06 虚拟式条件句.docVIP

Lecture VI Subjunctive Mood Warm-up Some of the following sentences contain errors in the use of verbs. Write the correct form. 1. If I was his father, I’d give him a thrashing (鞭打). 2. If he were a more liberal thinker, I’d vote for him. 3. If I was a year older, I could get a driver’s license. 4. If he weren’t so lazy, he’d be a good student. 5. I wish it will be spring all year round. 6. He spoke to her as if she was a stranger. 7. It’s not as though he was poor. 8. If it was to rain tomorrow, the graduation ceremony would be put off. 1. Subjunctive Mood Mood, as a grammatical category, is a finite verb form to express the manner in which the action or state it denotes is conceived. It indicates whether an utterance expresses a fact (indicative mood), a command or request (imperative mood), or a non-fact and hypothesis (subjunctive mood). Modern English has not a developed mood system. Its indicative mood is unmarked, and over 90% of English sentences are expressed in this mood. We use the indicative to express a fact or action. The imperative mood is marked only when it occurs in an imperative sentence. We use the imperative to express command: Read the instructions carefully and then answer the following questions. Do not, for one repulse, give up the purpose that you resolved to effect. (William Shakespeare) We use the subjunctive to express a hypothesis (a condition contrary to fact) and a wish. Likewise, the subjunctive mood is marked only when it occurs in certain contexts, and is not so complicated as described in traditional grammars. There are two forms of the subjunctive, traditionally called the present and past subjunctive, although the use of these forms relates more to mood than to tense. Terms of the two major categories of the present subjunctive, i.e. be-subjunctive are the mandative and formulaic subjunctive. They are realized by the base form of the verb. The past subjunctive is conveniently called the were-subjunctive, since it survi