Literary Subjunctive

Article excerpt · target grammar marked

Long live that question, one is tempted to say — not because the answer is near, but because asking it keeps perception honest. Were Whorf alive today, he might concede that language is less the house of thought than its most talkative tenant. As it were.

Grammar Reference · Literary Subjunctive

Literary subjunctive

Long live the question. — subjunctive for rhetorical elevation or blessing

Concessive /

Though he be silent, his logic speaks. — formal, literary concession

Lest + subjunctive

We must ask, lest we forget the question. — subjunctive after lest in formal prose

As it were / would

Language is thought's tenant, as it were. — signals ironic or qualified distance

01Exercise 1 — Form · Write the Correct Form

Literary Subjunctive

1.Long the debate — it has sharpened our understanding of the mind for a century.

2.We must preserve these field recordings, lest the last traces of Pirahã lost forever.

3. that as it may, synesthesia remains a poorly understood phenomenon in neuroscience.

4.Though the evidence contested, it is too significant to dismiss without a thorough review.

5.The musicians performed as if the colour of each note as real to them as its pitch.

6.Would that cognitive science us a complete map of pre-linguistic thought by now.

02Exercise 2 — Transform

rewrite with the new structure

1.I hope the research programme continues for many years.

2.Even if the theory is unpopular, the data supports it.

3.I wish we could observe thought without the interference of language.

4.We must document every dialect, otherwise the patterns will be lost.

5.That point is noted; however, the numerical intuition data still stands.

6.It is not my place to call Whorf's entire legacy a mistake.

03Exercise 3 — About You

in your notebook

Personalise: complete five sentences about yourself using the target grammar.

Literary Subjunctive01EnglishPlans.com