irrealis

Definitions

adjective grammar Of a verb: inflected to indicate that an act or state of being is not a fact.

Sorry, no etymologies found.

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word irrealis.

Another interesting aspect of this model is the prediction that while the so-called "secondary" endings ie. the objective non-progressive endings in this model: *-m, *-s, *-t came to dominate the function of irrealis in the Core IE dialects, the original grammar must have allowed for both objective and subjective non-progressive endings.

Archive 2009-09-01 2009
Another interesting aspect of this model is the prediction that while the so-called "secondary" endings ie. the objective non-progressive endings in this model: *-m, *-s, *-t came to dominate the function of irrealis in the Core IE dialects, the original grammar must have allowed for both objective and subjective non-progressive endings.

Interesting quirks of a PIE subjective-objective model 2009
Likewise *-i is absent in all other irrealis moods ie. the optative, and likely too, the subjunctive.

The PIE *to-participle in my subjective-objective model 2009
Thus we can say that the first person subjunctive is a more certain statement of irrealis when compared to all other persons.

Archive 2007-07-01 2007
Thus we can say that the first person subjunctive is a more certain statement of irrealis when compared to all other persons.

Thoughts on the early Indo-European subjunctive 1ps ending 2007

qroqqa commented on the word irrealis

Indicating an unreal situation. English has one verb-form for marking irrealis mood: the first-person and third-person singular 'were', part of the verb 'be'. This is used with verb-subject inversion in conditional clauses ('Were I younger, I would go') and optionally in non-inverted hypothetical conditionals ('If I were/was younger, I would go') and some others (sometimes after 'as if'). Traditionally called the past subjunctive, and indeed historically derived from that.

July 31, 2008