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The most disputable question in the category of mood is the problem of number and types of Obligue Moods. Obligue Moods denote unreal or problematic actions so they can't be modified by the category of tense proper. They denote only relative time, that is simultaneousness or priority. Due to the variety of forms it's impossible to make up regular paradigms of Obligue Moods and so classify them.
Very often the speaker does not however express an action as a matter of fact, neither does he urge another person to perform an action. The speaker expresses an action as possible, desirable, obligatory, necessary, supposed or simply contrary to fact. In this case the verb serving to denote this action is used in the Oblique mood. The forms of the verb used in the Oblique mood are quite various in Modern English and the problem connected with it seems extremely complicated. Some linguists speak of only one oblique mood, some of more than one. Foreign grammarians consider that the number of oblique moods in English may be established in accordance with the practical use of this or that verb expressing either a problematic action or an unreal one. Thus, 0. Jespersen takes into consideration only the usage of synthetical forms. Curme r efers the oblique mood to different cases of usage of the Indicative mood. H. Sweet speaks both of the usages of the synthetical forms and of the analytical forms. Max Deutschbein finds sixteen moods in Modern English.
Our grammarians also solve this problem differently. Khlebnikova thinks that in Modern English there exists the Conjunctive mood which is subdivided into the Subjunctive and the Conditional Moods. A. Smirnitsky and some other grammarians suggested an interesting classification of Oblique Moods. They divided all the forms of the verb into four moods:
1. Subjunctive I which serves to express a problematic action and the form of which coincides with the form of the Infinitive without the particle to in all cases. It has no tense distinction.
E.g. I suggest that he arrive at once.
One form is used for all the persons Singular and Plural. Subjunctive I is a very old mood and is rapidly falling into disuse. It is found in poetry, in elevated prose and in documents of official language.
2. Subjunctive II expresses unreal actions and formally coincides with the forms of the Past Indefinite tense when the action refers to Present and Future and with the Past tense of the Perfect Correlation when the action refers to the Past, e.g. I wish you were present (now. tomorrow). I wish you had been present (yesterday).
Subjunctive I and partly Subjunctive II (Present Subjunctive II) are synthetic forms. Two other forms the Suppositional Mood and the Conditional Mood are analytical forms.
3. The Suppositional Mood which is a grammatical synonym to Subjunctive I. expresses a problematic action and is built up by means of the auxiliary verb should + Infinitive Indefinite or Perfect, e.g.
I suggest that he should take part in the conference. It is impossible that he should have said it.
4. The Conditional Mood expresses the greatest degree of unreality. The unreality of an action here depends on some unreal condition or circumstances.
E.g. If I knew him I should speak to him. If he had been here he would have called on me.
This classification should be discussed from the point of view of the scientific principle which it is based on. If we suppose that the given classification of four Oblique Moods is based on the structural principal then the question arises why we should distinguish between such forms as Subjunctive I and Present Subjunctive II. From the structural point of view these two forms do not differ because they both are synthetical forms. Again why we should distinguish between the Conditional and the Suppositional Moods and Past Subjunctive II - they are analytical.
If we take into consideration the semantic principle then it is impossible to distinguish between Subjunctive I and the Suppositional Mood because they both serve to express a problematic action.
As to the Conditional Mood and Subjunctive II they both express an unreal action. Thus, we may see that both principles structural and semantic won't do in connection with the classification suggested by Professor A.I. Smirnitsky.
Hence to be more precise it is more correct to consider that there is only one oblique mood in Modern English - The Subjunctive Mood as all the forms both synthetical and analytical serve to express different shades of one and the same meaning. In support of this point of view it is necessary to mention the fact that the analytical forms which developed much later than synthetical forms very often render the same shade of meaning as the corresponding synthetical forms. The so-called Suppositional Mood in our days is freely used instead of the so-called Subjunctive I.
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