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I think he is Larry Send a noteboard - 03/01/2010 11:43:24 PM
By "irregularities," I mean "incorrect usage in a prescriptivist sense," not irregular forms. Like the difference between "I run" and "I be running." But you are the linguist, so you will have to tell me. :P


If you're talking about "I be running" meaning "I am running", that's not a subjunctive. But if it's a counterfactual in a subordinate clause, like "He ordered that I be silent", that's a subjunctive. I think, however, that you're talking about the former.


Although I can speak elements of that dialect as well, there isn't as much of a use of should/could in a contrary-to-fact sentence in American dialects, particularly Southern ones. The If...were/would construction is very common, although with the frowned-upon "If I be late, I would be in trouble." It's not necessarily "correct" written grammar, but it certainly shows how the subjunctive has survived more in certain NA dialects.
Illusions fall like the husk of a fruit, one after another, and the fruit is experience. - Narrator, Sylvie

Je suis méchant.
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