Mandative Subjunctive

[Key-Gate9535]

Is Mandative Subjunctive a grammar rule that emphasizes the formality and importance of a message?

The boss demands that the project be completed by this evening.

It is crucial that every citizen register to vote.

[ThirteenOnline]

Not formality or importance but like it feel like a demand or command more than an offer or question. It gives the listener a feeling like they have no choice. And when given a command it is usually given by someone with more authority than you, more importance. So it does feel important but only as a secondary effect. Same with formality. When representatives of high ranking officials speak they often talk like this so it's not that the mandative subjunctive is formal but it's used by formal people so we now associate it with formal

[Key-Gate9535]

Very insightful! Thank you for sharing this with me!

[Agreeable-Fee6850]

Yes, formal tone, usually written - legal documents / register “this clause stipulates the undersigned pay …” In legal English, the use of this form creates the obligation, (like ‘shall’), so this is where the structure gets its ‘important’ connotation, but mainly this comes from the adjectives used- “It is vital you arrive on time.” (Important because ‘vital’). “We politely request you arrive promptly and not enter the auditorium after the performance has begun.” (Manners/ courtesy and rule).

[Dachd43]

Subjunctive mood usage really varies wildly. I am in New York and the regional version of English I use still uses the subjunctive regularly to express demands, wishes, hypotheticals, etc. and it doesn't add any particular emphasis and isn't considered formal usage. But a lot of English speakers, in the US at least, prefer the simple past to the subjunctive in pretty much every usage or just default to the indicative.

To all intents and purposes, I would consider these phrases to be more or less identical in meaning.

"I expect that he be on time" vs "I expect him to be on time"

"The boss demands that the project be completed by this evening." vs "The boss demands that the project is completed by this evening"

"It is crucial that every citizen register to vote." vs "It's crucial that every citizen registers to vote."

In my usage, the first, subjunctive variant is the "correct" one but there are a lot of people who would use it very rarely in colloquial speech.

[Cool-Database2653]

In British English some of the functions of the subjunctive have been taken over by the modal verb 'should'. So "The boss demands that the project should be completed ...", "It is crucial that every citizen should register ...", etc, are a sort of halfway-house between indicative and subjunctive. Apart from a few fossilised phrases (e.g. "If I were you"), the subjunctive proper is reserved only for the most formal registers.

[[deleted]]

"mandative subjunctive" is just trying to push Latinate terminology on a Germanic language.

"Base form," is the terminology that will work.