Re: [tied] Re: Eggs from birds and swift horses

> > Subjunctives do not have preterites.
> If they decide to form preterites they do.

They don't form preterites. Even in Latin, to mark past time in the
subjunctive, you must use a completed stem. In Greek and Sanskrit there is
one subjunctive per stem. This is what we reconstruct for PIE.

>The Latin imperfect
> subjunctive and the pluperfect subjunctive are the subjunctives used
> in preterital contexts.

In those constructions, it is the main verb which marks the time. The
subjunctive has lost all time reference. The single exception is unreal
conditions, where the imperfect subjunctive marks present tense!

Peter