MANDATIVE SUBJUNCTIVE

Present Subjunctive is a formal expression used to express a circumstance which is desired. It is usually marked with the words: ask, demand, determine, insist, order, recommend, request, require, or suggest; followed by (that)+infinitive.

Example:

• The President demands that everyone own an ID card
• It is required that you be there before 6 pm.

Pay attention to those sentences. Infinitive verbs are used regardless of the subject pronouns.

The Present Subjunctive is used mostly in formal speech and writing, more often in American English than in British English. In British English, the insertion of “should” is used.

• The President demands that everyone should own an ID card.
• It is required that you should be there before 6 pm.

Present subjunctive also occurs after adjectives such as IMPORTANT, ESSENTIAL, VITAL etc. 

• It is vital that everybody wear a mask.
• It is desirable that the cars be parked outside.
• It is important that he be here when the officers come.
• It is essential that she send the documents today.
• It is imperative that products be packed properly.

Special Uses of "it" (Dummy Pronoun)

Pronoun "it" is usually used when you refer to something, for example: It is my home. So, when you say, "It is my home", you can show me which house you refer as "it". However, there are cases when you use "it" when you are not actually refer to anything, you can not show the thing you refer as "it".  This is called "Dummy Pronoun". There are three major non-referential uses of the pronoun "it" (as a "dummy pronoun").

a. empty subject
Empty "it" occurs when there are no participants to fill the subject slot. Usually when you refer to weather condition, time, or distance, for example:
- it is raining
- it is  five o'clock
- it is a long way from Quebec to Florida.

You can also find "it" as empty objects.

b. Anticipatory subject/object
"it" is inserted as a subject when a clause has been extraposed, for example:
- It would be fun to see a movie after work.
- It is amazing that you are finally married.

c.  Subject in cleft constructions
It is found in cleft constructions, when you want to put an emphasize on a particular element in the clause, for example:
- It is the key that you are looking for, isn't it? (means "you are looking for a key, not a pen, right?")
- It is tonight that I will leave. (I will leave tonight, not tomorrow.)

Sentence vs Proposition

Sentence : a grammatically complete string of words expressing a complete thought (at least contains a verb).

I saw a book on the table is a sentence.

Book on the table is not a sentence.

Proposition :Part of the meaning of the utterance of by declarative sentence that describes some state of affairs.

Example:

Take a look at this picture. You can describe this scene by:

A cat eats a mouse.
A mouse is eaten by a cat.

Those two different sentences belong to the same proposition. All those utterances can be analyzed as consisting of a predicate naming an event or state and on or arguments naming referents that participate in that event or state.

- The activity is eat

- The agent is cat

- The patient is mouse

Propositions, unlike sentences, cannot be said to belong to any particular language. Sentences in different languages correspond to the same proposition, if the two sentences are perfect translations of each other.

Look at this sentences:

I love you (English)

Aishiteru (Japanese)

Wo ai ni (Chinese)

We call them as different sentences and language, but they refer to the same proposition: I love you.

Predicate and predicator

Predicate : any word (or sequence of words) which (in a given single sense) can function as the predicator of a sentence.
Hungry, in, crook, asleep are all predicates.
Predicator : A word that does not belong to any of the referring expressions and which, of the remainder, makes the most specific contribution to the meaning of the sentence.
- asleep is the predicator in Mother is asleep.
- Love is the predicator in The tall boy loved the Japanese girl.
- Standing is the predicator in James was standing there.

The verb be in its various forms (is, was, are, were, am) cannot be a predicator.
The term predicate identifies elements in the language system, independently of particular example sentences. Predicator identifies the semantic role played by a particular word (or group of words) in a particular sentence. It is possible to show the predicator of a sentence, but impossible to list the predicators of English. A simple sentence only has one predicator, although it may contain more than one instance of a predicate.
A tall, handsome stranger entered the shop.
This sentence have only one predicator enter, but the sentence also contains the words tall, handsome, stranger, and shop.

Referent vs Reference

Reference vs. referent
Reference: relationship between piece of language and the things in the world.
Referent: A referent is concrete object or concept that is designated by a word or expression.
Example:
Princess Diana is the referent of Rose of England.
The relationship between Princess Diana and Rose of England is called reference.

Sense and Reference

Reference : relation between piece of language and the things in the world. A referent is concrete object or concept that is designated by a word or expression, for example :
Historically, there was only one person called George Washington, the first president of US, but he can be referred to in a text in many ways, such as:
- the president
- Mr. Washington
- he
The different reference can have the same referent.
Example : morning star and evening star, both of which refer to planet Venus.
Sense : its place in a system of semantic relationships with other expressions in the language. Sense consists of 'semantic properties'. Example:
Woman has a sense of animate, female, married.
Girl has a sense of animate, female, unmarried.
To know what a woman means, you have to know what a girl means, so that you get the idea why a woman is different from a girl.
To make it simple, sense is the meaning of an expression, and if an expression refers to something, it has reference.

Speech Act Theory

People can do many things with speech. They can make promises, lay bets, warnings, offer congratulations, or swear on oath. When you say, “Be careful! Mr. Potter is in his office.” you not only say something, but you also warn someone.

The study of how we do things with sentences is the study of speech acts. In studying speech acts, we are dealing with the context of the utterance. “Mr. Potter is in his office.” may be a warning, but in some cases, the same sentence may be a promise, or merely information, depending on circumstances.

Speech act theory aims to tell us when we appear to ask questions but actually we are giving orders, or when we say something with special intonation and mean the opposite. Thus, when your friend says, “Excuse me, but you sit on my book,” he actually means “Don’t sit on my book!” It is not merely information, and you will not say “Thank you for informing,” without doing anything.

Normally, the speech act is a sentence, but it can be a word or a word or phrase as long as it follows the rules necessary to accomplish the intention. When one speaks, one performs an act. Speech act stresses the intent of the act as a whole. According to Searle, understanding the speaker’s intention is essential to capture the meaning. Without the speaker’s intention, it is impossible to understand the words as a speech act.

John R. Searle (1983) says that there are three types of speech act:

1. Locutionary acts

2. Illocutionary acts

3. Perlocutionary acts

Locutionary act is an act of saying something with the utterance’s exact meaning. Sometimes, locutionary act is merely called the act of saying something. In locutionary act, the speaker’s intention is not important. Thus, “I’m thirsty” is mere information to the hearer that the speaker is thirsty.

Illocutionary act is an act of doing something with a certain intention and function. Illocutionary act is sometimes called the act of doing something. When someone says “I’m thirsty.” he actually requests the hearer to take him a drink.

Perlocutionary act is an act to give an influence to the hearer. Sometimes, it is called the act of affecting someone.

Searle classifies illocutionary acts into five categories:

1. Assertives

An act in which the speaker commits to the truth of the corresponding proposition (i.e. He asserts the proposition), such as: stating, suggesting, complaining, claiming, and boasting.

2. Directives

Any illocutionary act which essentially involves the speaker trying to get the hearer to behave in some required way, example: ordering, commanding, requesting, advising, recommending, etc.

3. Expressives

Any illocutionary act to express the speaker’s psychological expression towards something, such as: thanking, congratulating, pardoning, blaming, condoling, etc.

4. Commisives

Any illocutionary act which essentially involves the committing to behave in some required way

5. Declarations

An act which relates the utterance with some state of affairs, for example: resigning, dismissing, naming, appointing, etc.

Actually, every utterance is some kind of speech act, even when there is no explicit performative verb. In “It is raining,” we recognize an implicit performance of stating. On the other hand, “Is it raining?” is a performance of questioning, just as “Leave!” is a performance of ordering.

References:

Fromkin, V, et al. 1990. An Introduction to Language. Australia: Hancourt Jovanovich Group

Hurford, James. R. 1983. Semantics: A Coursebook. England: Cambridge University Press.

Leech, Geofrey. 1983. Principles of Pragmatics. Edinburgh: Longman Group Limited.