there in English? Two: Present and Past. Everything else is aspect (progressive, perfect), voice (active, passive), and modality (will, would, ...). In an alternate point of view, all variants of aspect and voice and of the modals "will" and "would" are considered...

Hello Goldmund Really? I just put what I'd learned from my grammar books and dictionaries. I'd like to hear opinions from native speakers. But frankly speaking, I've learned through the experience here that it is tough to know exact senses of such things like modals and subjunctive moods,...

Hellow Zewu I'm an English learner from Japan. I am afraid I don't know much about English enough to answer such questions as those you are asking. But allow me to put my two cents worth. First of all, let me define some grammatical terms. In English, people usually say 'subjunctive mood' for...

Hello td I'm not an expert or a student of linguistics. But we've had a few discussions about modals on this forum, and I've noticed three things: 1. Speakers of different dialects seem to respond differently to the same modal verb. 2. People's sense of 'tense' in modals seems to vary. I find...

I can only add a little toward the answers to your questions. In general the modal auxiliaries are used to express not statements of fact but actions or events that exist only as conceptions of the mind -- possibilities, potentialities, necessities, wishes, whatever may or may not eventuate...

Overview: outsiders seeks help of linguistspart one: the set uppart two: the questions I. I am a graduate student in philosophy investigating what we call "epistemic possibility". Sentence express this modality when they assert that something is possible relative to some epistemic category...

1. I said something wrong yesterday > "I wish I hadn't said that"; expresses an irreality in the past for what you said can't be "unsaid" 2. Tom is not with us and we miss him > "I wish he were with us"; expresses an irreality in the present for Tom isn't with us. Same for: Tom doesn't live with...

Hello MrP In the Japanese conditionals, we change the apodosis' expressions according to conditionals' reality. In the case the conditional is known to be rather unreal, we use an expression similar to English modal constructs in the apodosis, and when we judge neutrally about the possibility of...

I am "Recusant." I'm new to this forum and I don't have password yet so I've signed in as a guest. Your comments on the subjunctive in English suggest that you are attempting to "shoe-horn" English into Latin grammatical concepts. I'm a bit of a linguistic iconoclast when it comes to this sort...