Alda Giannakidou
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- September 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780226363523
- eISBN:
- 9780226363660
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226363660.003.0005
- Subject:
- Linguistics, Semantics and Pragmatics
This chapter addresses the diversity of the subjunctive while trying establish a unified core crosslingustically. Giannakidou proposes that optional subjunctive contributes an evaluation. The ...
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This chapter addresses the diversity of the subjunctive while trying establish a unified core crosslingustically. Giannakidou proposes that optional subjunctive contributes an evaluation. The evaluation in all cases consists in the creation of a nonveridical modal space. Three kinds of evaluation are distinguished. The first is epistemic weakening of the proposition where the subjunctive is added, in which case we talk about epistemic subjunctive, which the author analyzes as a possibility modal. Secondly, we have the emotive subjunctive following emotive verbs in some Romance languages. In this case, the subjunctive is claimed to involve nonveridical partitioning between p and non p worlds as a presupposition. The third case of evaluation is observed in dual mood patterns, and the subjunctive there is a preference ordering such that p worlds are preferred over non-p worlds. The evaluative subjunctive, in all cases, creates a weakening, i.e. a nonveridical modal space. There is one underlying property of all contexts that enable the subjunctive: they are all nonveridical. Nonveridical domains are modal domains partitioned into p and non-p worlds, and the partition is typically the result of an ordering. Nonveridical domains are epistemically weaker spaces. The indicative, on the other hand, reflects veridicality.Less
This chapter addresses the diversity of the subjunctive while trying establish a unified core crosslingustically. Giannakidou proposes that optional subjunctive contributes an evaluation. The evaluation in all cases consists in the creation of a nonveridical modal space. Three kinds of evaluation are distinguished. The first is epistemic weakening of the proposition where the subjunctive is added, in which case we talk about epistemic subjunctive, which the author analyzes as a possibility modal. Secondly, we have the emotive subjunctive following emotive verbs in some Romance languages. In this case, the subjunctive is claimed to involve nonveridical partitioning between p and non p worlds as a presupposition. The third case of evaluation is observed in dual mood patterns, and the subjunctive there is a preference ordering such that p worlds are preferred over non-p worlds. The evaluative subjunctive, in all cases, creates a weakening, i.e. a nonveridical modal space. There is one underlying property of all contexts that enable the subjunctive: they are all nonveridical. Nonveridical domains are modal domains partitioned into p and non-p worlds, and the partition is typically the result of an ordering. Nonveridical domains are epistemically weaker spaces. The indicative, on the other hand, reflects veridicality.
