subjunctiveness

Definitions

The quality of being subjunctive.

uncountable

Examples

“The first suggestion resulting is the obvious and simple but profitable one that nothing is achieved by schools unless some connection is influenced, that we cannot assume⟳ change⟳ in any pupil unless bonds have⟳ been made or broken so as to cause him to respond⟳ as he did not before. The connection may be one leading only to an attitude, say⟳ of interest⟳ or enjoyment. […] It may lead⟳ from some elusive element or feature of a situation, such as the “place-value” of a number⟳ or the subjunctiveness of a subjunctive, to some general element or feature of many responses, such as open-mindedness, or cheerfulness, or readiness to do what one accepts as right.”

“The evasion of the responsibility of omniscient understanding, I said, first became crucial in the novels of Henry James; that novelist in the important autumnal part of his colossal lifework situating himself always at a remove⟳ or two from his dramatis personae, mostly just overhearing them as they gossip with and about one another, in indefatigable supposition and subjunctiveness, in a guessing game.”

“The subjunctive appears in various set⟳ phrases, phrases so formulaic that their subjunctiveness usually passes unnoticed: […]”

CEFR level