A Cross-linguistic Approach to the Syntax of Subjunctive Mood

This monograph explores the syntactic distribution of subjunctive mood across languages,including Romance,Balkan,and Hungarian,and proposes a feature-based approach to account for variations in complementizers and the internal structure of embedding verbs. It highlights the role of the lexical semantics of the main clause predicate in mood selection and proposes a nanosyntactic analysis of embedding verbs.

Format: Hardback
Length: 217 pages
Publication date: 12 July 2022
Publisher: Springer International Publishing AG

This comprehensive monograph offers a unified account of the syntactic distribution of subjunctive mood across a diverse range of languages, including Romance, Balkan (South Slavic and Modern Greek), and Hungarian. By closely examining the contexts in which subjunctive mood occurs and its semantic contribution, the book presents a feature-based approach that reveals the common properties of verbs that embed subjunctive and accounts for the variation in subjunctive-related complementizers.

Two central proposals can be highlighted:

(i) The lexical semantics of the main clause predicate plays a crucial role in mood selection. Specifically, subjunctive mood is regulated by a specific property of the main predicate, the emotive property, which is associated with the external argument of the embedding verb (usually the Subject). The book proposes a nanosyntactic analysis of the internal structure of embedding verbs.

(ii) Cross- and intra-linguistic variations are dealt with according to different patterns of lexicalization. These variations depend on what portions of the verbs and complementizers functional sequence are lexicalized and how they are packaged by languages. By adopting this approach, the book provides a uniform account of the phenomenon of embedded subjunctives across a wide range of languages.

The monograph adopts a novel, feature-based approach to the study of subjunctive licensing, providing a detailed analysis of the features of the matrix verb, the complementizer, and the embedded subjunctive clause. It draws upon a comprehensive empirical coverage, spanning from the relatively well-studied groups of Romance and Balkan languages to less explored languages from non-Indo-European families (Hungarian).

In conclusion, this monograph is a valuable contribution to the field of linguistics, offering a comprehensive and insightful analysis of the syntactic distribution of subjunctive mood across languages. Its feature-based approach provides a novel perspective on the phenomenon of embedded subjunctives, shedding light on the common properties and variations observed in different language families. The extensive empirical coverage and detailed analysis make it an essential resource for scholars and researchers interested in language syntax and semantics.

Weight: 512g
Dimension: 235 x 155 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9783031045394
Edition number: 1st ed. 2022