Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-xtgtn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-25T06:53:50.841Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Mood alternation in Spanish conditional clauses: Condition, cause and the dominion hypothesis1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 March 2015

RAINER VESTERINEN
RAINER VESTERINEN*
Affiliation:
Department of Romance Studies and Classics, Stockholm University
*
Author’s address: Department of Romance Studies and Classics, Stockholm University, Universitetsvägen 10b, 106 91 Stockholm, Swedenrainer.vesterinen@su.se
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The present paper analyzes the mood alternation between Spanish conditional clauses introduced by the particle si ‘if’, on the one hand, and by conditional conjunctions such as a condición de que ‘on the condition that’, con tal de que ‘provided that’ and siempre y cuando ‘as long as’, on the other hand. Situated within the theoretical perspective of Cognitive Grammar, the paper argues that the conceptual content of the linguistic unit that introduces the conditional clause determines mood choice. In particular, it is claimed that the indicative mood in si-clauses reflects the conceptualizer’s reasoning about the causal relation between two events. By contrast, the occurrence of the subjunctive mood in other conditional clauses is analyzed as a natural effect of the condition expressed by the conditional conjunction. The analysis further shows that the mood alternation can be explained by the concept of dominion. The particle si introduces a clause that is located within the conceptualizer’s epistemic dominion, whereas other conditional conjunctions introduce clauses that are located outside the dominion of effective control.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Linguistics , Volume 52 , Issue 1 , 01 March 2016 , pp. 175 - 193
Check for updates
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2015 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Achard, Michel. 1998. Representation of cognitive structures: Syntax and semantics of French sentential complements. Berlin & New York: Mouton de Gruyter.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bustos, Eduardo. 1986. Pragmática del Español. Negociación, Cuantificación y Modo. Madrid: Universidad Nacional de Educación a Larga Distancia.Google Scholar
Farkas, Donka F. 1985. Intentional descriptions and the Romance subjunctive. New York: Garland.Google Scholar
Farkas, Donka F. 1992. On the semantics of subjunctive complements. In Hirschbühler, Paul & Koerner, Konrad (eds.), Romance languages and modern linguistic theory, 69–105. Amsterdam & Philadelphia, PA: John Benjamins.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fauconnier, Gilles. 1994. Mental spaces: Aspects of meaning construction in natural language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Giannakidou, Anastasia. 1998. Polarity sensitivity as (non)veridical dependency. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Giannakidou, Anastasia. 2011. Nonveridicality and mood choice: Subjunctive, polarity, and time. In Musan, Renate & Rathert, Monika (eds.), Tense across languages, 59–90. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Guitart, Jorge M. 1991. The pragmatics of Spanish mood in complements of knowledge and acquisition-of-knowledge predicates. In Fleischman, Suzanne & Waugh, Linda R. (eds.), Discourse-pragmatics and the verb, 179–193. London & New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Haiman, John. 1978. Conditionals are yopics. Language 54, 564–589.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hamispour, Peggy, Maldonado, Ricardo & van Naerssen, Margaret. 1995. Studies in language learning and Spanish linguistics in honor of Tracy D. Terrell. New York: McGraw Hill.Google Scholar
Haverkate, Henk. 2002. The syntax, semantics and pragmatics of Spanish mood. Amsterdam & Philadelphia, PA: John Benjamins.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lakoff, George & Johnson, Mark. 1999. Philosophy in the flesh: The embodied mind and its challenge to Western thought. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Langacker, Ronald W. 1987. Foundations of Cognitive Grammar, vol. 1: Theoretical prerequisites. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Langacker, Ronald W. 1991. Foundations of Cognitive Grammar, vol. 2: Descriptive application. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Langacker, Ronald W. 2008. Cognitive Grammar: A basic introduction. New York: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Langacker, Ronald W. 2009. Investigations in Cognitive Grammar. Berlin & New York: Mouton de Gruyter.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lunn, Patricia V. 1989. Spanish mood and the prototype of assertability. Linguistics 27, 687–702.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Maldonado, Ricardo. 1995. Middle-subjunctive links. In Hamispour et al. (eds.), 399–418.Google Scholar
Mejías-Bikandi, Errapel. 1994. Assertion and speaker’s intention: A pragmatically based account of mood in Spanish. Hispania 77.4, 892–902.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mejías-Bikandi, Errapel. 1995. Presupposition inheritance and mood in Spanish. In Hamispour et al. (eds.), 375–384.Google Scholar
Mejías-Bikandi, Errapel. 1998. Presupposition and old information in the use of the subjunctive mood in Spanish. Hispania 81.4, 941–948.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mejías-Bikandi, Errapel. 2009. Conditional sentences and mood in Spanish. Journal of Pragmatics 41, 163–172.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Oversteegen, Leonoor. 1997. On the pragmatic nature of causal and contrastive connectives. Discourse Processes 24, 51–85.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pander Maat, Henk & Sanders, Ted. 2000. Domains of use or subjectivity? The distribution of three Dutch causal connectives explained. In Kortmann, Berndt & Couper-Kuhlen, Elizabeth (eds.), Cause, condition, concession, contrast: Cognitive and discourse perspectives, 57–81. Berlin & New York: Mouton de Gruyter.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Quer, Josep. 1998. Mood at the interface. The Hague: Holland Academic Graphics.Google Scholar
Quer, Josep. 2001. Interpreting mood. Probus 13.1, 81–111.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Quer, Josep. 2010. On the (un)stability of mood distribution in romance. In Becker, Martin G. & Remberger, Eva-Maria (eds.), Modality and mood in Romance, 163–180. Berlin & New York: De Gruyter.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
RAE [Real Academia Española]. 2009. Nueva Gramática de la Lengua Española. Madrid: Espasa Libros.Google Scholar
Sanders, Ted. 1997. Semantic and pragmatic sources of coherence: On the categorization of coherence relations in context. Discourse Processes 24, 119–147.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sweetser, Eve E. 1990. From etymology to pragmatics: Metaphorical and cultural aspects of semantic structure. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Terrell, Tracy. 1995. Assertion and presupposition in Spanish complements. In Hamispour et al. (eds.), 342–360.Google Scholar
Terrell, Tracy & Hooper, Joan. 1974. A semantically based analysis of mood in Spanish. Hispania 57, 484–494.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vesterinen, Rainer. 2012a. Control and dominion: Factivity and mood choice in Spanish. Language and Cognition 4.1, 43–64.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vesterinen, Rainer. 2012b. O modo verbal em expressões impessoais com o verbo ser. Revue Romane 47.1, 76–97.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vesterinen, Rainer & Bylund, Emanuel. 2013. Towards a unified account of the Spanish subjunctive mood: Epistemic dominion and dominion of effective control. Lingua 131, 179–198.CrossRefGoogle Scholar