Je Ne Research Articles

TEACHING THE FRENCH SUBJUNCTIVE

A N EXACT and rational description of subjunctive usage in modern French can be based only upon an accurate analysis of the forces and mood-ideas involved in the subjunctive, and only in categories discovered by such an analysis may a wholly logical arrangement of illustrative material be attempted. The purpose of this article is to suggest and illustrate a more consistently logical arrangement of material than is usually found in our many excellent compendious grammars. Some of the shortcomings of these will be noted below. Features such as the alternative indicative or infinitive usage are purposely omitted here as irrevelant. It is generally understood that if the speaker intentionally imagines an action or state as the object of a mental attitude (modality), he will use the subjunctive in French as the means of expressing such imaginative representation. The actions or states thus imagined may be (1) vividly anticipated, (2) less vividly anticipated, (3) real, (4) unreal. The subjunctive verb performing this function is generally in subordinate clauses, but was originally in independent clauses, simple or paratactic, notably in cases (1), (2), and (4), and is still found in such. If the subjunctive verb is in a subordinate clause, the mental attitude (modality) towards the content of that clause may be expressed or implied in the context (a) in an accompanying clause, e.g. je veux,je cherche un domestique, je ne crois pas; (b) a phrase, e.g. en cas, de sorte; (c) a word, e.g. sans, pourvu; (d) or even implied by the situation alone, e.g. vienne un peu de soleil, toutes ces fieurs s'epanouirent. The mental attitudes (sometimes called the mood-ideas of the subjunctive) to be discerned in the context are: active will, vivid anticipation, realizable wish, less vivid anticipation, emotional feeling; judgment and recognition of obligation, propriety, necessity, natural likelihood, possibility; denial or doubt of the reality of the imagined action or state.

Regnault's Experiments on the Joule-Thomson Effect

THAT Regnault made a number of experiments similar to some of those described by Joule and Kelvin in their papers on the thermal effects of fluids in motion does not seem to be commonly known; at all events, the numerical results of his work on this subject are not often mentioned. After experimenting on the flow of gases through small holes in thin plates, and through long capillary tubes, he followed the example of Joule and Kelvin in using porous bodies, especially discs and tubes of soft; unglazed porcelain. He found great difficulty in getting definite results, especially in the regard that the temperature observed in the stream of gas issuing from the porous wall depended on the position of the thermometer. He concludes the account of his experiments in the following words:—“Après ces tentatives infructueuses et beaucoup d'autres dont je ne parlerai pas, j'ai renoncé à l'espoir d'obtenir quelque chose de précis, d'expériences fondées sur la mesure de températures dans les courants gazeux, et il ne m'est resté que le regret d'avoir consacré beaucoup de temps à des recherches stédies” (Regnault, “Relation des Experiences,” vol. iv., p. 707, 1870).

“Je ne suis pas ia rose,” &c

Journal Article “Je ne suis pas ia rose,” &c Get access R. H. Busk R. H. Busk Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Notes and Queries, Volume s6-X, Issue 250, 11 October 1884, Page 296, https://doi.org/10.1093/nq/s6-X.250.296b Published: 11 October 1884

“Je ne suis pas ia rose,” &c

Journal Article “Je ne suis pas ia rose,” &c Get access A. C. Mounsey A. C. Mounsey 1Jedburgh Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Notes and Queries, Volume s6-X, Issue 250, 11 October 1884, Page 296, https://doi.org/10.1093/nq/s6-X.250.296a Published: 11 October 1884

“Je Ne Suis Pas la Rose, mais j'ai vécu evec elle”

“Je Ne Suis Pas la Rose, mais j'ai vécu evec elle” Get access Lilian C. M Craven Lilian C. M Craven Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Notes and Queries, Volume s6-X, Issue 239, 26 July 1884, Page 76, https://doi.org/10.1093/nq/s6-X.239.76f Published: 26 July 1884

XXXVII. On the condition of certain elements at the moment of chemical change

The experimental inquiry which I now lay before the Society is so intimately connected with certain theoretical considerations, in which it took its rise, and which are necessary to its right comprehension, that I am unwilling to separate them. These considerations alone can explain why it appeared to me desirable to devote much time and labour to the determination of a simple analytical problem, which it has been open for the last thirty years to any chemist to undertake, but which, although doubtless connected with some of the most curious and obscure phenomena of chemical science, no one has thought it worth his while to enter upon. The reason of this may have been, that from other points of view this inquiry seemed of little importance, or, which is also probable, the question may have been, at various times, partially investigated, and the answer to it thought to be other than what it truly is, because approached from a wrong side. I shall therefore lay before the Society theory as well as experiment; for the theory is necessary to render the experiment intelligible, although this latter, in so far as it is true, has an independent value, and may be explained by others in some totally different manner. The difference which chemists draw between the chemical elements and all other bodies, is far greater and indeed of altogether another kind to that which exists between any two compound substances. Other bodies are composed and decomposed; but applied to the elements, these words are altogether inappropriate; when the element is formed there is no chemical synthesis, and when it passes from the free to the combined state, there is no chemical decomposition. This difference the atomic theory expresses by assigning to the two classes of bodies a different molecular constitution. The element it considers as consisting of single and isolated atoms, and all other bodies as systems more or less complex of combined particles. This fundamental difference of conception is well given in the following passage from Berzelius:—“Les atomes d’un même corps élémentaire ne possèdent aucune force de combinaison mutuelle; ils n’adhèrent ensemble qu’en vertu de la force d’agrégation. Plus deux corps élémentaires se ressemblent quant à leurs propriétés chimiques, moins ils tendent à s’unir, et le nouveau corps qui resulte de leur combinaison, a tant d’analogies avec ses éléments constituants, qu’il diffrère pen d’un mélange mécanique. Plus, au contraire, les corps élméntaires different de propriétés chimiques, plus la force de combinaison qu’ils exercent les uns sur les autres est grande et plus aussi les propriétés de leurs composes diffèrent de celles de leurs éléments. C’est là un problème dont je ne pourrais entreprendre la solution qu’en traitant de l’influence de l’électricité sur la matière.”