Evolving subjunctive

[Laurence Horn]

At 12:18 AM -0400 6/6/02, Bill Smith wrote:
>Skip Carey (son of Harry) is one of the radio/tv  announcers for the
>Atlanta Braves.  When there are two outs and he announces the batter on
>deck, he says, "Chipper [e.g.] would be next."  Is this a new use for the
>subjunctive?

I don't think so; it's clearly elliptical in the context for "if X
gets on, Chipper would be next" or "if the inning continues, Chipper
would be next".  I'd call it a conditional, not a subjunctive.

>On the other hand, he will also say, for example, "If he doesn't stop, he's
>out," when one would expect "If he hadn't stopped, he would have been
>out."  Are these unique to him?

The latter we've discussed on the list, and it's fairly
well-established sportscasterese.  (In fact you asked about this on
the list 7 years ago, and I responded as below.)

=========
Date:          Thu, 12 Oct 1995 23:34:01 EDT
Sender:       American Dialect Society <<ADS-L at UGA.CC.UGA.EDU>
From:         Larry Horn <<LHORN at YaleVM.CIS.Yale.Edu>
Subject:      Re: If I was
To:           Multiple recipients of list ADS-L <<ADS-L at UGA.CC.UGA.EDU>

Bill Smith wonders:
>David Justice has just made a spectacular catch preventing the
>winning run from coming in.  The announcer says, "If Justice doesn't
>catch that it's
>a double and the go-ahead run is in."
>Is this general sportscasterese, along with the use of the simple
>present for what is going on right now or just Bravesese?

It is indeed general sportscasterese, not limited to the Braves or to
baseball.  It's used all the time in play-by-play for e.g. football (if he
doesn't deflect that pass, it goes for an easy touchdown) or basketball ("If
the Glide doesn't give that hard foul, Kidd goes in for an uncontested
lay-up").  Historical present counterfactual?  (Note that this form can be
used in commenting on an instant replay, but not as felicitously by a
sportscaster showing the videotape later that night in a highlight show.)

Larry
===========

(This construction was also mentioned by David Carkeet, author of
various novels with a linguist hero, in a New York Times "On
Language" column on July 22, 2000.)

L