Why subjunctive?

[Bill Palmer]

Given the mention of hypercorrection in that paragraph, I'm guessing LH was
employng irony.

Bill P
----- Original Message -----
From: "Jocelyn Limpert" <jocelyn.limpert at GMAIL.COM>
To: <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Sent: Thursday, August 12, 2010 10:47 AM
Subject: Re: Why subjunctive?


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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Jocelyn Limpert <jocelyn.limpert at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: Why subjunctive?
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> "between you and I"?  not "me"?
>
> On Thu, Aug 12, 2010 at 10:43 AM, Laurence Horn
> <laurence.horn at yale.edu>wrote:
>
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>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> Poster:       Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
>> Subject:      Re: Why subjunctive?
>>
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>> At 1:25 PM +0000 8/12/10, ronbutters at aol.com wrote:
>> >Why not?
>>
>> Well, the prescriptive rule, such as it is, is that subjunctive would
>> be used in this context just in case the speaker/writer was
>> presupposing a counterfactual situation in the antecedent, in this
>> case that there is never a place in need of more comedy and less
>> comity, and that's clearly not presupposed. Presumably the author
>> believes that there are many such places, of which the Senate is the
>> foremost.  But just between you and I, the spread of subjunctive to
>> non-counterfactual if-clauses is another stalking horse of
>> hypercorrection that's long since left the barn.
>>
>> LH
>>
>>
>> >------Original Message------
>> >From: Bill Palmer
>> >Sender: ADS-L
>> >To: ADS-L
>> >ReplyTo: ADS-L
>> >Subject: [ADS-L] Why subjunctive?
>> >Sent: Aug 12, 2010 5:45 AM
>> >
>> >The opening sentence of an opinion piece
>> >in today's NYT:
>> >
>> >If ever there were a place in need of more comedy, and less comity,
>> >it's the U.S. Senate.
>> >
>> >
>> >Bill Palmer
>> >
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>> >
>> >Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry
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