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Anonymous Posted 15 years ago
Linguistics Studies

State of the Union speech: subjunctive (or so) error?

Hello all,

The President in his speech last night said: "And on the Korean Peninsula, we stand with our ally South Korea, and insist that North Korea keeps its commitment to abandon nuclear weapons."

I am pretty sure that this is wrong and that the term "insist" in this sentence calls for the infinitive use of "keep". Am I wrong?

Thanks
  

Top answer

Hi; This is a good example of the decline of the use of the subjunctive mood in English. Its use has been diminishing for many years, and I expect that one day in the future it will be completely gone. "

— AlpheccaStars

  • Hi; This is a good example of the decline of the use of the subjunctive mood in English.
  • Its use has been diminishing for many years, and I expect that one day in the future it will be completely gone.
  • "
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4 Answers
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Hi;

This is a good example of the decline of the use of the subjunctive mood in English. Its use has been diminishing for many years, and I expect that one day in the future it will be completely gone. The same goes for "shall" and "whom."
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Thank you. Just wanted to confirm that I got this one right, before I point it out to people.
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Still, my impression is that the use of the subjunctive in the American press and media is still far from becoming extinct, which cannot be said of the British media/press. We'll see.
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AnonymousI am pretty sure that this is wrong and that the term "insist" in this sentence calls for the infinitive use of "keep". Am I wrong?

If "keep" had been used, it would have been a 3rd person singular subjunctive ("North Korea keep"), rather than an infinitive.

In British English, "keeps" would not generally be considered wrong; indi
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