The subjunctive case and intentionality
The subjunctive case, which has nearly died out in English, is used to express desire in speech. For example, “The Green party should win” is a subjunctive sentence but uses the word ‘should’ to indicate the desire of the speaker. Other languages use verb endings to convey the same meaning. For example, in German:
gehen to go (infinitive)
ging went (imperfect, simple past)
ginge would go/gone (Subjunctive II) (courtesy http://german.about.com/library/blsubjun2.htm)
And French:
aller
… que je (j’) aille
http://www.ceafinney.com/subjunctive/excerpts.html
This is of interest to me because goal modeling is a process of establishing both established facts (the indicative mood) as well as what should or ought to happen (the optative mood). Clearly goal modelers in Germany and France need to know their subjunctive quite well (I think I slept through this part of French 12).
In some ways I see English and i* taking similar approaches to conversation and meaning. By that I mean both are quite flexible in terms of syntax: one can do whatever one wants, to a greater extent than other languages. We depend on the modeler and the client to determine the context for the model in i* (e.g., to distinguish between what is and what ought to be), while English similarly relies on speakers to contextualize parts of speech that other languages, like German, require special tenses and verb endings for. The difficulty arises when someone who is not familiar with the context must interpret the model or dialog.
I'm a postdoc in software engineering at the University of British Columbia. 
I believe the subjunctive mood in English is still alive and kicking. It just seems dead because our verbs don’t have a lot of different endings like other languages. Except for the verb “to be,” the subjunctive is mostly undetectable in English. Only in the 3rd person singular (he/she/it) can you see it at work.
Indicative:
He GOES to a meeting.
Subjunctive:
I insisted he GO to a meeting.
If I turned it around and said, He insisted I GO to a meeting, that would still be subjunctive, but it would be undetectable, no different from the indicative, I GO to a meeting.
The verb “to be” tells the real tale, because the subjunctive verb form is “BE” for all persons and that doesn’t coincide with any of the indicative verb forms.
Indicative:
I AM here.
You ARE here.
She IS here.
We (or they) ARE here.
Subjunctive:
He insisted I BE here. Or: They insisted we BE here, etc.
Then there is always, “If I WERE a rich man.” “If she WERE a mermaid.” But again, you can’t hear a difference with “you, we, or they,” because they use WERE in either case.
So, English speakers DO STILL use the subjunctive. It’s just hard to tell when we’re doing most of the time.
August
2009 February 12 at 22:52