The History of the Present English Subjunctive: A Corpus-based Study of Mood and Modality

by Lilo Moessner

Overview

Locating the subjunctive at the interface of mood and modality, this book presents a systematic description of the use of the English subjunctive in main clauses, noun clauses, relative clauses, and adverbial clauses. It explores the factors which governed its competition with other verbal expressions in texts ranging from the 9th to the beginning of the 18th century. Employing close reading alongside analysis of corpus data and the use of descriptive statistics, it offers new insights into the research landscape of English subjunctive use and into the fields of historical English linguistics and corpus linguistics.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781474438001
Publisher:	Edinburgh University Press
Publication date:	05/30/2022
Edition description:	70 - 80,000
Pages:	272
Product dimensions:	6.14(w) x 9.21(h) x 0.62(d)

About the Author

Lilo Moessner is Professor Emerita of RWTH Aachen University, Germany, where she held a chair of Historical English Linguistics and Medieval Studies.

Table of Contents

List of Tables; List of FiguresChapter 1. Introduction Chapter 2. The subjunctive in main clausesChapter 3. The subjunctive in adjectival relative clausesChapter 4. The subjunctive in noun clausesChapter 5: The subjunctive in adverbial clausesChapter 6. A bird’s eye view of the English subjunctiveEpilogue: Summary and outlookAppendix I: Matrix verbs of Old English object clausesAppendix II: Matrix verbs of Middle English object clausesAppendix III: Matrix verbs of Early Modern English object clausesReferences

What People are Saying About This

Professor Christian Mair

If the recent history of the subjunctive in British and American English is the ‘tip of the language-historical iceberg’, then Moessner’s meticulous corpus study covering the time from Old English to the beginning of the 18^th century is essential reading for anyone interested in the iceberg’s vast submerged base.

Editorial Reviews

If the recent history of the subjunctive in British and American English is the ‘tip of the language-historical iceberg’, then Moessner’s meticulous corpus study covering the time from Old English to the beginning of the 18th century is essential reading for anyone interested in the iceberg’s vast submerged base.

Professor Christian Mair