Date:  Wed, 11 Oct 1995 10:31:57 -0700

From:  Sylvia Swift <madonna[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]VIOLET.BERKELEY.EDU>

Subject: Re: as it were



i love this list! i thought this thread was just fun, but it has turned

out to be very useful to me; i had completely failed to notice that a form

such as "if i was" *is* marked compared to indicative. even before bill

smith's useful post, i had been bothered by my inability to completely

account for the relation of subjunctive (especially in if constructions)

to sequence of tenses. when i have studied foreign languages (french,

latin, russian), the units introducing subjunctive have focussed on

sequence of tenses and temporal relationship between clauses. i think

this is underemphasized in the teaching of subjunctive in english (kevin,

if you're still on the list, crews' _random house handbook_ is better at

this than o'hare's handbook).



i now wonder if most americans who think the subjunctive is dead or dying

made my mistake, or if they're talking about the death of such

constructions as "if this be treason," etc.



sylvia swift

madonna[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]violet.berkeley.edu