Subjunctive Paper

Tworek 5 to acknowledge a relationship between the concurrent rise of modals and fall of subjunctive inflections. It is, in fact, the nature of this relationship that proves to be the source of continuing subjunctive debate. On one side of the argument, modals are considered to be the replacement of the subjunctive; it, therefore, no longer exists in Modern English. In his textbook entitled, The Biography of the English Language, Millward seems to ascribe to this position. He asserts that auxiliaries and quasi-modals began to replace the subjunctive in Middle English, however it was still used widely in other instances (185). In later chapters, he continues on this same theme stating that in Early Modern English, the inflected subjunctive was still used for uncertainty, wishes, conditions and contrary-to-fact statements, however, by the Modern English era, modals, quasi-modals, and the indicative came to replace virtually all inflected subjunctive verb forms (275).

Others, such as Curme, have taken a stand in defense of the subjunctive. These scholars maintain that, instead of replacing the subjunctive, said modals and quasi-modals, along with the indicative, have assumed the role of denoting the subjunctive, allowing speakers to express themselves more clearly; the rise of modals can be seen as resulting from the necessity to expand the subjunctive mood, not to abolish it. In his text, Syntax, published in 1931, Curme supports this claim and urges that modals be “treated as our modern subjunctive forms” and believes them to be “the modern way of expressing an attitude that did not die with the loss of distinctive inflectional endings” (cited in Cannon 12).

It is this last phrase: an attitude that did not die with the loss of distinctive inflectional endings that provides the greatest stronghold for the persistence of the subjunctive in Modern Day English. The subjunctive covers such a broad range of meanings, including statements of non-fact, wishes, doubts, requests, beliefs, demands, and likelihood, among others, that, as