This articleneeds additional citations forverification.(February 2008) |
Inlinguistics,irrealis moods(abbreviatedIRR) are the main set ofgrammatical moodsthat indicate that a certain situation or action is not known to have happened at the moment the speaker is talking. This contrasts with therealis moods.They are used in statements withouttruth value(imperative, interrogative, subordinate, etc)
Every language has grammatical ways of expressing unreality. Linguists tend to reserve the term "irrealis" for particularmorphologicalmarkers orclause types.Many languages with irrealis mood make further subdivisions between kinds of irrealis moods. This is especially so amongAlgonquian languagessuch asBlackfoot.[1]
List of irrealis moods
edit| Mood | Event, as intended by speaker | Example | Found in |
|---|---|---|---|
| Subjunctive | Event is considered unlikely (mainly used in dependent clauses). | "If I were to love you..." | |
| Conditional(COND) | Event depends upon another condition. | "I would love you" | |
| Optative | Event is hoped,[2]expected, or awaited. | "May I be loved!" |
|
| Jussive(JUS) | Event is pleaded, implored or asked.[3] | "Everyone should be loved" | |
| Potential(POT) | Event is probable or considered likely | "She probably loves me" | |
| Imperative Prohibitive |
Event is directly ordered or requested by the speaker.[4] Event is directly prohibited by the speaker.[5] |
"Love me!" "Do not love me" |
|
| Desiderative | Event is desired/wished by a participant in the state of affairs referred to in the utterance[6] | "I wish he loved me." | |
| Dubitative | Event is uncertain, doubtful, dubious.[7] | "I think she loves me." | |
| Hypothetical | Event is hypothetical, or it iscounterfactual,but possible.[8] | "I might love you [if...]" | |
| Presumptive | Event is assumed, presupposed by the speaker. | There is no exact English example, although it could be translated as:
"Assuming he loves you [...]" |
|
| Permissive | Event is permitted by the speaker.[9] | "You may [not] love me..." |
|
| Admirative(MIR) | Event is surprising or amazing (literally or in irony or sarcasm). It merges with theInferentialin theBalkan sprachbund. | "Wow! They love me!", "Apparently they love me." | |
| Hortative | Event is exhorted, implored, insisted or encouraged by speaker. | "Let us love!" | |
| Eventive | Event is likely but depends upon a condition. It is a combination of the Potential and the Conditional moods. | "I would probably love you [if...]" | |
| Precative (PREC) | Event is requested by the speaker.[11] | "Will you love me?" | Mongolian |
| Volitive(VOL) | Event is desired, wished or feared by the speaker.[12] | "Would that you loved me!" / "God forbid [that] you love me!" | Japanese |
| Inferential(INFERorINFR) | Event is not witnessed and not confirmed. | There is no exact English example, although it could be translated as: "She is said to love me" |
|
| Necessitative | Event is necessary, or it is both desired and encouraged. It is a combination of Hortative and Jussive. | "It is necessary that you should love me." | |
| Interrogative(INT) | Event is asked or questioned by the speaker | "Does he love me?" | |
| Benedictive(BEN) | Event is requested or wished by the speaker in a polite or honorific fashion. | "Would you please be so kind as to love me?" | |
| Concessive(CONC) | Event is presupposed or admitted as part of a refutation. | "Even if she loves me [...]"; "Although she loves me [...]" |
|
| Prescriptive(PRESCR) | Event is prescribed by the speaker (though not demanded), but with the expectation that it will occur. | "Please [do not] love me."; "Go ahead, love me." |
Mongolian |
| Admonitive | Event is warned against happening. Also called vetitive or apprehensive. | "Beware loving me." |
Moods
editSubjunctive
editThesubjunctive mood,sometimes calledconjunctive mood,has several uses independent clauses.Examples include discussing hypothetical or unlikely events, expressing opinions or emotions, or making polite requests (the exact scope is language-specific). A subjunctive mood exists in English, but it often is not obligatory. Example: "I suggested that Paul eat an apple", Paul is not in fact eating an apple. Contrast this with the sentence "Paul eats an apple", where the verb "to eat" is in the present tense, indicative mood. Another way, especially inBritish English,of expressing this might be "I suggested that Paul should eat an apple", derived from "Paul should eat an apple."
Other uses of the subjunctive in English, as in "Andif he benot able to bring a lamb, then he shall bring for his trespass... "(KJVLeviticus5:7), have become archaic or formal.[13]Statements such as "I shall ensure that he leave immediately" often are formal, and often have been supplanted by constructions with the indicative, such as "I'll make sure [that] he leavesimmediately ". (In other situations, the verb form for subjunctive and indicative may be identical:" I'll make sure [that]you leaveimmediately.)
The subjunctive mood figures prominently in thegrammarof theRomance languages,which require this mood for certain types of dependent clauses. This point commonly causes difficulty for English speakers learning these languages.
In certain other languages, the dubitative or the conditional moods may be employed instead of the subjunctive in referring to doubtful or unlikely events (see the main article).
Conditional
editTheconditional mood(abbreviatedCOND) is used to speak of an event whose realization is dependent upon another condition, particularly, but not exclusively, inconditional sentences.In Modern English, it is aperiphrastic construction,with the formwould+ infinitive, e.g.,I would buy.In other languages, such as Spanish or French, verbs have a specific conditionalinflection.This applies also to some verbs in German, in which the conditional mood is conventionally calledKonjunktiv II,differing fromKonjunktiv I.Thus, the conditional version of "John eats if he is hungry" is:
- English:Johnwould eatif he were hungry
- German:Johannesäße,wenn/falls er Hunger hätte
- or:Johanneswürde essen,wenn er Hunger hätte
- French:Jeanmangeraits'il avait faim
- Spanish:Juancomeríasi tuviera hambre
- Portuguese:Joãocomeriase tivesse fome
- Italian:Giovannimangerebbese avesse fame
- Swedish:Johanskulleäta, om han var hungrig
- Danish:Johanvillespise, hvis han var sulten
- NorwegianBokmål:Johanvillespise, hvis han var sulten
- NorwegianNynorsk:Johanvilleeta om han var svolten
- Icelandic:Jóhannmyndiborða ef hann væri svangur
- Dutch:Johanneszou etenals hij honger had
- Irish:D'íosfadhSeán rud dá mbeadh ocras air
- Hindi:जॉनखाताअगर भूख होती उसे,romanized:jônkhātāagar bhūkh hotī use
In theRomance languages,the conditional form is used primarily in theapodosis(main clause) of conditional clauses, and in a fewset phraseswhere it expresses courtesy or doubt. The main verb in theprotasis(dependent clause) is either in the subjunctive or in the indicative mood. However, this is not a universal trait: among others in German (as above) and inFinnishthe conditional mood is used in both the apodosis and the protasis.
A further example of Finnish conditional[14]is the sentence "I would buy a house if I earned a lot of money", where in Finnish both clauses have the conditional marker-isi-:Ostaisin talon, jos ansaitsisin paljon rahaa,just like inHungarian,which uses the marker-na/-ne/-ná/-né:Vennék egy házat, ha sokat keresnék.InPolishthe conditional marker-byalso appears twice:Kupiłbym dom, gdybym zarabiał dużo pieniędzy.Because English is used as a lingua franca, a similar kind of doubling of the word 'would' is a fairly common way to misuse an English language construction.
In French, while the standard language requires the indicative in the dependent clause, using the conditional mood in both clauses is frequently used by some speakers:Sij'auraissu, je ne serais pas venu( "If I'd've known, I wouldn't have come" ) instead ofSi j'avaissu, je ne serais pas venu( "If I had known, I wouldn't have come" ). This usage is heavily stigmatized ( "les Si n'aiment pas les Ré!" ). However,J'auraissu, je (ne) serais pas venuis more accepted, as a colloquial form. In the literary language, past unreal conditional sentences as above may take the pluperfect subjunctive in one clause or both, so that the following sentences are all valid and have the same meaning as the preceding example:Si j'eussesu, je neseraispas venu;Si j'avaissu, je nefussepas venu;Si j'eussesu, je nefussepas venu.
In English, too, thewould+ infinitive construct can be employed in main clauses, with asubjunctivesense: "If youwouldonlytell mewhat is troubling you, I might be able to help ".
Optative
editTheoptative moodexpresses hopes, wishes or commands. Other uses may overlap with the subjunctive mood. Few languages have an optative as a distinct mood; some that do areAlbanian,Ancient Greek,Sanskrit,Finnish,Avestan(it was also present inProto-Indo-European,the ancestor of the aforementioned languages except for Finnish).
In Finnish, the mood may be called an "archaic" or "formal imperative", even if it has other uses; nevertheless, it at least expresses formality. For example, the ninth Article of theUniversal Declaration of Human Rightsbegins with:
Älköön
NEG.IMP.3SG
ketään
anyone.PART
pidätettäkö
arrest.IMP
mielivaltaisesti
arbitrarily
"Nooneshall be arrestedarbitrarily "(lit."Notanyoneshall be arrestedarbitrarily ")Unknown glossing abbreviation(s) (help);
whereälköön pidätettäkö"shall not be arrested" is the imperative ofei pidätetä"is not arrested". Also, using the conditional mood-isi-in conjunction with the clitic-payields an optative meaning:olisinpa"if only I were". Here, it is evident that the wish has not been fulfilled and probably will not be.
In Sanskrit, the optative is formed by adding the secondary endings to the verb stem. The optative, as other moods, is found in active voice and middle voice. Examples:bhares"may you bear" (active) andbharethaas"may you bear [for yourself]" (middle). The optative may not only express wishes, requests and commands, but also possibilities, e.g.,kadaacid goshabdena budhyeta"he might perhaps wake up due to the bellowing of cows",[15]doubt and uncertainty, e.g.,katham vidyaam Nalam"how would I be able to recognize Nala?" The optative may further be used instead of aconditional mood.
Jussive
editThejussive mood(abbreviatedJUS) expresses plea, insistence, imploring, self-encouragement, wish, desire, intent, command, purpose or consequence. In some languages, this is distinguished from the cohortative mood in that the cohortative occurs in the first person and the jussive in the second or third. It is found inArabic,where it is called theمجزوم(majzūm), and also inHebrewand in the constructed languageEsperanto.Therules governing the jussivein Arabic are somewhat complex.
Potential
editThepotential mood(abbreviatedPOT) is a mood of probability indicating that, in the opinion of the speaker, the action or occurrence is considered likely. It is used in many languages, including inFinnish,[16]Japanese,[17]andSanskrit(including its ancestorProto-Indo-European),[18]and in theSami languages.(In Japanese it is often called something liketentative,sincepotentialis used to refer to avoiceindicating capability to perform the action.)
In Finnish, it is mostly a literary device, as it has virtually disappeared from daily spoken language in most dialects. Its suffix is-ne-,as in *men+ne+e→mennee"(s/he/it) will probably go". Some kinds of consonant clusters simplify togeminates.In spoken language, the wordkai"probably" is used instead, e.g.,se kai tulee"he probably comes", instead ofhän tullee.
Imperative
editTheimperative moodexpresses direct commands, requests, and prohibitions. In many circumstances, using the imperative mood may sound blunt or even rude, so it is often used with care. Example: "Paul, do your homework now". An imperative is used to tell someone to do something without argument.
Many languages, including English, use the bare verb stem to form the imperative (such as "go", "run", "do" ). Other languages, such asSeriandLatin,however, use special imperative forms.
In English, second person is implied by the imperative except when first-person plural is specified, as in "Let's go" ( "Let us go" ).
The prohibitive mood, the negative imperative may be grammatically or morphologically different from the imperative mood in some languages. It indicates that the action of the verb is not permitted, e.g., "Do not go!" (archaically, "Go not!" ). In Portuguese and Spanish, for example, the forms of the imperative are only used for the imperative itself, e.g., "vaiembora!""¡vete!"(" leave! "), whereas the subjunctive is used to form negative commands, e.g.,"não vásembora!""¡notevayas!"(" don't leave! ").
In English, the imperative is sometimes used to form aconditional sentence:e.g., "Go eastward a mile, and you will see it" means "If you go eastward a mile, you will see it".
Desiderative
editWhereas the optative expresses hopes, thedesiderative moodexpresses wishes and desires. Desires are what we want to be the case; hope generally implies optimism toward the chances of a desire's fulfillment. If someone desires something but is pessimistic about its chances of occurring, then one desires it but does not hope for it. Few languages have a distinct desiderative mood; three that do areSanskrit,Japanese,andProto-Indo-European.
In Japanese the verb inflection-taiexpresses the speaker's desire, e.g.,watashi wa asoko ni ikitai"I want to go there". This form is treated as a pseudo-adjective: the auxiliary verbgaruis used by dropping the end-iof an adjective to indicate the outward appearance of another's mental state, in this case the desire of a person other than the speaker (e.g.Jon wa tabetagatte imasu"John appears to want to eat" ).
In Sanskrit, the infix-sa-,sometimes-isa-,is added to the reduplicated root, e.g.jíjīviṣati"he wants to live" instead ofjī́vati"he lives".[19]The desiderative in Sanskrit may also be used as imminent:mumūrṣati"he is about to die". The Sanskrit desiderative continues Proto-Indo-European*-(h₁)se-.
Dubitative
editThedubitative moodis used inOjibwe,Turkish,Bulgarian and other languages. It expresses the speaker's doubt or uncertainty about the event denoted by the verb. For example, in Ojibwe,Baawitigong igo ayaa noongomtranslates as "he is inBaawitigongtoday. "When the dubitative suffix-dogis added, this becomesBaawitigong igo ayaadognoongom,"I guess he must be in Baawitigong."[20]
Presumptive
editThepresumptive moodis used inRomanianandHindito express presupposition or hypothesis, regardless of the fact denoted by the verb, as well as other more or less similar attitudes: doubt, curiosity, concern, condition, indifference, inevitability. Often, for a sentence in presumptive mood, no exact translation can be constructed in English which conveys the same nuance.
TheRomaniansentence,acolo s-o fi dus"he must have gone there" shows the basic presupposition use, while the following excerpt from a poem byEminescushows the use both in a conditional clausede-o fi"suppose it is" and in a main clause showing an attitude of submission to fatele-om duce"we would bear".
- De-o fi una, de-o fi alta... Ce e scris și pentru noi,
- Bucuroși le-om duce toate, de e pace, de-i război.
- Be it one, be it the other... Whatever fate we have,
- We will gladly go through all, be it peace or be it war
InHindi,the presumptive mood can be used in all the three tenses. The same structure for a particulargrammatical aspectcan be used to refer to the present, past and future times depending on the context.[21][22]The table below shows the conjugations for the presumptive mood copula in Hindi and Romanian with some exemplar usage on the right:
| Person | Singular | Plural | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | 2nd | 3rd | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | ||
| Romanian | oi | o | om | oți | or | ||
| Hindi | ♂ | hūṁgā | hogā | hoṁgē | hogē | hoṁgē | |
| ♀ | hūṁgī | hogī | hoṁgī | hogī | hoṁgī | ||
| Tense | Sentence | Translation | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Romanian | Present | tu oi face | You might do. | |
| Past | tu oi fi făcut | You must/might have done. | ||
| Progressive | tu oi fi făcând | You must/might be doing. | ||
| Aspect | Tense | Sentence | Translation | |
| Hindi | Habitual | Present | tū kartā hoga abhī | You must/might be doing it now. |
| Past | tū kartā hogā pêhlē. | You must/might have done it before (habitually in the past). | ||
| Perfective | Present | tūnē kiyā hogā abhī. | You must/might have done now. | |
| Past | tūnē kiyā hogā pêhlē. | You must/might have done it before (in the past). | ||
| Progressive | Present | tū kar rahā hogā abhī | You must/might be doing it now. | |
| Past | tū kar rahā hogā do din pêhlē | You must/might have been doing it two days ago. | ||
| Future | tū kar rahā hogā do din bād | You must/might be doing it two days from now. | ||
Note:
- The translations are just the closest possible English approximations and not exact.
- Only masculine conjugations are shown for Hindi.
Hortative
editThehortativeorhortatory moodis used to express plea, insistence, imploring, self-encouragement, wish, desire, intent, command, purpose or consequence. It does not exist in English, but phrases such as "let us" are often used to denote it. In Latin, it is interchangeable with the jussive.
Inferential
editTheinferential mood(abbreviatedINFERorINFR) is used to report a nonwitnessed event without confirming it, but the same forms also function as admiratives in theBalkanlanguages in which they occur. Theinferential moodis used in some languages such asTurkishto convey information about events that were not directly observed or were inferred by the speaker. When referring toBulgarianand other Balkan languages, it is often calledrenarrative mood;when referring toEstonian,it is calledoblique mood.The inferential is usually impossible to distinguish when translated into English. For instance, indicative Bulgarianтой отиде(toy otide) and Turkisho gittitranslates the same as inferentialтой отишъл(toy otishal) ando gitmiş— with the English indicativehe went.[23]Using the first pair, however, implies very strongly that the speaker either witnessed the event or is very sure that it took place. The second pair implies either that the speaker did not in fact witness it taking place, that it occurred in the remote past, or that there is considerable doubt as to whether it actually happened. If it were necessary to make the distinction, then the English constructions "he must have gone" or "he is said to have gone" would partly translate the inferential.
References
edit- ^Bar-El, Leora; Denzer-King, Ryan (2008)."Irrealis in Blackfoot?"(PDF).Workshop on American Indigenous Languages.19:7–9.Retrieved3 September2017.
- ^ab"Optative Mood".SIL Glossary of Linguistic Terms.2015-12-03.Retrieved2020-08-12.
- ^"Jussive Mood".SIL Glossary of Linguistic Terms.2015-12-03.Retrieved2020-08-12.
- ^ab"Imperative Mood".SIL Glossary of Linguistic Terms.2015-12-03.Retrieved2020-08-12.
- ^"Prohibitive Mood".SIL Glossary of Linguistic Terms.2015-12-03.Retrieved2020-08-12.
- ^"WALS Online - Chapter The Optative".wals.info.Retrieved2021-05-11.
- ^ab"Dubitative Mood".SIL Glossary of Linguistic Terms.2015-12-03.Retrieved2020-08-12.
- ^ab"Hypothetical Mood".SIL Glossary of Linguistic Terms.2015-12-03.Retrieved2020-08-12.
- ^Loos, Eugene E.; Anderson, Susan; Day, Dwight H. Jr.; Jordan, Paul C.; Wingate, J. Douglas (eds.)."What is permissive mood?".Glossary of linguistic terms.SIL International.Retrieved2009-12-28.
- ^Smyth, Herbert (1984).Greek Grammar.Cambridge: Harvard University Press. pp. 403–404 (§1797–1799).ISBN0-674-36250-0.
- ^"Precative Mood".SIL Glossary of Linguistic Terms.2015-12-03.Retrieved2020-08-12.
- ^"Volitive Modality".SIL Glossary of Linguistic Terms.2015-12-03.Retrieved2020-08-12.
- ^Anita Mittwoch, Rodney Huddleston and Peter Collins. "The clause: Adjuncts." Pp. 745. Chapter 8 of (Huddleston & Pullum 2002).
- ^Karlsson, Fred (2015).Finnish: An Essential Grammar.London: Routledge.ISBN9781315743233.
- ^Gonda, J., 1966. A concise elementary grammar of the Sanskrit language with exercises, reading selections, and a glossary. Leiden, E.J. Brill.
- ^Clemens Niemi,A Finnish Grammar(1917), p. 27.
- ^Tatui Baba,An Elementary Grammar of the Japanese Language(1888), p. 18.
- ^Ratnakar Narale,Sanskrit for English Speaking People(2004), p. 332.
- ^Van Der Geer, AAE. 1995.Samskrtabhasa B1, cursus Sanskrit voor beginnersandSamskrtabhasa B2, cursus Sanskrit voor gevorderden.Leiden: Talen Instituut Console
- ^"Native Languages: Obibwe-Cree – The Ontario Curriculum, Grades 1 to 12"(PDF).Retrieved2018-03-13.
- ^"Presumptive Mood".hindilanguage.info.2012-04-20.Retrieved2020-07-01.
- ^Sharma, Ghanshyam (2008-01-01).A Pragmatic Account of the Hindi Presumptive.
- ^For a more precise rendering, it would be possible to also translate these as "he reportedly went" or "he is said to have gone" (or even "apparently, he went" ) although, clearly, these long constructions would be impractical in an entire text composed in this tense.
Sources
edit- Huddleston, Rodney D.;Pullum, Geoffrey K., eds. (2002).The Cambridge grammar of the English language.Cambridge University Press. Pp. 1860.ISBN0-521-43146-8.