What! She "come" to see me!

[sitifan]

1. John... marry a battleaxe?! God forbid! (My bold.)
2. What! She come to see me! (My bold.)
Source: Practical English Grammar: The Definitive Guide, Book IV, by Wu Pingzhong & Wu Bingwen, page 206.
In the above quotations, are the bare infinitives in the present subjunctive mood?

 

[emsr2d2]

Everything in line 1 is correct. I'll leave it to a grammarian to comment on whether they're both subjunctive.
Line 2 is wrong. It should be either "She's come" or "She came".

 

[jutfrank]

Line 2 is wrong. It should be either "She's come" or "She came".

I think it's meant to be said in the same sort of incredulous emphatic way as number 1, as "What? She? Come to see me? How absurd!"

Do you see what I mean?

 

[emsr2d2]

I think it's meant to be said in the same sort of incredulous emphatic way as number 1, as "What? She? Come to see me? How absurd!"

Do you see what I mean?

That would make perfect sense. What a shame the textbook messed up the punctuation so badly.

 

[teechar]

Or it could simply be bad grammar.

 

[jutfrank]

What a shame the textbook messed up the punctuation so badly.

Are you referring to splitting up 'she' from 'come to see me', as I did with a full stop in post #3?

I don't think it's wrong to have it as a complete sentence, but yes, it's much easier to understand if you do split it up.

 

[emsr2d2]

Are you referring to splitting up 'she' from 'come to see me', as I did with a full stop in post #3?

I don't think it's wrong to have it as a complete sentence, but yes, it's much easier to understand if you do split it up.

I can't see "She come to see me!" as a grammatically correct sentence in any context. That's how they've written it. At a push, if they'd used a question mark at the end of it, I might have worked out what they meant. As written, it's nonsense.

 

[jutfrank]

Yes, I agree about the importance of the question mark. There should be one after What, too.

 

[5jj]

Bill: I suppose it's possible that Mary would come to see you.
Ben: What? She come to see me?

I think jutfrank's What! She come to see me! is possible, but I am happy with the version above.`

Come cannot be both subjunctive and infinitive. I think it's the latter.

I think.

 

[jutfrank]

If I had to say, I'd say it was in the subjunctive mood.

 

[5jj]

What tips the balance for me (slightly) towards the infinitive is that the -ing form is also possible:

1. What? She come to see me?
2. What? She coming to see me?

In #1, she is not actually coming to me (yet). The coming is a future situation that may not happen.
In #2, she is coming, either at the moment of speaking or as a situation that has been planned.

I would not be surprised to hear her in place of she in both utterances in casual conversation.

 

[jutfrank]

What tips it for me is that I see the utterances as expressing a disbelief at the very mention of the possibility. I presume that's what the context 'God forbid!' and 'What!' are meant to show.