Mood and Contextual Commitment

Authors

  • Paul Portner Georgetown University
  • Aynat Rubinstein Georgetown University

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.3765/salt.v22i0.2642

Keywords:

mood, modality, context, propositional attitudes

Abstract

Many recent analyses of mood selection in Romance and Balkan rely on the idea that subjunctive is triggered by a modal predicate whose meaning is comparative. We work out a precise version of this idea, which we call the Proto-Standard Theory, and show that it runs into problems with a variety of indicative-selecting predicates in French. We then develop and argue in favor of an alternative account based on individuals being Contextually Committed towards the modal parameters used to give the meaning of the predicate.

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Published

2012-09-03

Issue

Section

Articles