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Control and dominion: Factivity and mood choice in Spanish

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 March 2014

Rainer Vesterinen
Rainer Vesterinen*
Affiliation:
Stockholm University
*
Correspondence addresses: Rainer Vesterinen, Department of Spanish, Portuguese and Latin American Studies, Stockholm University, Universitetsvägen 10b, 10691 Stockholm, Sweden. E-mail: rainer.vesterinen@ispla.su.se
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Abstract

The present paper analyses the meaning of Spanish mood in factive contexts from a Cognitive Grammar perspective. It is argued that terms like assertion and presupposition do not explain the semantics of the subjunctive. Rather, they constitute an initial classification for finding a conceptually grounded explanation of it. The hypothesis is put forward that mood choice in factive contexts can be explained by the elaboration of Maldonado's (1995) notions of dominion and control. On the one hand, the conceptualizer has a low degree of effective control over the described event in presupposed contexts where the subjunctive mood occurs. On the other hand, presupposed contexts with the verb in the indicative mood equates with epistemic control over the described event. Thus, it is argued that the meaning of the subjunctive mood is related to the conceptualizer's epistemic dominion, and to the dominion of effective control. An additional analysis of the subjunctive mood in volitional, causative and perceptual contexts corroborates the initial claim.

Keywords

assertionCognitive Grammarcontroldominionnon-assertionpresupposition
Type
Research Article
Information
Language and Cognition , Volume 4 , Issue 1 , March 2012 , pp. 43 - 64
Copyright
Copyright © UK Cognitive Linguistics Association 2012

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