Imaginative Use of Tenses

Verbal forms which are primarily used to indicate past time are often used without that temporal import to denote unreality, impossibility, improbability or non-fulfilment. In such cases we speak of imaginative tenses or tenses of imagination. [...]

PRETERIT

9. 1(1). This is found in sentences like:

I wish I had money enough to pay you. If I had money enough, I should pay you. You speak as if I had money enough.

In all such cases we deny the reality or possibility of certain suppositions; the implication is «I have not money enough». In the second and third examples we speak of a «rejected condition» or better «rejecting condition» or «condition contrary to fact», and in the main sentence of the second example we state what would be likely under the imagined condition that I had money enough, or what may be considered the logical or natural consequence of its truth or realization.

Originally this use was found in the preterit subjunctive only, and the unreality was denoted by the mood rather than by the tense. But in course of time the distinction between the forms of the subjunctive and those of the indicative came to be blotted out, and now in 99 pct. of cases it is impossible from the form-to tell which of the two moods is used, thus with all strong verbs: came, drank, held, etc., and with all weak verbs: ended, sent, etc. The only form in which the distinction survives is was (ind.) and were (subj.), and even here it should be noted that the plural form were belongs to both moods. It was, therefore, unavoidable that this last relic of the preterit subjunctive should also give way before the overwhelming pressure of the other forms, – the more so, as no inconvenience was ever felt by the fact there is no corresponding difference in the other verbs – and we see a growing tendency to use was in the singular instead of were where unreality is to be indicated [...].

Date: 2015-02-28; view: 710