Introduction

This chapter sets the present book off against previous studies about the English subjunctive in the historical periods Old English (OE), Middle English (ME), and Early Modern English (EModE). The aim of the book is described as the first comprehensive and consistent description of the history of the present English subjunctive. The key term subjunctive is defined as a realisation of the grammatical category mood and an expression of the semantic/pragmatic category root modality. The corpus used in the book is part of The Helsinki Corpus of English Texts, comprising nearly half a million words in 91 files. The research method adopted is a combination of close reading and computational analysis.

Summary and outlook

The epilogue sets the book off against previous studies of the subjunctive. It summarizes the main results and derives rewarding topics for future studies from them. The frequency rise of subjunctives in main clauses at the end of the 14th century after its previous decreaseinvites an investigation of this construction type in the following periods. The hypothesis of the importance of the simplification of the verbal paradigm for the frequency decrease of the subjunctive is challenged by the observation that third person singular subjunctives contributed most to the survival of the category mood in all periods. This may be only one of the outstanding features of this form of the verbal paradigm. Changing genre conventions were found to correlate with changes in subjunctive use, and this opens a new perspective for genre studies. The inclusion of the category modality in the definition of the subjunctive allows answers to many questions about subjunctive use, among them its different development in individual construction types and adverbial clauses as well as the role it plays in periods of highly valued modal harmony.

The subjunctive in main clauses

This chapter deals with the frequency development of the subjunctive and its competitors as well as with their distribution across text categories in main clauses in the periods Old English (OE), Middle English (ME), and Early Modern English (EModE). The results of the analysis of these parameters are interpreted as a change from a preferred weak type of root modality in OE to a strong type in ME, which is reversed in EModE. A more or less continuous frequency decrease of subjunctives from OE until late ME contrasts with a frequency rise of modal contructions and imperatives. Yet the frequency rise of imperatives is reversed in ME. The subjunctive is the preferred realisation of the verbal syntagms in text category STA (legislative texts) in all periods. The other text categories with big shares of relevant verbal syntagms have changing preferences of their realisations.

The subjunctive in adverbial clauses

This chapter explores the frequency development of the subjunctive and its competitors, namely indicatives and modal constructions, in the adverbial clauses of a corpus covering the periods Old English (OE), Middle English (ME), and Early Modern English (EModE). It also describes the influence of the parameters text category, adverbial clause type, and matrix verb on the realisation of the verbal syntagm of adverbial clauses. The corpus analysis shows that subjunctive frequency is surpassed by indicative frequency already in OE, whereas it keeps its ground against modal constructions until EModE. The biggest shares of subjunctives are found in the text categories STA (legislative texts) and IS (secular instruction texts), in clauses of condition and concession, and in matrix clauses with verbal syntagms realised by subjunctives and imperatives.

The subjunctive in noun clauses

This chapter explores the frequency development of the subjunctive and its competitors, namely indicatives and modal constructions, in noun clauses in a corpus covering the historical periods Old English (OE), Middle English (ME), and Early Modern English (EModE). Furthermore, it discusses the influence of the parameters date of composition, text category, prose vs poetry, noun clause function, matrix verb, and noun clause type on their distribution in the individual periods. The corpus analysis of about 2.3 thousand noun clauses attests a more or less steady frequency decrease of the subjunctive from the OE period onwards. Text category STA with legislative texts, subjunctive verbal syntagms in the matrix clause, and the clause type that-clause are identified as the factors which contributed most to the preservation of the subjunctive.

The subjunctive in adjectival relative clauses

This chapter deals with the frequency development of the subjunctive and its competitors, namely indicatives and modal constructions, in adjectival relative clauses in the historical periods Old English (OE), Middle English (ME), and Early Modern English (EModE). Additionally, it discusses the linguistic and extralinguistic parameters influencing their distribution across these periods. The analysis of a corpus comprising nearly 3,000 relative clauses reveals that the subjunctive in adjectival relative clauses died out in the 16th century, that it was best preserved in text category STA containing legislative texts, and that it was favoured in combination with wh-relative markers and in constructions characterized by modal harmony, i.e. in combination with matrix clauses with verbal syntagms expressing root modality.

A bird’s eye view of the English subjunctive

This chapter analyses subjunctive use in the construction types main clause, relative clause, noun clause, and adverbial clause in three synchronic cuts through the periods Old English (OE), Middle English (ME), and Early Modern English (EModE). They are followed by a condensed history of the English subjunctive from the earliest documents to the beginning of the 18th century. The first three sections trace the frequency development of the subjunctive and its competitors in the relevant period and establish the linguistic and extralinguistic parameters which influence their distribution. The last section additionally gives an overview of the role that the simplification of the verbal syntagm, the individual construction types, the different text categories, and the expression of modality played in subjunctive use across the historical periods.