Embed Size (px)
Citation preview
Pre-publicationversion.PublishedinAustralianJournalofLinguistics,2014Vol.34,No.4,476–495,http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/07268602.2014.929086
ThesurvivalofthesubjunctiveinAustralianEnglish:Ossification,indexicalityandstance
JillVaughan
ThesurvivalofthesubjunctiveinAustralianEnglish:Ossification,indexicalityandstance
Abstract
Research on the subjunctive in Australian English has typically relied on corpusinterrogation to ascertain frequency of occurrence of the target forms across texttypes (e.g., Collins andPeters 2004, Peters 2009). Suchworkhasbeen valuable inconfirmingtrendsinusage,suchastheincreasinguseofthemandativesubjunctiveandthedeclineoftheweresubjunctive,buthasyettoexploreindetailmotivationsbehind the continued survival of what had widely been described as a moribundvariant. Based on syntactic evidence,we distinguish the plain form subjunctive,whichincludes the traditional mandative subjunctive, from thewere subjunctive. Usingexisting corpus-based results as well as data from additional corpus searches, wesuggestthattherearetwoprimaryfactorsinthesubjunctive’scontinuedexistenceinAustralianEnglish;firstly,thepresenceofagrowingsetofossifyingsubjunctiveframeswithinwhichthesubjunctiveismarked,andsecondly,theroleofthesubjunctiveinindexingformal-prestigious-standardEnglishstyle,withtheweresubjunctiveindexingliterarinessandtheplainformsubjunctiveindexingastanceofpowerandepistemicauthority.KeyWords
1
AustralianEnglish subjunctive syntacticvariationstylisticvariation indexicality1. IntroductionInEnglish,thesubjunctiveisagrammaticalconstruction,generallyexpressingsomekindofnon-factuality,suchaswhatisimagined,hypothesised,wishedorcommanded.Thefollowingcorpus-basedexamplesalongwiththeirtexttypearedrawnfromBiberetal.(1999:180):
(1) a. Itoldhershecouldstaywithmeuntilshefoundaplace,butsheinsistedthatshepayherownway.(fiction)
b. Thewayinwhichwework,whetheritbeinanofficeoronthefactoryfloor,hasundergoneamajortransformationinthepastdecade.(news)
c. Myheadfeltasifitweresplitopen.(fiction)
Theimminentdemiseofthesubjunctivehasbeenpredicted,withconsiderablevitriol,sinceatleastasearlyasthe18thcentury.SamuelJohnson,forexample,pronouncedthat ‘the conjunctive [mood] iswholly neglected’ (1755),while Bradley (1904: 53)predicted it would ‘survive no longer than a generation’. By the mid-twentiethcentury, opinions often classified the construction as a relic, ‘a vestigial survival’(Strang 1968: 152); ‘Poetry, and adolescent romantic poetry at that, is the laststrongholdofthistense’(Vallins1952:54).Andyet,asearlyasthe1950slinguistshadbeguntohighlightsomecuriousgoings-oninAmericanEnglish(AmE).Barber(1964:133)notes‘asurprisingreversion’duringandafterWorldWarIItooldersubjunctiveforms andby the1970s studieswerebeginning tobe carriedout into subjunctiveusageinAmEandBritishEnglish(BrE),withmostindicatingthatthesubjunctivewasnotsomoribundaspreviouslythought(e.g.,Johansson1979,Haegeman1986).InthefirstdetailedexaminationofthesubjunctiveinAustralianEnglish(AusE),Peters(1998)concludesthat‘itisstillenjoyinganactiveretirement’(p.101). Soitseemsthatthesubjunctiveisaliveand,ifnotkicking,itisatleastwrigglingabit.Thisisthecentralmysteryweaddressinthispaper–whyisitthatthesubjunctive,which isseeminglysonarrowandconstrained,still found inarangeof frames inawide variety of contexts? By all accounts it should be disappearing, so what is it‘buying’speakersthatisjustifyingitscontinuedexistence? Webeginbydelineatingthesubjunctive(Section2)andbrieflysurveyingpreviouswork in order to assess general trends (Section 3). From here we describe areorientation inmethodology (Section 4) thatwe take in order to get behind thenumbersof traditional corpus interrogationand lookmore closely at the syntacticenvironmentsinwhichthesubjunctiveissurviving(Section5).Usingthesefindingsweturntoourcentralquestionofwhythesubjunctiveisstillaroundproposingthatthereare two primary reasons: the increasing levels of ossification of subjunctive
2
constructions, and the indexing of style and stance that the subjunctive performs(Section6).
2. DelineatingthesubjunctiveWhileinOldEnglishthesubjunctivewasagrammaticalmoodoftheverbwithbothpast andpresent inflectional verb forms,over itshistorical development the sameprocessesthathaveeatenawaymuchofOldEnglishmorphologyhaveeffectuatedthereductionofthesubjunctiveparadigm(Need&Schiller,1990:323-5).Inthispaperweanalysewhat remainsof the subjunctive andon thebasisof the formof the verbdistinguishtwotypes:theplainformandtheweresubjunctive.1 Theplainformsubjunctive,whichistraditionallycalledthepresentsubjunctiveandincludesthemuch-studiedmandativesubjunctive,isrealisedbytheplain,orbaseform,oftheverb,asin(2a),withthepresenttenseoramodalasstylisticalternatives,asin(2b)and(2c),respectively:
(2) a. Itisessentialthattheparkremainopen. (subjunctive) b. Itisessentialthattheparkremainsopen. (presenttense) c. Itisessentialthattheparkshouldremainopen. (modal)
Fortheverbbe,theplainformsubjunctivecontrastswithpresenttenseforms(am,are,is)acrosstheparadigm:
(3) a. Sherequeststhatwe/you/theybesuitablyattired. (subjunctive) b. Sherequeststhatwe/you/theyaresuitablyattired. (presenttense)
Forallotherverbs,though, itonlycontrastswiththepresenttenseforminthe3rdpersonsingular,asin(2a)and(2b). Theweresubjunctive,traditionallycalledthepastsubjunctive,isconfinedtotheverbbe as all other verbs have lost person/number inflections in the past tense.2However,evenhereitisonlyastylisticvariantofthepasttenseformwasinthe1stand3rdpersonsingular:
(4) a. Itlookedasifitwerevaluable. (subjunctive) b. Itlookedasifitwasvaluable. (pasttense)
It is curious thatmany studiesof the subjunctiveonlyexamine themandativesubjunctive (cf. Övergaard 1995, Hoffmann 1997, Hundt 1998, Algeo 2006, Peters2009).Inthisstudyweexaminebothremnants,findingsomecrossoverindistributionofthetwo(seeSection5.2)aswellasevidencethatspeakersaregroupingthetwo
1Asnotedhere,forthepurposesofthisstudy,wearedefiningthesubjunctiveintermsofformandsidesteppingdiscussionoftheapplicabilityofthetraditionalnotionofmoodincontemporaryEnglish.Incontrast,Allan(2006),forexample,hasfocusedonthesemanticsofEnglishclause-types,arguingthatsubjunctivesincontemporaryEnglisharebettertreatedwithinafiveclause-typesystemidentifiedintermsoftypicalprimaryillocution.2Somegrammarians,includingHuddlestonandPullum(2002:86-88),argueagainsttreatingthewereformasasubjunctiveandinsteadcallittheirrealiswere.
3
typestogetherintheirhypercorrectivemodellingofsubjunctiveuse(seeSection6.3).Furthermore,inouranalysisweonlyconsidercontrastive(i.e.unambiguous)formsasactualremnantsofthesubjunctive.Thus,examplesoftheplainformarelimitedtocaseswhereeithertheverbisbe,asin(3a),or,asin(2a),thesubjectofthethatclauseis3rdpersonsingular.Similarly,examplesoftheweresubjunctivearelimitedtocaseswheretheverbbehasthepasttenseformwereandthesubjectofwereis1stor3rdpersonsingular,asin(4a). Theplainformsubjunctiveisfoundmostnotablyinfourtypesofconstructions.First,thereisarangeofformulaicphrasesandframessuchassobeit,Goddamnit,andifneedbethatareossifiedsubjunctives.Second,wefindplainformsubjunctivesubordinateclausesoccurringafterasetofmandative,orsuasive,verbs,nounsandadjectives,expressingademand,recommendation,proposal,resolution,intention,orthelike.Consider,forexample:
(5) […]BeforetheylefttheydemandedthatYiorgostheApefaceatleastpayfortheoctopustheyhadgivenhim[…]
(ICE-AUSW2F-018:22)
In(5)thesubjunctivesubordinateclausewithplainformpayisgovernedbytheverbdemanded. The more common mandative governors of subjunctive constructionsinclude advise, ask, demand, insist,move, order, request, suggest, essential, andimportant(see,e.g.,Algeo1992:601,JohanssonandNorheim1988:29,Peters1998:92-96). Althoughlessfrequent,plainformsubjunctivesarealsofoundwithasmallsetofsubordinators,ofwhichifandwhetherarethemostcommon.In(6),forinstance,weseecontrastingusageinthetwoconditionalifclauses:
(6) "It'simportantthatifthegovernmentisgoingtosubsidisethecostofprovidingpower to people in regionalWesternAustralia, that that be as transparent aspossible,"hesaid.
"And,it'sbetterifthatbedonethroughagovernmentsubsidythanbeingpaidfordirectlybybusinessesandhouseholdsintheSouthWest."
(Laborpromisestoreducepowercosts,ABCNews(abc.net.au)8thAugust2012)
Here the first conditional if clause is tensed whereas the second is a plain formsubjunctive. Finally, one primary place where the plain form subjunctive is found after asubordinator is in an exhaustive conditional construction (Huddleston and Pullum2002:993-1001):
(7) Oneofthefirstproblemsthatresultfromantibioticuse,whetheritbeininfants,childrenoradults,comesasaresultoftheireffectonthemicroorganismsinthedigestivetract.
(ICE-AUSW2B-023:203)
4
Inthisconstructionthesubordinateclausegivesanexhaustiveset,onememberofwhichmustbesatisfied.WereturntotheuseoftheplainformsubjunctiveinthistypeofconditionalinSection5.3. Lookingat theweresubjunctive, thereare fourparallel typesof constructionswhereitisprincipallyfound.First,itisossifiedinvariousformulaicphrasesandframessuchasasitwereandifIwereyou.Againliketheplainformsubjunctive,itoccurswithacertainsetofsubordinatorsincludingasif,asthough,evenif,if,though,unless,andwhether,asillustratedin(8):
(8) ThesameicethatoncecrushedShackleton'sshipEnduranceasthoughitwerenomorethanaJapanesecar
(ICE-AUSW2B-035:9)
Alongwithasthough,theoccurrenceofwere inthesubordinateclauseframestheeventasbeingasimileratherthanashavingactuallyhappened.Asweseein(8),theweresubjunctivetypicallyexpressessomedegreeofremotenessfromfactuality. Like theplain form subjunctivewe can also separate a particular constructionwhere the were subjunctive occurs with relative frequency – here the remoteconditionalwiththesubordinatorif:
(9) […]andiftherewereanelectionnextweek,whichwaywouldtheyvote? (ICE-AUSS1B-027:173)
Inthisexampletheconditionalsubordinateclausewithwereimpliesthatsatisfactionofthecondition intheactualworld isrelativelyunlikely,thusconveyingasenseoffactualremoteness.WereturntothisconstructioninSection6.1. Finally,theweresubjunctiveoccursasthecomplementofcertainverbssuchaswishandsuppose,asin(10):
(10) SupposeIwereasfortunateasher,tohaveawomanthatshelovesenoughtowanttomarry,andmybrotheropposedit.
(Abbottshouldlistentohissister,LetterstotheEditor,TheAge4thSeptember2012)
Thistypeofconstruction,whichBerk(1999:150)callsavolitionalsubjunctive,isusedto convey a hypothetical or unreal meaning; that is, it has a counterfactualinterpretation.
3. Approachestoinvestigatingsubjunctive-useIn assessing the subjunctive, researchers have predominantly applied traditionalmethodologiesforcorpusinterrogation,withmostearlierworkusingthe1961BrownCorpusofAmericanEnglish(Brown)andthe1961Lancaster/Oslo-BergenCorpusofBritishEnglish(LOB).ThemostnotablestudiesofthesubjunctiveinAusEarePeters’(1998) paperusing the1986AustralianCorpusof English, a 1million-word corpusdesigned to be parallel to theBrown and LOB corpora, andVaughan’s (2006) and
5
Peters’(2009)worksusingtheAustraliancomponentoftheInternationalCorpusofEnglish(ICE-AUS),a1million-wordcorpuswithdata,60%spokenand40%written,from1991-95.3 The methodology to date has largely been based on number counts, wheresubjunctivesaresearchedforoccurringafteranestablishedsetof‘triggers’–namely,mandativeexpressionsandsubordinators–andthentalliedup.Settingasideissuesoflow rates of occurrence of the subjunctive, differences in the numbers of triggerssearched,andpotentialskewinginthetokencounts(see,e.g.,KastronicandPoplack2013),suchanapproachhasbeeninvaluableintellingusabouttrendsinusageovertimeandregionaldifferences.StudiessuchasNichols(1987),JohanssonandNorheim(1988),Övergaard(1995),Hoffmann(1997),Hundt(1998),Peters(1993,1998,2004,2009),Vaughan(2006),andLeechetal.(2009)revealthat,althoughontheriseinBrE,the use of the plain form subjunctive with mandative expressions is much morefrequentinAmEthanBrE.Fortheweresubjunctive,whatdiscussionthereissuggeststhatitisusedfairlyequallyinAmEandBrE,withitbeingthepreferredvariantinbothvarietiesinhypothetical-conditionalclausesafterasifandasthough.InpositioningAusE, the counts indicate that the rate of plain form subjunctive usage in AusE,althoughstillsomewhatlower,isclosertothatofAmEthanitistoBrE,whiletherateofweresubjunctiveusageismuchlowerthanineithervariety.ThebroadpicturethatemergesisthatinAusEtheplainformsubjunctive,whileconstrained,appearstoberelatively stable, being used across text types and age ranges, whereas theweresubjunctive looks to be in decline, particularly as it is being used less by youngerspeakers. Furthermore,manyresearchershavenotedanassociationofplainformandweresubjunctives with a formal register (e.g., Quirk et al. 1985, Johansson & Norheim1988). However, on the surface, corpus-based results initially suggest only mixedsupport for this association. For example, in the LOB the plain form subjunctiveconstructionismostwidelyattestedininformativeprosewhereasintheBrownthereisasomewhatmoreevendistributionacrossthedefinedtexttypes(Hundt1998).InICE-AUS thehighestnumbersofunambiguousplain formsubjunctivesoccur in thepublic dialogue and scripted monologue categories (Vaughan 2006). While suchresultsmightbetakenassuggestingthatstylisticneutralisationistakingplace,theymayalsobeaproductofhowthetextsareclassified.AsPeters(2009)concludesafterlooking at mandative subjunctives in spoken English across six different nationalvarietiesinICE,‘mostcasesarefoundininstitutionalizedsettings,wherethedirectivespeechactswithwhichtheyareassociatedareusedforthemanagementofothersorritualpurposes’(p.134).
3OtherprominentcorporathathavebeeninterrogatedincludetheFreiburg/BrownCorpusofAmericanEnglish,theFreiburg/LOBCorpusofBritishEnglish,theLeedsCorpusofEnglishDialect,theBritishNationalCorpus,theWellingtonCorpusofNewZealandEnglish,andtheNewZealand,GreatBritain,Singapore,IndiaandPhilippinecomponentsoftheICEset.
6
Using these corpus-based results and the trends that emerge from them as astartingpoint,weareparticularly interested inexploringhowspeakersandwritersusethesubjunctiveinconstructingstylisticandsocialmeanings.However,asCheshire(2005:480)observes, sociolinguistic analysisof syntactic variation isoften seenasinherentlyproblematicduetothelowfrequencyofsyntacticforms(particularlywhencomparedtophoneticandphonologicalvariation).Sheargues,though,forthinkingbeyondconventionalframeworksoflanguagevariationandchangeas‘speakersusesyntactic forms to construct discourse, and through discourse they performmanydifferent kinds of social activities and construct many different kinds of socialmeanings’(p.503). Looking to both the situational and the social aspects of language use, theinterestingquestionsforuswithrespecttosubjunctivesare:
• In which syntactic environments are the plain form andwere subjunctiveactuallysurvivinginAusE?
• Why do they occur in some textual contexts (i.e. text types, interactionalcontexts)morethanothers?
• Whatkindsofpragmaticworkdotheyperform?(i.e.whatkindsofindexicallinksdotheyexploit?Howaretheyrecruitedininteractionalstance-taking?)
Throughaddressingsuchquestionsouraimistobetterunderstandwhythewereandplainformsubjunctivesarestillaround.4. DataandmethodologyThedata interrogatedherehasbeendrawnfrom: ICE-AUS; theAustralian talkbackradiocorpus(ART),a200,000wordcorpuswithdatafrom2004-2006;aswellasfromvariousonlineAustraliannewsarchives,suchasthatoftheAustralianBroadcastingCorporation (http://www.abc.net.au/news) (a full list is given in the Referencesection). TakingthetraditionalmethodologiesforcorpusinterrogationoutlinedinSection3asastartingpoint,webeganbydoingcomprehensive‘trigger’searchesbasedonlistsestablishedintheliterature.TriggersthatwereunattestedinICE-AUSorARTwerethensearchedforintheonlinemediasources.AsnotedinSection2,weonlyanalysedunambiguousformsasactualexamplesofthesubjunctive;namely,fortheplainform,caseswhereeithertheverbisbeorthesubjectofthethatclauseis3rdpersonsingular,andfortheweresubjunctive,caseswheretheverbbehasthepasttenseformwereand the subject of were is 1st or 3rd person singular. The textual context wasestablishedforeachexampleinordertofacilitateacloseranalysisofthepragmaticworkofsubjunctivesinindexicalityandstance-taking.Descriptionsof‘textualcontext’includedboththetexttype(e.g.forICE-AUSthecorpus’givenclassification,suchas‘privatedialogue’or‘unscriptedmonologue’)andthelocalinteractionalcontext(e.g.theinterlocutors,theinterpersonalrolesimplicatedinthedyad).
7
However, a more complete characterisation of the range of syntacticenvironmentsinwhichtheplainformandweresubjunctivesareactuallysurvivinginAusEnecessitatedamoveawayfromtheseestablishedtriggers.Weapproachedthisintwoways.First,weexhaustivelysearchedICE-AUSandARTfortokensofbeandweretoidentifyanyconstructionsnotpreviouslynoted(eithernoveltriggersor‘non-governed’ subjunctives – i.e. tokens that are not clearly triggered by a particularexpression).Secondly,weexpandedoursearchestoincludetheonlinenewsarchives.Here we searched instead for particular phrases (e.g. [unambiguous pronoun +be/were]and[that*be/were]–ofwhichthelatterispossibleonlywherewildcardsearchesareallowed)toidentifynovelconstructions.Wemustnote,however,thatarchivesearchenginescanbeunreliableforthiskindofsearch.Forexample,TheAgenewspaper’sarchiveturnsupnoresultsforthestring‘thatitbe’,andyetaGooglesearch for the same string (with the addition of ‘TheAge’) returns sevenTheAgearticles. As such, this kind of searching can be fruitful in identifying additionalenvironmentsbutcannotbeconsideredtobeexhaustive;norcantheseresultsbeusedinanyquantitativeway.Finally,weagainlookedmorecloselyateachindividualunambiguous subjunctive example identified to explore the textual context andpragmaticworkoftheparticularusage.Intotal,weexamined123unambiguousplainformsubjunctivesand85unambiguousweresubjunctives.5. GettingbehindthenumbersThis sectionpresentsa rangeofnovel subjunctive constructionsandmoregeneraltrends thathavenotbeendescribed inprevious literatureon the subjunctive,butwhichwewereabletoidentifythroughourmethodologicalapproaches(seeSection4)thatweredesignedtomovebeyondtraditionalnumbercounts.
5.1 BeyondtraditionaltriggersOncewemovedawayfromtheestablishedsearchlistsofmandativetriggersoftheplainformsubjunctive,wewereabletoturnupsomeadditionalverbsthathavenotbeenconsideredindetailbeforeinstudiesofthesubjunctive4:
(11) a.Macris,fromMosman,iscurrentlythetargetoftheNSWCrimeCommissionwhichhasgonetotheSupremeCourtseekingthathebeforcedtopaytothestategovernmentthevalueofhisunexplainedwealth.
(IbrahimenemyJohnMacrisarrestedforcourtno-show,TheDailyTelegraph13thAugust2013)
4Notewe also identified a number of examples ofmandative subjunctives in ICE-AUSwith knownmatrixverb,nounandadjectivetriggersthatpreviousinterrogationsofthiscorpushadnotaddressed,namely argue, decree, imperative, important, make sure, mandate, mechanism, prefer, proviso,question,resolveandvital.
8
b.Hunt and the responsibleminister, resourcesminister IanMacfarlane, areunderstoodtobedeterminedtokeeptheelectionpromisetokeeptheRET,butseveralMPsarepushingthatitbescrappedaltogether.
(Renewableenergytarget facesdelayamidcalls forAbbot toscrappolicy,TheGuardianAustraliaEdition8thJanuary2014)
In these examples, seek and push express intention and occur with a plain formsubjunctivecomplement.
Another example revealed by our searches is the modal idiomwould/had ratheroccurringwithboththeplainformandweresubjunctives,asin(12a)and(12b),respectively:
(12) a. “Intheend,I'dratheritbemethanher.” (IwishIhaddiedinstead,jet-skiersays,SydneyMorningHerald24thAugust
2012)
b. “Sometimesyougetthesensethey'dratherheweredead,asifhisdeathweresomegreatnews.”
(GarciaMarquezsufferingfromdementia,news.com.au2ndAugust2012)
While noticing would rather taking a were subjunctive is not innovative, as it ismentionedingrammarssuchasQuirketal.(1985:1183)andHuddlestonandPullum(2002:86),thistriggerhasnotbeeninvestigatedbeforeinthesubjunctiveliterature.Exampleswerefoundinboththeexhaustivebeandweresearches,aswellasinmorespecificsearchescarriedoutbasedonimpressionisticaccounts.Itseemsreasonablethat this modal idiom may be modelled on another more common subjunctive-triggeringexpressionlikewouldprefer(seeSection5.2below)giventhat‘wouldratherhasthevolitionalmeaning“wouldpreferto”’ (Quirketal.1985:142)andthat likeprefer,ratherisalsofoundoccurringinthisframetakingverbalmorphology:
(13) “Apartfromdoinghousework,hecouldn’tuseatooleitherbutI’dhaveratheredhebethatamazingdadthananythingelse.”
(Hemeanttheworldtous,TheBorderMail13thJune2012)
The manual search of ICE-AUS and the online searches of news archives forparticularconstructionssuchas[that*be/were](seeSection4)alsoidentifiedcaseswherethesubjunctiveseemedtobemorecontextuallygoverned,oratleastgovernedinamorecomplexwaythanbyasingletrigger,asin(14):
(14) ProfessorBoltonsaidtherewasnothingstoppingsuchachangetakingplaceastheonlymentionofthenationalcapitalintheConstitutionwasthatitbemorethan100milesfromSydney. (Moveovereasternstates–Perthcouldbemovingonup,WAtoday26thOctober2012)
9
Hereitseemsthattheinteractionofthecontextitselfwiththeuseofbeallowstheintendedmandativemeaningtobeconveyedwithoutrequiringtheexplicituseofamandativelexemetrigger. Whileexamplessuchasthesecannotbetakenasevidencethatthedistributionofthewereandplainformsubjunctivesisexpanding,theydohighlighttheimportanceofsearchingcorporainavarietyofways,particularlywhentryingtodeterminewherelowfrequencyvariantslikethesesubjunctivesaresurviving.
5.2 CrossoverofdistributionThebeandweresearchesalsorevealedsomeexamplesofcrossoverintermsofthetraditionalenvironmentsofthewereandplainformsubjunctives,whichwefollowedupwithmorespecificsearchesofabroaderrangeoftexts.Forexample,preferislistedasoneofthemandativeexpressionsgoverningaplainformsubjunctivecomplement(e.g.,Algeo1992,Övergaard1995,Quirketal.1985,HuddlestonandPullum2002):
(15) UnionsTasmania isworkinghardbehindthescenestomaximisethiscentre’seconomic potential. We would prefer that the employment and skilling ofTasmaniansbeatoppriority,andwewillresistanyplanstoflyinconstructionteams and contractors from interstate to run the place. […]The Governmentintendsforthistobeatemporaryarrangement,expiringinOctoberthisyear.That is short sighted and I’d prefer Tasmania be regarded strategically as alonger-termcentreforshelteringrefugees.
(Opinion,TheMercury11thApril2011)
Notethatasillustratedin(15),inoursearchespreferwasoverwhelminglyprecededbywould. What is of significance forourdiscussionhere is thatwealso found theweresubjunctiveoccurringwith(would)prefer:
(16) January26justdoesn'tsitrightwithmeandI'dpreferitwerechanged. (MoveAustraliaDaytoMay,saysRonBarassi,TheAustralian25thJanuary2009)
Particularlywhen coupledwith themodalwould,prefer has veryweakmandativeforce,similartowish,whichoccurswithaweresubjunctivecomplement.Thiscanbeseenasprovidingalinktothecentraluseoftheweresubjunctiveasexpressingfactualremoteness. Equally,theplainformsubjunctivewasfoundincontextswhereonlytheweresubjunctiveisusuallydescribedasoccurring.In(17),interrogativeifisfollowedbyberatherthantheanticipatedwere5:
(17) Weasked if governmentsbe looking to raisemoney by taxing goods boughtoverseas.
5Notethat(18)isnotambiguous,butthatitwouldbeifitoccurredwiththeanticipatedwere.
10
(NSWeyesonlineshoppingforGSTboost,ABCNews(abc.net.au)7thSeptember2012)
Inthisexampletheuseofbeintheindirectspeechinterrogativemaybetriggeredbythe presence of ask, a mandative expression that typically governs a plain formsubjunctivecomplementasshownin(18):
(18) Thisisasensitivesubjectforsomeveterans;butthatishardlyreasontodenyitsexistence.Bettertoaskthatitbeproperlydonethancancelledsothat,liketheHiroshimamuseum, itcouldbeanenduringdeterrenttoman's inhumanitytoman.
(ICE-AUSW2E-007:87)
Evenwhereoverlapsinthedistributionoftheplainformandweresubjunctiveshave been noticed, what has been overlooked is their significance – amatter wereturntoinSection6.2below.
5.3NarrowrangeofoccurrenceTaking a closer look at the syntactic environments inwhich subjunctivesoccurwefound that for both forms many triggers from the traditional search lists wereunattestedfollowedbyasubjunctiveinICE-AUS.ThisdoesnotnecessarilymeanthattheyarenotusedinAusE,though;somewereattestedinonlinenewsarchives(e.g.insistence,propose,recommend+plainform;unless,evenif+were)andpresumablythelackofexamplesofothersmaybeaproductofthesampling. Ofmoreimport,however,wefoundthataftermanytriggerstheplainformandweresubjunctivesoccurinanarrowrangeofconstructions.ThisisillustratedinFigure1, which summarises our search results from ICE-AUS of verbs in plain formsubjunctivecomplementsfollowingastandardsetofmandativeexpressions:Figure1.Bevs.otherplainformverbsfollowingamandativeexpression
11
Clearly,itisonlyasmallnumberofmandativeexpressions–namely,advise,demand,requestandsuggest–thatareoccurringwithverbsotherthanbeinthesubjunctivecomplement. Note, though, that we need to bear in mind one of the pitfalls ofsubjunctive counting here (which is another issue with relying solely on numbercounts).Withthe‘other’verbsanumberoftokenswerediscountedasambiguousastheydid not occur in the 3rd person singular.However, evenwith these examplesincludedinthecount,beisoverwhelminglythemostcommonverb,due,ofcourse,inparttotheverb’smoregeneralhighfrequency(tobefurtherdiscussedinSection6.1). InlookingatplainformsubjunctivesaftersubordinatorsinICE-AUS,itwasfoundthat that whether has the highest frequency with 11 unambiguous tokens. Theexhaustiveconditionalconstruction(seeSection2)occursin10ofthese,whileinall11tokenstheverb intheplain formsubjunctive isbe.Lookingmorecloselyat thecomplementsofthesubordinatorwhether,Cowley(2010)foundthattherewereonlytwoplainformframes,whetheritbeandwhethertheybe:
0
2
4
6
8
10
12Nu
mbe
roftoken
s
Mandativeexpressions
be
otherverb
12
Figure2.[whether+plainformsubjunctive]frames
Incontrastshefoundamuchbroaderrangeofconstructionsacrossthe147tokenswithaverbinthepresenttense:6
Figure3.[whether+presenttenseverb]frames
Of the 147 tokens included in Figure 3, the verb be occurs in 116 (79%) with 26differentverbsoccurringacrosstheremaining31tokens.Whileonlythepronounsitandtheywerefoundinthesubjunctivecomplements,awiderrangeofpronounsaswell as proper names andmore complex nounphrases occurredwith the presenttensecomplements.7
6Note that the complement set in Figure 3 only includes verbs in the present tense to avoid anypotentialoverlapwiththeweresubjunctiveanditsalternates(althoughthesearchesdidnotinfactturnupanyunambiguousweresubjunctives).7Correspondingly,KastronicandPoplack’s(2013)examinationofsubjunctiveusageintheQuebecEnglishCorpus,a2.8millionword-corpusofspontaneousspeechrepresentingcontemporaryAmE,revealedthesubjunctiveassurvivinginonlytwoadverbialconstructions(IfXwereandwhetheritbe)andonlythreemandativetriggers(wish,insist,suggest)governingasubjunctivemorethanonce,foratotalof11subjunctiveexamples.
whetheritbe whethertheybe0246810
Numbe
roftoken
s
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
Numbe
roftoken
s
13
Basedonevidence from ICE-AUS,Cowley (2010)concludes that thewhether+plainformsubjunctiveispredominantlyrestrictedtothesetframeswhetherit/theybe in AusE. Furthermore, within these frames the subjunctive complement isoverwhelminglyrestrictedtotheexhaustiveconditionalconstruction.Onereasonforthehighuseofbeafterbothmandativeexpressionsandsubordinatorsmaybethefactthatitisthemostmarkedplainsubjunctiveform.AswediscussinSection6.1and6.2below,itsusemaywellbetargetedforjustthisreason.
5.4 ContextsofoccurrenceAsweobservedinSection3,boththeplainformandweresubjunctivesareassociatedwith a formal register.8Whenwe lookedmore closely in our data at the contextswhere subjunctives typically occur, we found an association for the plain formsubjunctivewithlegalandinstitutionaltextualcontexts,asin(19),whichisanexampleofformulaicritualisticmeetinglanguage:
(19) GeorgeI'dliketomovethatavoteofthanksbeextendedtothosepeoplewhohelpedorganiseit
(ICE-AUSS1B-075:124)
Thiswasnotsurprisingasithasbeennotedbefore,forexample,byQuirketal.(1985)thattheplainformsubjunctiveis‘ratherlegalisticinstyle’(p.157). In turnwe found that thewere subjunctive occurs commonly in quite literaryproseandspeech,asintheexamplehereofcreativewriting:
(20) Shethoughtofherchildrenandtheirkidfacesbecamemnemonicsfordomesticdetailshenowdugup,gentlysiftingearthandsand,tolayeachmomentoutasifitwereabowl,vase,tile,ofsimplebutsearingbeauty.
(ICE-AUSW2F-005:57)
The association of the were subjunctive with literariness was first observed byJespersen(1924:318)andisoftmentionedingrammarsofEnglish. We hypothesise that these cross-correlations, or associations, have becomeingrainedinthemindsofspeakersandwriters,theimpactofwhichweconsiderinsections6.2and6.3.
6. Whyisthesubjunctivestillaround?6.1 OssificationInaddressingthequestionofwhytheplainformandweresubjunctivescontinuetosurvivewe hypothesise that onemajor factor is the presence of a growing set ofossifying subjunctive frames. In Section 5.3 we saw that not only is the range oftriggersafterwhichwefindplainformandweresubjunctivespotentiallynarrowing
8Inaddition,Johansson&Norheim(1988)havenotedthatahighproportionofsubjunctivesintheirdataareinthepassive,which‘alsoillustratestheformalnatureofthesubjunctiveinBritishEnglish;asiswell-known,thepassiveischaracteristicofformal,impersonalprose’(p.30).
14
butthatbeisoverwhelminglythemostcommonverbfollowingamandativetrigger.Whilethisisdueinlargeparttothemoregeneralhighfrequencyoccurrenceofbe,thishighfrequencyincombinationwiththemarkednessofthesuppletiveplainformispotentiallyareasonwhybecontinuestobesucha‘strongholdofthesubjunctive’(Turner1980:276).Assuch,itisperhapsmorestylistically‘salient’,creatinggreaterpotentialforindexingandstance-taking(seeSection6.3). InSection5.3wealsosawthatacrossthedata,theactualrangeofsubjunctiveframesisquitenarrow;forexample,inICE-AUSwhetherplusaplainformsubjunctivecomplementonlyoccursintheframeswhetherit/theybe.Similarly,ithasbeennotedthat‘inAustraliatheuseoftheweresubjunctiveisstiffeningintoaformulaicifxwere’(Peters1998:101),asin(21)below.Whatismore,oneparticularframe,ifIwereyou,hassoossifiedthatitisnowconsideredaformulaicphrase(Quirketal.1985:158andPeters2007:768). In termsof themotivation for this,asnewspapercolumnist JanFreeman(2009)tangentiallyunderlinesinthefollowingcomment,theossificationofifIwereyoumayhavepartlybeendrivenbyprescriptivecommentary:
BergenEvans,anEnglishprofessorandapopularusagemaveninthemid-20thcentury,oftencriticized‘rules’thatwerereallyjustcrotchets.Andhe said itwasOK tousewas insteadof subjunctivewere prettymuchanywhereexceptintheexpression,‘ifIwereyou.’
InterpretingourfindingsforcontemporaryAusEalongsidepreviouslyestablishedtrendsinusageovertimeandregionaldifferencesdiscussedinSection3,weproposethat thevarious subjunctive framescanbeplacedalonga continuumaccording totheirdegreeofossification:
Figure4. Continuumofossification
productive → solidifying → formulaic demand whetherit/theybe ifneedbe suggest ifXwere ifIwereyou
First,subjunctiveconstructionslikethemandativeexpressionsdemandandsuggest,whicharestilllargelyproductive,contrastwithsolidifyingconstructionslikewhetherit/theybeandifXwere.Wewouldsuggestthatmandativeexpressionslikeimperative,important,and require,whichonly occurred in ICE-AUSwithbe in the subjunctivecomplement,arestartingtosolidify,whilemove,whichonlyoccurredwithbeandinritualisticmeetinglanguageasin(19)above,aresomewhatfurtheralongintermsofossification.Finally,thereareframesthathavecompletelyossified,likeifneedbeandifIwereyou.Thisisnottosaythatallsubjunctiveswillnecessarilyprogressalongthispathwayofossification,butithascertainlybeenaclearlyobservabletrendforthoselistedhere. Oneupshotoftheincreasinglevelsofossificationinanumberofwereandplainformsubjunctiveconstructionsisthattheycreateasetofconventionalisedframesfor
15
speakers and writers to draw on in constructing the stylistic distinction of thesubjunctive(amatterwetakeupinthenextsection).Inthiswayossification,whichwe believe is affecting more constructions than has previously been suggested,appearstobeplayingamajorroleinthecontinuedsurvivalofthesubjunctive.
6.2 MetalinguisticawarenessSpeakersandwritersoftenhavemetalinguisticawarenessaboutthesubjunctiveanditsroleinconstructingaparticularstyle.Forexample,considerauthorUrsulaLeGuin’s(1989)commentsonthepowerofthesubjunctiveinnarrative:
Theindicativepointsitsbonyfingeratprimaryexperiences,attheThings;but it is the subjunctive that joins them, with the bonds of analogy,possibility,probability,contingency,contiguity,memory,desire,fear,andhope:thenarrativeconnection.(p.44)
Throughexposureandsocialisation,speakersandwriterslearnthesocialmeaningsofthisstylisticalternation,whichtheyarethenabletodrawontoexpressaparticularstylisticdistinction.Thisacquisitionoftheconnectionofsocialmeaningtolinguisticbehaviourisofcourseavitalaspectoflanguagesocialisationmoregenerally:
[The]relationbetweenlinguisticstructuresandsocioculturalinformationisindexical,inthesensethattheuseofcertainstructurespointstoandconstitutes certain social contexts and certain cultural frameworks forthinking and feeling. […] What transpires in the course of languagesocialization is that normally developing children become increasinglyadept at constituting and interpreting sociocultural contexts fromlinguisticcues.(OchsandSchieffelin2008:8-9)
Weunderstand this process as operatingmore specificallywithin an interactional-basedmodelofgrammarsuchasexemplartheory.AsBresnanandHay(2008)layout:
The grammar arises as a set of analogical generalizations over storedchunks of previously experienced language – lexical phrases orconstructions–whichareusedtobuildnewexpressionsanalogically.(p.256)
Furthermore,inanexemplartheoreticmodelofgrammarandlanguageuse,episodicmemoryisunderstoodaspreservingdetailnotonlyaboutlinguisticstructuresbutalsoabout social and contextual information and this underlies the cognitiverepresentationandprocessingoflanguage(Mendoza-Denton2007:443). What this means for the subjunctive is that along with learning a set ofincreasinglyconventionalisedframesspeakersandwriterslearnasetofassociations
16
aboutsubjunctiveuse,theprincipleonebeingtheassociationwithformal-prestigious-standard9Englishstyle. Apowerfultypeofevidencethatspeakersandwritersactuallyorienttowardthisassociationistheoccurrenceofhypercorrection,whichhasbeennoticedinarangeofsyntacticenvironments,especiallywiththeweresubjunctive(e.g.,Quirketal.1985:158,Peters1998:97andHuddlestonandPullum2002:87,1153).Perhapsthemostcommon hypercorrection we have found is the use of thewere subjunctive in asubordinateinterrogative:
(21) “Ofcourse Iamnotdismissingsuch talks,”hesaid,asked ifhewereopen todiscussionswiththewinneroftheAmericanpresidentialelection.
(Iran president Ahmadinejad wants ‘new world order’, news.com.au 27thSeptember2012)
As we mentioned in Section 2, the were subjunctive has a high frequency ofoccurrence in remote conditionals with the subordinator if. Indeed, prescriptivegrammarusedtoinsistonwereratherthanwasinthissyntacticenvironmentandasPeters(1998:97)putsit,‘forsomeAustralians[...]thereisalingeringawarenessofformalrulesabouttheuseoftheweresubjunctive’inthiscontext.Whatappearstobehappeningtheninexampleslike(21)isthatthisawarenesshasledtotheuseofwereincertainrelatedenvironmentssuchasasubordinateinterrogativewithif.Itisasifattimesspeakersorwritersexperienceakindoflinguisticpanic,amomentof‘nervouscluelessness’asPullum(2012)callsit,whentheyencounterwhatlookslikea potential subjunctive environment, and produce a subjunctive. Philip Corbett,responsibleforTheNewYorkTimes’stylemanual,hasreferredtothisphenomenonas‘subjunctivitis’(Corbett2008). Likehypercorrection,overlapsinthedistributionofthetwotypesofsubjunctivesdiscussedinSection5.2canbeviewedasextendedusesandhencefurtherevidenceof speakers and writers’ metalinguistic awareness of the subjunctive.Correspondingly,itcanbesupposedthatwhenwishingtobringaformal-prestigious-standardEnglishstyleintoplay,speakersandwriterswilltendtodrawonthemostdistinctive forms,which for theplain subjunctive is thehighlymarked formbe, asdiscussed in the previous section. Thus, frequency of use andmarkedness can beconsideredtocontributetoincreasinglevelsofossificationoftheformsweexaminedinSection5.3.
6.3 Indexicalityandstance
9‘Standard’hererefersto‘StandardAustralianEnglish’,althoughthisisbynomeansanunambiguouscategory.WeconcurwithBexandWatts(1999:7)thatthe‘standard’refersingeneraltothevarietyaccordedrespectwithinsocietyaswhole,thatistaughtinschoolsandthatindividualsareencouragedto orient to by those possessing authority. However, we also acknowledge that the notion of the‘standard’isa‘socialmythconstructedforideologicalpurposes’(p.9).
17
ReturningtotheparticularassociationsofsubjunctiveusedevelopedinSection5.4,weaddressthequestionofwhatkindsofpragmaticworktheuseofaplainformorweresubjunctiveisperformingforspeakersandwritersbyconsideringthekindsofindexical links that are available and how the subjunctive may be recruited ininteractionalstance-taking. In order to facilitate a closer examination of the particular context of eachsubjunctive,welimitedouranalysistotheplainformandtheweresubjunctivesfoundin ICE-AUS and ART. For each token, we looked closely at the local interactionalcontext, noting the interlocutors (where retrievable) and the interpersonal rolesimplicated in the dyad. As noted in Section 3, Vaughan (2006: 43) found that thehighestnumbersofunambiguousplainformsubjunctivesoccurinthepublicdialogueand scripted monologue categories. As such, we were particularly interested inascertaining whether these text type categories imposed in ICE-AUS reflected ormaskedtherealityofthelocalinteractionalcontextofsubjunctiveuse. As expected, we certainly found examples of plain form (largely mandative)subjunctives within legal and institutional settings (as Peters (2009: 134) notes).Equally,were subjunctiveswere commonly drawn from literature/creativewriting.However,wefoundthatinalmosteveryothercasespeakersandwritersseemedtobeexploitingtheestablishedindexicaltiesthattheseassociationshavecreated(seeSection6.2)inordertoconstructaparticularstyleorstance(e.g.,Schilling-Estes1998,Silverstein2003,DuBois2007).Basedonanexaminationofthecontextsofeachofthese tokens, then, we propose that in AusE the subjunctive is available to bestrategicallyemployedtoindex:
• FORMAL-PRESTIGIOUS-STANDARDENGLISHSTYLE(bothforms)• LITERARINESS(weresubjunctive)• stanceofPOWERANDEPISTEMICAUTHORITY(plainformsubjunctive)
The indexical force of both types of subjunctives in constructing a formal-prestigious-standard style has beenwidely noted (see discussion in Section 3 andSection6.2).This indexwascorroborated in thedata in this study,withno tokensdrawnfromcontextsthatcouldbecharacterisedasparticularlyinformal.Indescribingthe contexts of allwere subjunctive tokens, the primary stylistic characteristics toemergewerethoseofformality,literarinessandasenseofstorytelling.Toillustrate,the first example givenbelow is froman informative text in a popular publicationdescribing a community from ancient history, while the second is drawn from aninformativenaturearticle:
(22) WhiletheywaitedandprayedforsuchaRestoration,theirpriestsperformedalltheservicesinacourtyardonthebarrenplateau,actingasifitwereatemple.
(ICE-AUSW2B-008:2)
(23) Wombat,shewhispered,gesturingtowardsastrange-looking,shufflingcreaturethathadappearedattheentranceofalargeholebeneathoneoftheeucalypt's
18
horizontallygrowingroots.Iwatchedasitpaused,onepawdiffidentlyraised,itsbroad, blunt head drooping as if the animal were still asleep.(ICE-AUSW2B-021:17)
Ineachoftheseexamples,theauthorappearstotakeaside-stepfromthedominantinformativetoneofthearticlestopresentamorenarrative-based,character-driven‘storytelling’sectionwithinit.Thestylisticindexicalityofthesubjunctiveisavailabletosupportthischangeinstylebyevokingasenseofsignificanceandimport inthestorytelling.Assuch,thisindexisalsofundamentallyreliantonandconnectedtotheformal-prestigious-standardindex.
Asecondsetofexamples isdrawnfromanadvice-givingpieceontravelandacomplaintlettertoaphotograph-developmentcompany:
(24) If it is to be a long trek, schoolingmust be weighed up. For primary schoolchildrenthefirststepistotalktothechild'steacherandprincipal,whomaywelladvisethateachchildmakeadailyjournalofthetrip.
(ICE-AUSW2D-018:66)
(25) Yousuggestedthefilmandpackagingarenotmatchedusingthesenumbersbutratherotheridentifiers.ThismaybethecasebutcouldIsuggestthattheidentifiersonthefilmandpackagebecheckedtoseeiftheywereusedonoraboutthedateofprocessing.(ICE-AUSW1B:39)
Herewecanobservethattheauthorsareenabledtoexploittheindexicaltiesoftheplainformsubjunctiveinordertopositionthemselveswithinadyadassomeonewithknowledge,withepistemicauthority,assomeonewhoisthe‘expert’inrelationtotheaudience.Peters(2009)touchesonthisaspectwithrespecttomandativeexpressions:
Such verbs are probably more acceptable as part of professionalconsultation,where professional advice is sought in an unequal dyad.Theyresonatewiththat,evenwhentheydonotcomefromthelipsofaprofessional.(p.134)
Peters goes on to comment thatmandative expressions followed by a plain formsubjunctive make a much more frequent appearance in the commercial radiotranscriptsinARTthaninthenon-commercial,andsuggeststhatperhapsthisisdueto shock-jock types using this construction to bolster their expert credentials. InlookingmorecloselyatthoseexampleswefoundthatindeedallsuchtokensinARTwere from the commercial stations, but that in fact only onewas actually from apresenter. Nevertheless, in every other case the subjunctive user is positioningthemselvesasanexpertonthetopicathand,suchasinthefollowingexamplewherethespeakerisadoctorofferingadviceregardingamedicalconcern:
19
(26) Iwouldthinkthatshe'sprobablygoingtobeonitmoreorlessfortherestofherlifehoweverwhatIwouldsuggestshedoisaskherGPifshecouldgetareferraltoanendocrinologistwhospecialisesinosteoporosis.(ARTCOME3:E1)
Whiletheindexessuggestedhererepresentonlythefirststepinafullerinvestigationof the role of the subjunctive in pragmaticwork, it is clear that the subjunctive is‘buying’speakerssomethingsignificant in interactionthat isreinforcingitssurvival,andthatitisbeingstrategicallyrecruitedinconstructingstylisticandsocialmeanings.Inanswer,then,tothequestionsraisedinSection3,itseemsthatitisnotthecasethat the subjunctive is becoming stylistically neutral, but rather that its stylisticindexicalitiesareabletobeexploitedinarangeofgenres,texttypesanddyads. 7. ConclusionsInconclusion,wehaveproposedthattherearetwoprimaryreasonsforthecontinuedexistenceof thewere andplain formsubjunctives inAusE: first, thepresenceofagrowingsetofossifyingsubjunctiveframeswithinwhichthesubjunctiveismarked,andsecond,theshiftfromthepurelysyntactic/semanticdistinctionsthesubjunctivehastraditionallybeenthoughttocommunicatetowardsanincreasinglyrobustroleasmarkerofstyleandstance.ItremainstobeseenifthesefactorsarealsorelevantinunderstandingthecontinuingsurvivalofthesubjunctiveinotherEnglishvarieties.Inaddition,wehavefounditusefultoconceptualisetheprocessoflearningandbeingsocialisedabouttheuseofthesubjunctive(andindeedsyntacticvariantsingeneral),and then reproducing it, within an interactional-basedmodel of grammar such asexemplar theory. Finally, we wish to underline the value in looking ‘behind thenumbers’inlowfrequencyvariation(andsyntacticmicrovariationmoregenerally),assomeof these rarervariants trulypunchabove theirweight in termsofpragmaticforce.Corpora
ICE-AUS:AustraliancomponentoftheInternationalCorpusEnglish.1991-5.MacquarieUniversity.
ART:theAustraliaradiotalkbackcorpus.2004-2006.MacquarieUniversity.Onlinenewsarchives2009-2012: TheAge(www.theage.com.au) TheAustralian(http://www.theaustralian.com.au/) AustralianBroadcastingCorporation(http://www.abc.net.au/news) TheBorderMail(http://www.bordermail.com.au/) TheDailyTelegraph(http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/) TheGuardianAustraliaEdition(http://www.theguardian.com/au) TheMercury(http://www.themercury.com.au/) News.com.au
20
SydneyMorningHerald(http://www.smh.com.au/) WAtoday(http://www.watoday.com.au/)References
AlgeoJ1992‘BritishandAmericanMandativeConstructions’inC.BlankLanguageandcivilization:AconcertedprofusionofessaysandstudiesinhonourofOttoHietsch,2Frankfurt-on-Main:PeterLang.pp.599-617.
AlgeoJ2006BritishorAmericanEnglish?AHandbookofWordandGrammarPatternsCambridge:CambridgeUniversityPress.
BarberC1964LinguisticChangeinPresent-DayEnglishEdinburghandLondon:OliverandBoyd.
BerkL1999EnglishSyntax:FromWordtoDiscourseNewYork:OxfordUniversityPress.
Bex,TandRJWatts1999StandardEnglish:thewideningdebateLondon;NewYork:Routledge.
BiberD,GLeech,SJohansson,SConradandEFinegan1999LongmanGrammarofSpokenandWrittenEnglishLondon:Longman.
BradleyH1904TheMakingofEnglishLondon:Macmillan.BresnanJandJHay2008‘Gradientgrammar:Aneffectofanimacyonthesyntaxof
giveinNewZealandandAmericanEnglish’Lingua118:245-259.CheshireJ2005‘Syntacticvariationandbeyond:Genderandsocialclassvariationin
theuseofdiscourse-newmarkers’JournalofSociolinguistics9(4):479-508.CollinsPandPPeters2004‘AustralianEnglish:morphologyandsyntax’inB
Kortmann,ESchneiderandKBurridge(eds)VarietiesofEnglish:ThePacificandAustralasiaBerlin:MoutondeGruyter.pp.341-361.
CorbettP2008SubjunctivitisAvailableat:http://afterdeadline.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/10/13/subjunctivitis/accessed3March2012.
CowleyB2010OssificationoftheSubjunctive:AcasestudyexplorationofsubordinatortriggeredsubjunctivesUnpublishedmanuscript,UniversityofMelbourne.
DuBoisJ2007'TheStanceTriangle'inREnglebretson(ed)Stancetakingindiscourse:Subjectivity,evaluation,interactionAmsterdam:JohnBenjamins.
FreemanJ2009FadeAway:TheslowretirementofatrickysubjunctiveTheBostonGlobe23rdAugust2009Availableat:http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/articles/2009/08/23/fading_away_the_slow_retirement_of_a_tricky_subjunctive/accessed17June2012.
HaegemanL1986'ThepresentsubjunctiveincontemporaryBritishEnglish'StudiaAnglicaPosnaniensia19:61-74.
HoffmannS1997Mandativesentences:AstudyofvariationonthebasisoftheBritishNationalCorpusUnpublishedLizentiats-Arbeit,UniversitätZürich.
HuddlestonRandGPullum2002TheCambridgeGrammaroftheEnglishLanguageCambridge:CambridgeUniversityPress.
HundtM1998‘Itisimportantthatthisstudy(should)bebasedontheanalysisofparallelcorpora:OntheuseofthemandativesubjunctiveinfourmajorvarietiesofEnglish’inHLindquist(ed)ThemajorvarietiesofEnglish:PapersfromMaven97(1)Växjö:ActaWexionensia.pp.159-175
21
JespersenO1924ThePhilosophyofGrammarLondon:GeorgeAllenandUnwin.JohanssonS1979‘AmericanandBritishEnglishGrammar:Anelicitationexperiment’
EnglishStudies60:195-215.JohanssonSandENorheim1988‘ThesubjunctiveinBritishandAmericanEnglish’
ICAMEJournal12:27-36.JohnsonS1755ADictionaryoftheEnglishLanguageLondon:W.Strahan.KastronicLandSPoplack2013‘The(North)AmericanEnglishsubjunctiveinthe21st
century:revivalorremnant?’PaperpresentedatNewWaysofAnalyzingVariation42,Pittsburgh.Abstractavailableat:http://www.nwav42.pitt.edu/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/Kastronic-and-Poplack.cfm_.pdfaccessed20December2013.
LeGuinU1989Dancingattheedgeoftheworld:Thoughtsonwords,women,placesNewYork:GrovePress.
LeechG,MHundt,CMair&NSmith2009‘Thesubjunctivemood’inChangeinContemporaryEnglish:AGrammaticalStudyNewYork:CambridgeUniversityPress.
Mendoza-DentonN2007‘SociolinguisticExtensionsofExemplarTheory’inJCole,andJHualde(eds)LaboratoryPhonology9Berlin:MoutondeGruyter.pp.443-454.
NeedBandESchiller1990‘Whatwas,andwhathappenedto,thesubjunctiveinEnglish’ChicagoLinguisticsSociety26:323-332.
NicholsA1987‘Thesuasivesubjunctive:AliveandwellintheUpperMidwest’AmericanSpeech62(2):140-153.
OchsEandSchieffelinB2008‘Languagesocialization:anhistoricaloverview’inPADuffandNHHornberger(eds)Encyclopediaoflanguageeducation(Vol8)NewYork:Springer.pp.3-15.
ÖvergaardG1995TheMandativeSubjunctiveinAmericanandBritishEnglishinthe20thCenturyStockholm:Almqvist&Wiksell.
PetersP(ed)1993‘FeedbackReport’AustralianStyle2(1):14-15.PetersP1998‘Thesurvivalofthesubjunctive:EvidenceofitsuseinAustraliaand
elsewhere’EnglishWorld-Wide:AJournalofVarietiesofEnglish19(1):87-103.PetersP(ed)2004‘FeedbackReport’AustralianStyle12(2):11.PetersP2007TheCambridgeGuidetoAustralianEnglishUsageCambridge:
CambridgeUniversityPress.PetersP2009‘ThemandativesubjunctiveinspokenEnglish’inPPeters,PCollins
andASmith(eds)ComparativeGrammaticalStudiesinAustralianandNewZealandEnglish:GrammarandbeyondAmsterdam:JohnBenjamins.pp.125-137.
PullumGWhathewisheshe’dbeentoldaboutcancerLanguageLog1stJuly2012Availableat:http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=1357accessed2October2012.
QuirkR,SGreenbaum,GLeechandJSvartvik1985AComprehensiveGrammaroftheEnglishLanguageLondon:Longman.
Schilling-EstesN1998‘Investigating‘self-conscious’speech:TheperformanceregisterinOcracokeEnglish’LanguageinSociety27(1):53-83.
SilversteinM2003‘Indexicalorderandthedialecticsofsociolinguisticlife’LanguageandCommunication23(3-4):193-229.
22
StrangB1968ModernEnglishStructureLondon:EdwardArnold.TurnerJF1980‘ThemarkedsubjunctiveincontemporaryEnglish’Studia
Neophilologica52:271-277.VallinsG1952GoodEnglish:HowtoWriteitLondon:A.Deutsch.VaughanJ2006TheSubjunctiveinAustralianEnglishUnpublishedHonoursthesis,
UniversityofMelbourne.
Minerva Access is the Institutional Repository of The University of Melbourne
Author/s:
Vaughan, J; Mulder, J
Title:
The Survival of the Subjunctive in Australian English: Ossification, Indexicality and Stance
Date:
2014-01-01
Citation:
Vaughan, J. & Mulder, J. (2014). The Survival of the Subjunctive in Australian English:
Ossification, Indexicality and Stance. Australian Journal of Linguistics, 34 (4), pp.486-505.
https://doi.org/10.1080/07268602.2014.929086.
Persistent Link:
http://hdl.handle.net/11343/207934
File Description:
Accepted version
