A Student's Introduction to English Grammar

§4 Interrogative content clauses 177

mandatives includes a component of meaning comparable to that expressed by the

modal auxiliary must (see Ch. 3, §8.l on deontic modality). The sentences in [6]

illustrate; they are all similar in meaning to He must be told immediately.

[6] SUBJUNCTIVE MANDATIVE It is essential that he be told immediately.

11 Should MAN DATIVE

III COVERT MANDATIVE

It is essential that he should be told immediately.

It is essential that he is told immediately.

Variant [i] involves the sUbjunctive use of the plain form of the verb be.
In [ii] we have a special use of the modal auxiliary should; this should mandative
is more common in BrE than in ArnE, where the subjunctive mandative is gener­
ally preferred.
With the covert variant [iii], nothing in the form of the content clause itself dis­
tinguishes the mandative use from ordinary non-mandative declaratives, as in I
hope that he is told immediately (clearly non-mandative, since hope does not
license a subjunctive complement).
With verbs other than be, and with subjects other than 3rd person singulars, the sub­
junctive and the covert mandative have the same form: It is essential that they tell
him immediately.

Potential ambiguity

While content clause complements of demand, essential, mandatory, vital, and the

like are always mandative, there are some lexemes such as insist and important that

license both mandative and non-mandative complements, and here we see ambigu­

ities that show us the distinctness of the two constructions. These two examples

make a sharp contrast:

[7] i I insisted that he meet her.

ii I insisted that he met her.

[not ambiguous: SUbjunctive mandative]

[either non-mandative or covert mandative]

Example [i] is unambiguously mandative by virtue of its subjunctive form. It car­

ries the deontic meaning "I made it a requirement for him to meet her".

Example [ii], by contrast, is ambiguous. It can be understood as either a covert

mandative meaning "I made it a requirement that he meet her" or (more proba­

bly) a non-mandative with the meaning "I emphatically asserted that he met her".

The same sort of ambiguity is found with important: a doctor who says It 's impor­

tant that he drinks a lot might mean either "He should take plenty of fluids" or "The

fact that he's a heavy drinker is significant"!

4 Interrogative content clauses

Main clause interrogatives are characteristically used to ASK questions;

subordinate interrogatives EXPRESS questions, but do not themselves ask them.

Usually (but not always) the construction can be glossed with the formula "the

answer to the question":