Chapter 10. Informational status and the semantics of mood in Spanish preposed complement clauses
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Martin G. Becker
Abstract
This corpus-based study examines the principles of mood selection in Spanish preposed complement clauses. It tries to prove that the relevant factor for mood selection is not the informational status of the preposed complement clause but its semantic nature or, more precisely, the contrast between intensional and referential readings. This contrast constitutes a specific principle of the Spanish (and that of Romance in general) mood system which comes to bear whenever the subordinate complement clause is not under the scope of a modal operator. This article also shows how the speakers exploit this specific mood contrast in order to produce certain pragmatic and/or stylistic effects.
Abstract
This corpus-based study examines the principles of mood selection in Spanish preposed complement clauses. It tries to prove that the relevant factor for mood selection is not the informational status of the preposed complement clause but its semantic nature or, more precisely, the contrast between intensional and referential readings. This contrast constitutes a specific principle of the Spanish (and that of Romance in general) mood system which comes to bear whenever the subordinate complement clause is not under the scope of a modal operator. This article also shows how the speakers exploit this specific mood contrast in order to produce certain pragmatic and/or stylistic effects.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Preface vii
- Introduction 1
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Section 1. Left Sentence Peripheries in Old Spanish
- Chapter 1. Left Dislocation phenomena in Old Spanish 23
- Chapter 2. Revisiting stylistic fronting in Old Spanish 53
- Chapter 3. Left forever 77
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Section 2. Syntactic variation in Modern Spanish
- Chapter 4. Spanish predicative verbless clauses and the left periphery 101
- Chapter 5. Fronting and contrastively focused secondary predicates in Spanish 125
- Chapter 6. The left periphery of Spanish comparative correlatives 155
- Chapter 7. The article at the left periphery 185
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Section 3. Syntax, semantics, and pragmatics
- Chapter 8. Evidentiality and illocutionary force 217
- Chapter 9. On the grammaticalization of the Assertion Structure 253
- Chapter 10. Informational status and the semantics of mood in Spanish preposed complement clauses 283
- Chapter 11. Fronting and irony in Spanish 309
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Section 4. Spanish among the Romance languages
- Chapter 12. Left periphery in discourse 345
- Chapter 13. A comparative look at Focus Fronting in Romance 383
- Index 419
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Preface vii
- Introduction 1
-
Section 1. Left Sentence Peripheries in Old Spanish
- Chapter 1. Left Dislocation phenomena in Old Spanish 23
- Chapter 2. Revisiting stylistic fronting in Old Spanish 53
- Chapter 3. Left forever 77
-
Section 2. Syntactic variation in Modern Spanish
- Chapter 4. Spanish predicative verbless clauses and the left periphery 101
- Chapter 5. Fronting and contrastively focused secondary predicates in Spanish 125
- Chapter 6. The left periphery of Spanish comparative correlatives 155
- Chapter 7. The article at the left periphery 185
-
Section 3. Syntax, semantics, and pragmatics
- Chapter 8. Evidentiality and illocutionary force 217
- Chapter 9. On the grammaticalization of the Assertion Structure 253
- Chapter 10. Informational status and the semantics of mood in Spanish preposed complement clauses 283
- Chapter 11. Fronting and irony in Spanish 309
-
Section 4. Spanish among the Romance languages
- Chapter 12. Left periphery in discourse 345
- Chapter 13. A comparative look at Focus Fronting in Romance 383
- Index 419
