Clause-Initial Connectives, bound and unbound : indicators of mood, of subordination, or of something more fundamental?
Date issued
Authors
Editors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
License
Abstract
The article presents a comprehensive discussion of distinctions which, in different linguistic traditions, are associated with the concepts of ‘mood’ and ‘complementizer’, in particular in connection with potential auxiliaries of ‘analytical (non-indicative) mood’. On the basis of a selection of representative units and clause frames, the analysis points out contrasts between (a) North and South (in particular, Balkan) Slavic and (b) volition- and cognition-oriented utterances, which distinguish (i) diverse kinds of illocutions and (ii) clauses coding states of affairs (i.e. mere events) vs propositions (i.e. events with specific anchorage in space and time). The discussion unavoidably raises issues of irrealis marking and asks for the diagnostics of ‘subordination’ (embedding), in particular whether left-edge elements can by themselves be regarded as complementizers even if, under specific circumstances, subordination has to be assumed.