Why subjunctive?

[Jocelyn Limpert]

thanks -- it wouldn't be the first time i've taken something too seriously
and missed the irony in it -- especially when not fully awake for the day!

On Thu, Aug 12, 2010 at 11:04 AM, Bill Palmer <w_a_palmer at bellsouth.net>wrote:

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> Poster:       Bill Palmer <w_a_palmer at BELLSOUTH.NET>
> Subject:      Re: Why subjunctive?
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> 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?
> >
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> >
> > "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?
> >>
> >>
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> >>
> >> 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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