CHAPTER IV: MOOD IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE

1. Definition

The grammar of the verbal categories mood, tense, and aspect is complex in English, mainly
because of a rather inexact match of meaning to form, with one form often expressing several
meanings, and one meaning being expressed by means of different forms.

Mood

Traditional grammar recognizes four basic different types of sentence, identified by their
structure: Statements, Commands, Questions, and Exclamations:

We all went to see the rector. (Statement)

Go and see the rector.
(Command)
Let's go to see the rector.
(Command)
Did you go to see the rector?
(Question)
How I wish we could go to
(Question)
See the rector!
(Exclamation)

It is important to remember that these sentence types are named according to their structure, and not
according to their purpose in a particular context. For, although the question form, for instance, is typically
used to request information, it may also have different purpose. A question form like Did you know I've bought
a new car? may be used to impart information, in which case it can be said to be functioning like a statement.
A question form like Would you mind closing the door? is usually used as a command - a polite version of
Close the door.

These four sentence types represent the traditional four Moods of English, to give them their
technical grammatical name. Statements are sentences in the Indicative Mood; Commands are
sentences in the Imperative Mood; Questions are sentences in the Interrogative Mood;
Exclamations are sentences in the Exclamatory Mood. There is also a special form of sentence
structure used to express unreal, hypothetical, or desired situations; in older English, such sentences
constituted an important class and were regarded as a fifth mood - the Subjunctive (In modem English,
however, it has become so restricted in usage that it is scarcely justifiable to regard it any longer as a distinctive
sentence type).

On the other hand, Mood can be defined as the grammatical expression of the speaker's purported
attitude toward what he or she is saying. If you say The pen is in the drawer, the attitude that you are
presenting to your addressee toward what you are saying is that i t is true; you are making an
assertion. The grammatical mood of your sentence is indicative. Formally, indicative mood is
expressed by the presence of tense and person endings on verbs.

2. Classification of mood
2.1.The Imperative

If you say Please pass the salt or Shut up, your purported attitude toward what you are saying is
that you want the addressee to perform the future act, or be in the future state, designated by
your sentence. Certain requests, invitation, suggestions, and orders are thus express ible in
imperative mood, which is marked by the absence of subject and of tense, person, and number
suffixes:

V: Stop

VC: Be quiet

VO A: Put the gun on the floor

Yet, the imperative verb is severely restricted as to tense, aspect, voice, and modality. There is
no tense distinction or perfect aspect, and only very rarely does the progressive from occur: Be
getting the hall ready when the participants come.

A passive is equally rare, except when the auxiliary is some verb other than be as in Get washed.
Modal auxiliaries do not occur at all in imperative sentences. Moreover, commands are apt to
sound abrupt unless toned down by markers of politeness such as please: Close the door, please;
Please turn down the radio. Even this only achieves a minimum degre e of ceremony; a more tactful
form of request can only be arrived at if one changes the command into a question or a statement:
Will you close the door, please? I wonder if you would kindly close the door:; I wonder whether you would
mind closing the door:; etc.

Also, it is important to note that this type of sentence, like the other four, is named according to
its structure, and not according to its purpose or function in a particular context. For instance, in
a polite version the 'imperative function' can be performed in the form of a question: Would you
mind closing the door? as given above.

It is implied in the meaning of a command that the omitted subject of the imperative verb is the
2nd person pronoun you. This is confirmed by the occurrence of you as subject of a following tag
question (Be quite, will you), and by the occurrence of yourself and of no other reflexive pronoun
as object: Behave yourself not * Behave himself. There is, however, a type of command in which
the subject you is retained, differing from the subject of a finite verb in always carrying stress:

You be quiet!

You mind your own business, and leave this to me!

These commands are usually admonitory in tone, and frequently express strong irritation. As
such, they cannot naturally be combined with markers of politeness, such as please. They may
be used, however, in another way, to single out (by pointing) two or mo re distinct addressees:
You come here, Jack, and you go over here, Mary. A 3rd person subject is also possible:

Somebody open this door.

Everybody shut their eyes.

 Jack and Susan stand over there.

It is easy to confuse the subject, in the commands, with a vocative noun phrase - a nominal
element, added to a sentence or clause optionally, denoting the one or more people to whom it
is addressed, and signalling the fact that it is addressed to them. Whereas the subject always
precedes the verb, the vocative can occur in final and medial, as well as initial, positions in the
sentence. Another difference is that the vocative when initially placed, has a separate tone -unit
(typically fall-rise); the subject merely receives ordinary word -stress:

Vocative: MARY,play on MY side

Play on MY side, MARY

Subject: Mary plays on MY side

The distinctness of vocative and imperative subject is confirmed by the possibility of their co -
occurrrence: JOHN, you listen to ME!

First person imperatives can be formed by prepo sing the verb let, followed by a subject in (where
relevant) the objective case:

Let us all work hard (Let's ...)

Let me have a look .

The same applies to 3rd person subjects:

Let each man decide for himself.

If anyone shrinks from this action, let him speak now.

To negate 2nd and 3rd person imperatives, one simply adds an initial Don't, replacing assertive
by non-assertive forms where necessary:

Open the windows ==> Don't open the windows.

You open the door ==> Don't you open the door.

Someone open the door ==> Don't anyone open the door.

1st person imperative have two possibilities:

Let's open the door ==> Let's not open the door.

==> Don't let's open the door.

(informal & esp. British English)

and the second of these is available for 3rd person imperatives:

Don't let anyone fool himself that he can get away with it.
Persuasive or insistent imperatives are created by the addition of do before the main verb:

Do have some more rice Do let's go to the movies.

2.2. The Subjunctive

If you say (God) Bless you or I suggest that the course be finished by October 31 your purported attitude is
favorable about the future situation encoded in the sentence. This is called the subjunctive mood. According
to R. Quirk and S. Greenbaum (1976, pp. 51-2), three categories of subjunctive may be distinguished:

(a)The mandative subjunctive in that -clause has only one form, the base verb; this means there is lack
of the regular indicative concord between subject and finite verb in the 3rd person singular present, and
the present and past tenses are indistinguishable. This subjunctive can be used with any verb in
subordinate that-clause when the main clause contains an expression of recommendation, resolution,
demand, and so on (We demand, require, insist, suggest, ask, etc., that...). The use of this subjunctive
occurs chiefly in formal style, for instance editorials, and especially in American English) where in less
formal contexts one would rather make use of other devices, such as to-infinitive or should + infinitive:

It is/was necessary that every member inform himself of these rules.

It is necessary that every member should inform himself of these rules.

It is necessary for every member to inform himself of these rules.

A list of verbs which can be followed by a that-clause containing a subjunctive

Advise decree Order recommend

Agree demand Plead request

Ask direct Pray Rule

Beg insist Prefer stipulate

Command intend Propose suggest

(b) The formulaic subjunctive also consists of the base verb but is only used in clauses in certain
set expression which have to be learned as wholes:

Come what may, we will go ahead

God save the Queen!

Suffice it to say that.. .

Be that as it may ...

Heaven forbid that. . .

(c) The subjunctive were is hypothetical in meaning and is used in conditional and concessive clauses in
subordinate clauses after optative verbs like wish. It occurs as the 1st and 3rd person singular past of the
verb be, matching the indicative was, which is the more common in less formal style:

If she were/was to do something like that,...

 He spoke to me as if I were/was deaf.

I wish I werelwas dead.

Note:

In 'As it were'If I were you only were is acceptable.

In a broader sense, however, the subjunctive also includes unreal- conditional structures:

If I had a car, I would take her to the station.

Like statements, commands and questions, subjunctive sentences used to enjoy all the
paraphernalia of a separate mood: they had a structure (word -order) and verb form all of their own.
The structure inverts the subject and verb:

Had I enough money, I'd go overseas.

The use of this subjunctive structure in these days restricted to very formal or literary usage,
and for most purposes we prefer to make an ordinary clause, using a conjunction (usually "if'),
together with statement structure:

If I had enough money, I'd go overseas

In days gone by, each English verb had a complete outfit of Past, Present, and Future forms to
wear on special occasions, but today only shabby remnants of this outfit remain. One such
remnant is the fact that, in an "if'-clause expressing unreal or hypothetical idea, we use the Past
Tense. By contrast, in an "if'-clause expressing an idea which is probably real but which depends
on something else, we use the Present Tense. Compare the two sentences below:

If I had enough money (but I don't), I would go overseas

(hypothetical).

If I have enough money (when I collect my salary), I will go overseas.

In modem English, the subjunctive is very limited in use, and it is considered in many grammars
as an interesting little fossil in the English language.

Imperative and subjunctive mood overlap in function; you can tell someone 'Leave!' or 'I insist that
you leave,' using the imperative in the first case and the subjunctive in the second. One difference
is that the imperative can express only those propositions whose subjects are second person;
English has no third-person imperative. The subjunctive expresses wishes or hopes regarding
third persons, as in Long live the Queen.

A different 'subjunctive' function is encoded by 'past tense' form, without past time reference: If
beggars were kings; If John left I would just fall apart. The function of this type of 'subjunctive' is to
describe contrary-to-fact or hypothetical situations.

As we have seen, mood is expressed in English to a very minor extent by the subjunctive, as in
God save the Queen; to a much greater extent by past tense forms, as in If you taught me, I would
learn quickly but above all, by means of the modal auxiliaries, as in It is strange that he should have
left so early.

Note:

Owing to the difference of approach to moods, grammarians have been vacillating

between two extremes - 3 moods (indicative, imperative, and subjuncti ve), put forward
by many grammarians, and 16 moods, as proposed by M. Deutsehbein in System der
neuenglischen Syntax. Between these extremes there are intermediate views, such as a
system of 6 moods (indicative, imperative, subjunctive I (present subjuncti ve),
subjunctive II (past subjunctive), suppositional, and conditional).

QUESTIONS FOR REVIEWING

1. State definition of mood. Give example(s) for illustration.

2. How mood in English are classified? Give example(s) for illustration.