Interesting case of the subjunctive on Bad Language
An interesting case of the use of the subjunctive mood in English appeared today on Bad Language.
http://www.badlanguage.net/?p=326
What started out as a post on the Economist's online style guide (very handy, by the way!) and the use of singular or plural for collective nouns in English turned into a discussion on the subjunctive in English.
It is true that the subjunctive tends to trip up both native and non-native English speakers. My French translation clients -- even those with an excellent level of written English -- nearly always call me on the use of the subjunctive as a subject-verb-agreement error. It is nice to be able to point them to some explanations of the subjunctive mood on the web. Here is one that sums it up nicely (especially for T.W. Fline):
http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/radio/specials/1535_questionanswer/page24.shtml
posted by Sara @ 1/03/2007
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4 Comments:
Bravo! (Brava?) for pointing this out, Sara. However, all of the comments to that Bad Language post save yours missed the point. Everyone went off the deep end about singular and plural nouns, whereas, as you rightly pointed out, the construction in question takes the subjunctive whether the noun is singular or plural. This said, I have seen phrases such as "I recommend that he takes an umbrella" more and more frequently lately, and the "offenders" seem to be coming mostly from the UK.
Thanks for the kudos, Steve. It is true that these subjunctive constructions sometimes look a little weird even to the native speaker, regardless of US or UK origin. The singular/plural for collective noun thing is a whole other can of worms. I have started seeing UK usage on this in American sources (but I've also seen "colour" used more and more, particularly for design and cosmetics). I guess US copywriters think these Britishisms add extra cachet??
For what it's worth, I wrote an article about the subjunctive in English for The Editorial Eye. You can read it online here:
http://tinyurl.com/3yfves
(That link goes to my blog.)
Thanks, Roy. Your blog is one that I read regularly and enjoy.
Sara
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