Approaches to the system of Mood

(M. Deutschbein V. Plotkin, B.A. Ilyish, A.I. Smirnitsky)

It may be useful to know that various systems of mood suggested by Russian and foreign linguists comprise from 16 to no moods at all.

It is obvious that the system of 16 moods proposed by M. Deutschbein is the result of the semantic approach. The main problem with it is that it focuses on the meaning only neglecting the form.

According to the view of V.Plotkin the category of Mood in Modern English has died out. However, this approach focuses mainly on the form and neglects the existing linguistic data. It may be interesting to note that B.A. Ilyish considers this view as "the way to cut the "Gordian knot' of problems posed by the analysis of modal meaning in the verb" (Ilyish). '

Between these extremes there are intermediate views, such as that of A.I.Smirnitsky, who proposed a system of 6 moods:

· Indicative He came there. The sun rises in the East;

· Imperative Read the letter! Go there!

· Subjunctive I (be/go for all persons) I suggest that he/you go there. If it be so;

· Subjunctive II (were for all persons, and forms knew, had known homonymous with forms of Past Tense, Perfect and Non-Perfect Phase) I wish I were present. If I knew... If I had known...-,

· Suppositional (analytical formsshould/would + infinitive) Should you meet him, tell him to come. I suggest that he/you should go there;

· Conditional (analytical forms should/would + infinitive in the main clause of unreal condition sentences) What would you answer if you were asked?

The analysis of the above system of moods shows that it has a few weak points:

· firstly, its semantic basis is inconsistent because the meaning of condition is not modal;

· secondly, combinations of modal verbs having pronounced lexical meaning with the infinitive are referred to analytical forms, which is not the case;

· thirdly, homonymous forms are introduced, which should be avoided (Imperative and Subjunctive I; Indicative and Subjunctive II; Suppositional and Conditional);

· and lastly it is not clear why the forms go in Go there! and I suggest that you go there, as well as the so-called analytical form should go in I suggest that you should go there are treated as the forms of three different moods if they have the same meaning of inducement and similar syntactic contexts (the last two).

We have seen that this system, though trying to reconcile form and meaning, fails to meet our requirements for a grammatical category. In addition it seems rather complicated and inappropriate for teaching purposes.