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From: Eric Walker <email@owlcroft.com>
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Subject: Re: if that be the case
Date: Mon, 16 Aug 2010 11:12:15 +0000 (UTC)
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On Sun, 15 Aug 2010 22:50:36 -0400, mm wrote:
[...]
> How do you all take "..if that be the case"?
It's to some extent a matter of subtle emphasis. Curme (_English
Grammar_) has quite a little discourse on the matter:
Often . . . a present or a past state or act is of practical importance
to us. Here we often employ in both condition and conclusion a
present, past, or present perfect indicative, thus for the time being
recognizing as a practical working basis the reality of state or act,
but not finally committing ourselves to this view . . . .
["If this is true, that is false."]
Alongside of the present, past, and present perfect indicative in the
condition here, we sometimes in rather choice English, as a survival of
a once common usage, still employ the present, past, and present
perfect subjunctive, with virtually the same force, only presented from
a little different point of view, the subjunctive representing act or
state as only conceived, but at the same time recognizing the reality
of act or state as a practical working basis . . . .
["But the slight, if there be one, was unintentional."]
In everyday speech or writing, the indicative form is satisfactory; use
of the subjunctive is a tad more elegant (the second quotation is from
Robert Louis Stevenson, a noted stylist).
--
Cordially,
Eric Walker, Owlcroft House
http://owlcroft.com/english/
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