combines in itself the expression of the copula and also of an activity.

The various relations of the activity, are indicated by means of the other inflections of the verb. The voice indicates the direction of the activity as to or from the subject or the object; the tense the time of the activity; the personal inflections, the relations to the speaker, person addressed, or person or thing spoken of; the gender, these latter relations more specifically; and number, the repetition of the activity. The mood expresses no relation of the activity on the one hand; and the copula, on the other, has no other inflection through which its modifications can be expressed.

The proper and distinctive function of the mood, then, is to indicate the modifications of the copula.

If this be received as settled, then we should expect that the words actually occurring in speech would correspond to the diverse forms of the copula or modes of the judgment. Farther, if this be true, then the normal use of the word is confined to such sentences as express a complete judgment, to what in other words, are called principal sentences. The occurrence of modal inflections of verbs in dependent clauses, must then be explained as derived from the proper functions of the mood; and such use of the mood must be regarded as an abnormal use.

2. The possible Kinds of Moods.

If the mood is the proper expression of the copula, then the possible modes of the judgment will determine the possible moods in language. The modes of the judgment are all reducible to three classes,

viz: those of existence and non-existence ;

of possibility and impossibility; and

of necessity and contingency.

As the modes of necessity and contingency cannot always be distinguished from each other by a mere negative, there seems to be a ground furnished in the very nature of the case, for a distinction of moods in this last class, which does not exist in the two former. Hence there can be but four proper moods in language. If in any particular dialect more are in use, we should expect that two or more would be reducible to one class, or perhaps be specifically but not generically distinct.

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Modifications of the Copula.

3. The Moods in actual use.

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Before considering the various kinds of modal expression in actual use in speech, a preparatory remark or two seems to be needful in explanation. In the first place, the modal relation is a purely intellectual relation. In this respect it differs from all the other inflections of the verb. All the others originally indicate relations in time or space, or in both. Assuming, what will probably be questioned by no one, that the verb originally expresses a sensible activity, that is, motion in space, it may be easily shown, that voice, tense, number and the other inflections of the verb all denote relations of the activity or motion which lie in time or space. As such they are more easily reducible to forms of language. But the modifications of the judgment or the copula, as real, pos. sible, necessary or contingent, are in their own nature entirely independent of time and space. They have no direct relation to any thing outward. They are pure intellectual abstractions. Hence it is with some difficulty that they are introduced into language at all. In some early languages, we find but two moods, as in the Hebrew. Hence, too, the copula is easily omitted even in more fully developed languages; as "Happy the man," instead of "Happy is the man." "Nulla salus bello." Hence, moreover, a wide diversity in the forms and varieties of modal expression introduced into particular languages. Even when introduced in full, the modal inflection is, sometimes as in the Greek, indicated only by a vowel, the most slippery and unstable of letters, which itself easily vanishes away when euphony will allow, as in the conjugation of Greek verbs in -μ.

In the next place, it should be remarked that the modifications of the copula are expressed in language in various ways, as by adverbs, by proper tense-forms, by periphrastic expressions, as by auxiliaries and inflections.

We find in the Greek language the most philosophically complete and accurate modal system. For the expression of the real and its opposite we have the indicative;-for that of the possible, the subjunctive, as rí no; quid faciam? what can I do?-for that of the necessary, the imperative ;-and for the contingent, the optative, as déws av ¿goíμnv. The infinitive, as it expresses no copula, has no proper modal force. It is used in dependent clauses to express a mere conception of an activity.

The subjunctive is so named from its more common use, as it occurs most frequently in dependent clauses, although that use

is, strictly, abnormal. The proper denomination of this mood is, the potential. The potential judgment, however, as compared with the real or indicative, needs but rarely to be expressed in speech. The different shades of possibility which it is necessary to express, have readily led to a periphrastic manner of expressing this form of the judgment.

As the potential is closely allied with the future, a possible event being in its nature ever future, absolutely or relatively, we find that the form approaches to that of the future tense, as is still more strikingly the case in the Latin. We discover, moreover, in this view of the subjunctive, the explanation of the fact, that while the subjunctive is used in the first person in exhortation and incitation, in the second and third persons, the optative is preferred in such cases.

The optative is likewise so named from its more frequent use. Yet desire is but a species of the conditional. In the Sanscrit, a still more subordinate species of the conditional judgment, has a particular mood for its expression-the precative. The optative mood in Greek expresses various conditional judgments besides the strictly optative.

As the potential is naturally allied to the future, so the conditional bears a close affinity to the past in time. Thus the optative in Greek takes the inflections of the historical tenses; and in other languages which have no proper conditional, the tenseforms denoting past time are used; as in Latin, "at fuerat melius, si te puer iste tenebat;" in English, "it would have been better,"

etc.

The imperative, on the other hand, as expressing a necessary judgment, looks more to the future; and its inflections and uses indicate this. It affirms the connection between the subject and the activity of the verb as necessary. In the second person, such a judgment would generally convey a command. In the third person, it is used not only to communicate an order, but, also, to predict a future event with emphatic affirmation. It is likewise used in certain kinds of concession, as οὕτως ἐχέτω, ὡς σὺ λέγεις. This is much stronger than the indicative or the potential mood would express. It carries the will with the expression as the cause of the effect, which hence must necessarily follow.

The Latin language has no peculiar form for the conditional. The subjunctive is used for the most part to express this as well as the potential form of the judgment. Quid faciat?" what can he do? Facerem, si possem," I would do it, if I could. The

1847.]

The Use of Moods in dependent Clauses.

73

former is a potential, the latter, a conditional judgment. In modern European languages, for the most part, these words are formed by auxiliaries.

4. The abnormal Use of Moods.

If the theory we have proposed be correct, then, as before intimated, the use of moods in dependent clauses or in such sentences as make no assertion, must be regarded as abnormal and irregular. A dependent clause expresses no judgment but merely a conception. As the proper function of the verb is to express an activity, while the noun is the proper form for the designation of a being or substance, and as we may have a conception of an activity without affirming anything respecting it, it would be easy and natural, to employ the verb in its own proper form, even where there was no judgment but merely a conception of an activity to be expressed. The infinitive is the proper form for this expression of the activity of the verb, viewed merely as such or as a conception. It is, accordingly, in strict propriety to be regarded as the substantive form of the verb, as the participle is the proper form for the attributive use of the verb.

But, it is obvious, that conceptions of activities may be characterized as to their mode as real, potential, necessary or contingent, as well as judgments. As neither the infinitive nor the participle of itself can express this modality of the conception, resort must be had in language either to periphrastic expressions, as to the use of particles or adverbial clauses, or to a borrowed use of forms originally appropriated to other purposes. Nothing could be more natural than to employ forms which properly denoted modes of judgment, in order to express analogous modes of conceptions. It is in this way, we conceive, that the verb with modal inflections, appears in dependent clauses. It appears in them with these inflections only, as a substitute for the infinitive and participle, combined with such particles or adverbial clauses as might be necessary to express the modality of the conception. As being more brief and therefore possessing more energy, it would readily be used far more frequently than the infinitive or participle, in those languages in which the moods were expressed by mere inflections, or in which the participial forms were defective. Besides, as the representation of a concrete has ever more force in speech than that of a pure abstract, the proper modal forms which always imply a concrete are even preferred to the infinitive or parVOL. IV. No. 13.

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ticiple which represent mere abstractions." The man who loves," every body feels to be more energetic than, "The man loving."

It should be remarked here, that sometimes two distinct assertions are contained in the same period. The illative, causal and some adversative conjunctions, thus, often connect phrases or clauses which are both assertive in their character, and of course admit the mood in its proper function. In all such cases, the mood has its proper significancy, and is used in accordance with the laws that regulate the use of it in all principal sentences. As some of these conjunctions in the Latin language sometimes show a relation between a conception and an assertion or another conception, as well as between proper assertions, the form of the mood will often determine whether the clause is assertive or not.

In all strictly dependent clauses, then, that is, in such as contain no expressed judgment, the modal form of the verb indicates the modality of the conception as real, potential, necessary or contingent. We have thus the general principle for the use of the mood in such clauses. According as the conception of the activity expressed in the verb is regarded as real, potential, necessary or contingent, the verb in the given case takes the mood which would properly be employed to express a judgment of that particular character.

In illustrating the application of this principle, it will be convenient to distinguish the various purposes for which the verb may be employed in dependent clauses. There are four very distinct purposes for which the verb is so employed; and these several uses of the verb may be denominated, respectively, the attributive, the substantive, the adverbial and the objective use.

It is to be remarked, generally, that the Latin language, more than most others, inclines to regard mere conceptions as only possible and not as real. The use of the subjunctive in dependent clauses is thus to be regarded as the law in that language, and the use of the indicative the exception. Hence in the oratio obliqua and all similar cases, subordinate clauses depending on other dependent clauses, incline to appear in the subjunctive mood. For all such conceptions are removed farther from the field of reality. When the conception, if entertained by the speaker, might take the indicative, it takes the subjunctive when entertained or supposed to be entertained by others. Here is the explanation of such cases as the following: "mater irata est mihi, quia non redierim domum."-Plautus.

As contrasted with the use of the Greek and English tongues,