Indicative directive complements: mood and modal concord in Spanish

Directive predicates are words with meanings that are similar to ‘order’, ‘require’, ‘recommend’, and ‘advise’. Being volitional in nature, directives are said to form part of the core group of subjunctive-taking predicates. This means that, like desiderative (e.g., querer que ‘to want that’) and p...

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Main Author: Tris Faulkner
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Septentrio Academic Publishing 2022-12-01
Series:Borealis: An International Journal of Hispanic Linguistics
Subjects:
Online Access:https://septentrio.uit.no/index.php/borealis/article/view/6583
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author Tris Faulkner
author_facet Tris Faulkner
author_sort Tris Faulkner
collection DOAJ
description Directive predicates are words with meanings that are similar to ‘order’, ‘require’, ‘recommend’, and ‘advise’. Being volitional in nature, directives are said to form part of the core group of subjunctive-taking predicates. This means that, like desiderative (e.g., querer que ‘to want that’) and purpose clauses (e.g., para que ‘so that’), they are expected to, and generally do, take the subjunctive. However, findings from the present investigation suggest that, in spite of this description, there are certain contexts in which indicative directive complements are strongly preferred. Analyses showed that indicative directive clauses are strongly preferable to subjunctive complements when the embedded verb is of the same modality type (e.g., teleological) and strength (e.g., weak necessity) as the matrix directive; i.e., when there is modal concord. In the case of subjunctive complements, they are preferable to indicative, only when there is no concord between the embedded and main directive predicates. These findings are significant, not only because directives are normatively described as requiring the subjunctive, but also because no previous studies have examined a link between mood and modal concord.
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spelling doaj.art-f1ba6ccd55ab48a4ba2023126ac5561a2022-12-22T02:57:04ZengSeptentrio Academic PublishingBorealis: An International Journal of Hispanic Linguistics1893-32112022-12-0111310.7557/1.11.3.6583Indicative directive complements: mood and modal concord in SpanishTris Faulkner0Kalamazoo College Directive predicates are words with meanings that are similar to ‘order’, ‘require’, ‘recommend’, and ‘advise’. Being volitional in nature, directives are said to form part of the core group of subjunctive-taking predicates. This means that, like desiderative (e.g., querer que ‘to want that’) and purpose clauses (e.g., para que ‘so that’), they are expected to, and generally do, take the subjunctive. However, findings from the present investigation suggest that, in spite of this description, there are certain contexts in which indicative directive complements are strongly preferred. Analyses showed that indicative directive clauses are strongly preferable to subjunctive complements when the embedded verb is of the same modality type (e.g., teleological) and strength (e.g., weak necessity) as the matrix directive; i.e., when there is modal concord. In the case of subjunctive complements, they are preferable to indicative, only when there is no concord between the embedded and main directive predicates. These findings are significant, not only because directives are normatively described as requiring the subjunctive, but also because no previous studies have examined a link between mood and modal concord. https://septentrio.uit.no/index.php/borealis/article/view/6583moodmodal concordSpanishdirectives
spellingShingle Tris Faulkner
Indicative directive complements: mood and modal concord in Spanish
Borealis: An International Journal of Hispanic Linguistics
mood
modal concord
Spanish
directives
title Indicative directive complements: mood and modal concord in Spanish
title_full Indicative directive complements: mood and modal concord in Spanish
title_fullStr Indicative directive complements: mood and modal concord in Spanish
title_full_unstemmed Indicative directive complements: mood and modal concord in Spanish
title_short Indicative directive complements: mood and modal concord in Spanish
title_sort indicative directive complements mood and modal concord in spanish
topic mood
modal concord
Spanish
directives
url https://septentrio.uit.no/index.php/borealis/article/view/6583
work_keys_str_mv AT trisfaulkner indicativedirectivecomplementsmoodandmodalconcordinspanish