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"Subjunctive"
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Remarks on counterpossibles
Since the publication of David Lewis' Counterfactuals, the standard line on subjunctive conditionals with impossible antecedents (or counterpossibles) has been that they are vacuously true. That is, a conditional of the form 'If p were the case, q would be the case' is trivially true whenever the antecedent, p, is impossible. The primary justification is that Lewis' semantics best approximates the English subjunctive conditional, and that a vacuous treatment of counterpossibles is a consequence of that very elegant theory. Another justification derives from the classical lore than if an impossibility were true, then anything goes. In this paper we defend non-vacuism, the view that counterpossibles are sometimes non-vacuously true and sometimes non-vacuously false. We do so while retaining a Lewisian semantics, which is to say, the approach we favor does not require us to abandon classical logic or a similarity semantics. It does however require us to countenance impossible worlds. An impossible worlds treatment of counterpossibles is suggested (but not defended) by Lewis (Counterfactuals. Blackwell, Oxford, 1973), and developed by Nolan (Notre Dame J Formal Logic 38:325-527, 1997), Kment (Mind 115:261-310, 2006a: Philos Perspect 20:237-302, 2006b), and Vander Laan (In: Jackson F, Priest G (eds) Lewisian themes. Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2004). We follow this tradition, and develop an account of comparative similarity for impossible worlds.
Journal Article
Emotivity matters for mood licensing
French distinguishes between indicative vs. subjunctive markings morphologically, by showing mood on the embedded verb. Embedded subjunctive appears with specific (classes of) matrix predicates, like vouloir (want), while the indicative mood is found with others, such as dire (say). This suggests that the subjunctive is licensed lexically by specific classes of predicates. However, the existence of verbs like rêver (dream), which seem to accept both moods, poses a challenge to this idea and raises the question of the source of optional mood selection. A recent approach sheds light on the importance of emotive contexts in the selection of subjunctive mood cross-linguistically (Baunaz & Pusks 2022, Baunaz & Lander 2024). Our hypothesis is that in cases where mood selection is optional (i.e., with alternating verbs), the subjunctive mood is licensed by the presence of the [Emo] feature, which is activated in emotive contexts. Consequently, we predict for alternating verbs, that the emotive contexts will favor the subjunctive mood, whereas the non-emotive contexts will favor the indicative mood. In contrast, the context manipulation will not affect the mood selection patterns of verbs that exclusively select either the indicative or subjunctive mood. We provide an experimental confirmation of this claim.
Journal Article
The teleological modal profile and subjunctive background of organic generation and growth
Formal methods for representing the characteristic features of organic development and growth make it possible to map the large-scale teleological structure of organic activity. This provides a basis for semantically evaluating, or providing a theory of meaning for, talk of organic activity as purposive. For the processes of organic generation and growth are subjunctively robust under a variety of influences characteristic for the kind or species in question, and these subjunctive conditions can be displayed in a two-dimensional array. After motivating and introducing this array, I use its two dimensions to partially account for features of the purposiveness characterizing two sets of exemplars of the plant and animal kingdoms: ferns and cacti, and cheetah and gazelle. The result is a formal framework for interpreting talk of organic activity as purposive, able to be adapted to a range of research traditions in the philosophy of language and the philosophy of biology.
Journal Article
Decisive modality and intentionality effect
This article discusses the grammatical role played by the interpretation of an action as either intentional or accidental. It focuses on two grammatical restrictions that exhibit sensitivity to such interpretation. The first concerns so-called subject obviation, whereby, in many European languages, the subject of the subjunctive clause cannot refer to the same individual as the subject of the matrix clause. For the purpose of this article, an important property of subject obviation is that it is weakened in the case of accidental actions. The second restriction pertains to an aspectual restriction in negative imperatives and desire statements in Slavic, which disallows the perfective aspect in these constructions. As is the case with subject obviation, the aspectual restriction in Slavic is lifted when the action is interpreted as accidental. This article argues for a unified semantic-pragmatic account of the weakening of subject obviation and aspectual restriction. It also shows that this weakening of obviation and of aspectual restriction is part of a larger picture where the interpretation of an action as intentional versus accidental plays a central role.
Journal Article
Mood and modal concord in Spanish directive clauses
According to Faulkner (2022b), in the case of Spanish, “indicative directive complements are strongly preferable to subjunctive clauses when a weak necessity and teleological matrix directive embeds a modal verb of equivalent strength and type” (p. 8). She explains that the exceptionality of this phenomenon relates to both predicates being interpreted in concord with one another. Having compared and analyzed several authentic examples of mood use in this context (see Faulkner 2021b, 2022a, 2022b), she, consequently, suggests that, in spite of being labeled core selectors of the subjunctive (e.g., Villalta 2008), if a modal concord construction is to come into play, the mood of the particular directive complement is affected. However, unbeknownst to Faulkner (2022b) at the time of publishing, this symbiotic relationship between modal concord and mood is not exclusive to matrix and subordinate directives that are weak necessity (of strength) and teleological (of type). Concord readings may, in fact, be evoked in contexts in which both the matrix and embedded predicates are, for example, either deontic and strong necessity or bouletic and strong necessity. In other words, if the two expressions parallel each other in strength and priority, an indicative modal complement, interpreted in concord (or unison) with the main directive, is likely to result; and, most importantly, whether or not the two modal elements are teleological and weak necessity.
Journal Article
Acquiring morphology through adolescence in Spanish as a heritage language: The case of subjunctive mood
The present study tested Spanish heritage speakers' (HSs') production and selection of subjunctive mood in volitional clauses. Four groups participated to expose the effects of age on subjunctive acquisition: Spanish-dominant bilingual adults (SDBA; n = 18), HSs in fifth grade (HS5; n = 41), HSs in seventh/eighth grades (HS7/8; n = 34) and HS adults (HSA; n = 34). SDBAs produced and selected the subjunctive more than HS groups. There were no differences in production and selection between the HS7/8 and HSA groups, both of whom produced and selected subjunctive mood more frequently than the HS5 group. These results point toward protracted heritage language development. HSs selected the subjunctive more than they produced it, supporting theories that dissociate between mapping forms onto morphology and underlying syntactic competence. Finally, proficiency and frequency of use modulated individual variability between HSs. Results are addressed relative to incomplete acquisition, protracted development and feature reassembly.
Journal Article
The presence and absence of subordinators in subjunctive substantive clauses in Plautus
Abstract
Latin subjunctive complement clauses, particularly in Plautus’ Archaic Latin, can either be introduced by a conjunction or consist only of a subjunctive (fac ut uenias type and fac uenias type). This paper aims to explain the contexts in which these constructions are chosen and the reasons for those choices. To that end, all subjunctive complement clauses in Plautus were collected, annotated and analysed. The analysis was conducted in accordance with several criteria. The results of the analysis demonstrate that neither the register of a character’s speech and their social standing (sex, type and rank) nor the relative position of the main and subordinate verbs influences the choice of construction with or without a conjunction. That being said, two criteria are extremely significant: (1) the distance (in number of words) between the main and subordinate verbs (the longer the distances, the greater the probability of conjunction use), and (2) the use of a main verb with deontic (quasi-modal) semantics and well-defined pragmatic functions (“Imperatives”, “Desiderative verbs”, and “Evaluative expressions”). As a result, we can conclude that in Plautus the subjunctive complementation without a conjunction displays formal characteristics of proximity (the absence of the conjunction and the shorter distances between both verbs), which iconically reflect the cognitive and functional proximity between both verbs within the construction (quasi-modal semantic integration and functional specialization).
Journal Article
Le moment analytique dans l’histoire des paradigmes verbaux du français : quelques propositions
This contribution falls within the broader framework of an attempt to reorganize the morphological history of French, aiming to identify overall evolutionary trends that transcend the developments traditionally studied on a part-of-speech and paradigm-by-paradigm basis. These evolutionary trends can be observed at both the paradigmatic and syntagmatic levels and operate according to either an analytical or a synthetic logic. This contribution focuses on the broad analytical phase that began in Old French and takes as its object of study verbal paradigms, particularly the past simple, the present indicative, the present subjunctive, and the imperative.
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