The Essence of a Category: Lessons from the Subjunctive
The Essence of a Category: Lessons from the Subjunctive
This chapter emphasizes the diversity in the licensing environments of the subjunctive and concludes that the subjunctive is not a natural class in terms of one modality, or one type of subjunctive crosslinguistically. The author argues that it is not possible to define the subjunctive as a category on the basis of a predictable, uniform interpretation or form. Wiltschko points out that the fact that the subjunctive is not a universally uniform category indicates that it might be more promising to a develop a formal typology for categories that is not based on their substantive content or traditional categorical distinctions. In the case of subjunctive, Wiltschko suggests that what unifies the subjunctive across languages is that they contrast with the independent assertive clause-type represented by the [+coin] (coincidence) feature. This feature may be valued through different strategies across languages.
Keywords: subjunctive, defective tense, Blackfoot, Halkomelem, Upper Austrian German, tense morphology, coincidence, Algonquian, Salish
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