Spanish subjunctive mood: One form, more than
one meaning?
Bob DE JONGE
University of Groningen
0. Introduction1
In this contribution I will argue, as others have done before me (cf. for instance Klein 1975), that the various phenomena related to the distribution of
the subjunctive and the indicative mood in Spanish may be explained by the
assumption that the indicative and subjunctive each have one single semantic meaning. The proposed hypothesis has the advantage that it may offer a
general explanation for the occurrences of both forms and does not have to
resort to various description-like meanings for the occurrences of the subjunctive in different circumstances. The hypothesis about the meaning of the
mood distinction presented in this study, is non-arbitrary in the sense that it
is not only capable of explaining the distribution of the subjunctive vs. indicative forms, but also serves to justify it. Notice that if the assumption that
one central meaning can justify and predict the distribution of subjunctive
and indicative forms in Spanish is correct, this provides support to the general idea that all individual and unique meanings of all linguistic forms 2
could, and in my view, should be taken as responsible for linguistic structure as a whole.3 Before presenting the hypothesis that will be examined
here, some of the the most important meanings that have been proposed for
the subjunctive mood will be briefly reviewed.4
1
I am indebted to the editors of this volume and Co Vet for comments on earlier versions of
this paper, and to Dorien Nieuwenhuijsen for its original outline. All remaining flaws and
errors are my own responsibility.
2
'Linguistic forms' should be taken in the broadest possible sense: also syntactic phenomena
may be considered, in my view, as linguistic and thus meaningful forms; cf. for instance
Bolinger (1991) for the meaning of word order in Spanish.
3
For a more detailed discussion on this theoretic point of view, see García (1975, especially
chapter X), Diver (1975 and 1995), Reid (1991) and Contini-Morava (1995).
4
I am well aware of the fact that the literature on mood in Romance linguistics is abundant.
However, due to space limitations I will limit myself to two studies that work with hypotheses
comparable with the one presented here.
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1.
Bob de Jonge
Some previous studies
Klein (1975), who bases herself on Hooper (1975) and Terrel and Hooper
(1974), tries to demonstrate that the indicative mood indicates 'assertion' of
the occurrence expressed by the verb, and that the subjunctive indicates'
non-assertion' in complement clauses (Klein 1975:353). However, there are
some problematic cases, as shown by (1), taken from Klein (1975:355):
(1)
Lamento que aprenda (S)
'I regret that he should learn' [Klein's translation]
In Klein's view, with 'main verbs of comment, such as lamentar 'regret' [...]
the non-assertion of the complement can only be taken to indicate that it is
not the purpose of the sentence to state this fact, but only to comment on it
[...].' This is essentially circular: the reasoning that the meaning of the subjunctive mood is non-assertion, and that aprenda cannot be taken as an
assertion, in spite of its factuality in the real-world-situation, is only valid
because of the assumption that the subjunctive mood means just that. Moreover, if the subjunctive mood is triggered by the verb lamentar, whose purpose is to comment on aprender, and not to assert it, then other predicates
which also comment on the subordinate clause should behave in the same
way. That this is not the case is shown by (2):
(2)
Es evidente que aprende (I)
'It is obvious that he is learning'
There are, at least, two observations to be made: in the first place, it might
be objected that que aprende here is a subject clause that may therefore
behave differently, and in the second place, es evidente indicates a comment
on a factual occurrence. However, the first potential solution would introduce arbitrariness in the analysis, while we intended to let meaning determine the distribution, and the second observation is incompatible with the
explanation of (1): if the fact that the predicate of the main clause expresses
a comment -any comment- on the content of the subordinate clause triggers
subjunctive mood, it should always do so, and not only in the casse of
comments in certain constructions, at least, if we are to take meaning seriously. As I have said in the beginning, it is my intention to do so.
Other important studies that focus on meaning related to subjunctive
mood, like Haverkate 1989, have a similar way of reasoning as Klein 1975.
Haverkate assumes that one of the fundamental functions of the subjunctive
mood is affirming that the sentence with the verb in subjunctive mood does
not convey information (1989:98), but should be taken as expressing something that is already conceived, explicitly or not, in the previous context.
The occurrence in subjunctive would then indicate background information.
Spanish subjunctive mood
81
But here again, cases like (2) are problematic, since the preconception of the
information is as essential for this kind of sentences as for those selected by
other predicates, such as the one in (1). Moreover, the meaning postulated
by Haverkate is of a negative nature. Intuitively, this is not very likely to be
the case for a linguistic sign: if the subjunctive expresses that the sentence
does not convey (new) information, the question rises what the subordinate
part in the subjunctive does convey. It is not the comment in itself, for that
is rendered in the main clause of the sentence. We should, then, look for a
meaning of the subjunctive that can be stated in positive terms in order to be
able to explain (and not merely describe) all its uses as opposed to those of
the indicative.
2.
Hypothesis
It should be stressed that neither of the two moods necessarily conveys the
truth about the real world and that neither has more truth-value than the
other. Speakers express, by definition, a vision on reality that is subjective
and can only be taken as the version of reality he or she wants to get across
to the hearer. The best proof of this is lying: all speakers are capable of
lying, and I believe I am not saying anything absurd if I state that most lying
will take place in the indicative mood. Thus, occurrences expressed in the
indicative mood are not necessarily factual, but the effect on the hearer is
intended to make him or her believe they are. The meaning assertion for
indicative mood is therefore not badly chosen; it is non-assertion that needs
refinement.
What examples as (1) and (3) below have in common, is that in both sentences, another situation is relevant apart from the one expressed by the
subjunctive mood:
(3)
Quiero que aprenda (S)
'I want that he/she learns'
In (1), the speaker has in mind a situation that is different from the actually
presented one, namely a situation in which the person he or she is talking
about is not learing, as opposed to what he or she is actually doing. In (3), it
is just the other way round: the person in question is not learning, and the
speaker is expressing his or her wish that the other should do so.
If this correspondence is the core of the meaning of the subjunctive mood,
then we can hypothesize that both moods have the following meanings:
(4)
Indicative mood (I) = assertion of the occurrence expressed by the verb
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(5)
Bob de Jonge
Subjunctive mood (S) = contextual relevance of an alternative for the occurrence
expressed by the verb
An important difference between this hypothesis and others is that it takes
into consideration the communicative situation in which the studied utterances in the subjunctive mood occur. In order to test a hypothesis about a
meaning, it is, in my view, necessary to take into account the communicative effects of this meaning on the message. Therefore, use of terms like
contextual and relevance are indispensable for this kind of hypotheses.
Below, I will briefly discuss the role and importance of these terms for the
analysis I will present further on.
As shown in De Jonge (1999), the proposed hypothesis should account for
cases like (3), in which use of the subjunctive is said to be 'governed' by the
verb querer. In an approach in which one basic meaning is held to be responsible for all occurrences of the subjunctive, syntactically governed
cases should be dealt with in a non-arbitrary way, and not by resorting to
rules that describe the co-occurrence of certain types of verbs and the subjunctive. These verbs should have a meaningful characteristic in common
that explains use of the subjunctive. This characteristic could very well be
the fact that in all communicative situations in which querer que 'to want to'
occurs, the desired occurrence is actually not taking place. If this is so, in
situations in which a verb of desire is used, use of the subjunctive should
then indicate this current relevance of the opposite situation, the most logical alternative, in the given context.
Since with all verbs of desire an alternative is relevant, categorical use of
the subjunctive should not surprise us. De Jonge (1999) demonstrates the
qualitative validity of this reasoning for verbs of desire, emotive predicates
and hacer que 'to make that' in the matrix clause and with conjunctions like
aunque 'although'5 and el hecho de que 'the fact that'.
Before starting with the actual analysis, it is important to set the rules for
it. In the first place, by 'alternative', I mean an alternative to the verb in the
subjunctive. The most common alternative to a verb is its negated counterpart. Therefore, when considering possible alternatives to the verb under
analysis, the negation of the verb is always taken into consideration. However, negations implied in subordinate conjunctions as in sin que 'without
5
Subordinate clauses with aunque may either occur in the subjunctive or in the indicative. Here
too, the proposed hypothesis explains this distribution in a sentence like aunque hace/haga mal
tiempo, vamos a la playa 'although/even if the weather is bad, we will go to the beach'. The
second option takes into account the possibility of bad wheater, presupposing the alternative,
namely good weather, the normal situation for beach visits. The first option, on the other hand,
merely takes good weather as an observed fact.
Spanish subjunctive mood
83
that' are not, since it is precisely the meaning of these conjunctions that may
explain the relevance of an alternative. 6
It should also be stressed that the word 'relevance' is crucial for the proposed hypothesis. For any given situation it is possible to think of an alternative one, but this alternative situation is not necessarily relevant in the
given context. In analyses of categorical uses of the subjunctive, it is possible to test the proposed hypothesis on the basis of the meaning of the relevant syntactic element, as shown above and in De Jonge (1999). However, it
is impossible to do so in those cases where there is variation between subjunctive and indicative, for only analysis of the wider context can demonstrate the RELEVANCE of an alternative.
In this paper, the hypothesis will be submitted to a test based on a corpus
of independent examples in syntactic contexts where variation between
subjunctive and indicative is observed, taken from a collection of short
stories by García Márquez (García Márquez 1994). In order to demonstrate
the correctness of the proposed hypothesis for the meaning of the subjunctive, the relevance of the alternative will be studied in the communicative
setting of each of its occurrences.
3.
The data
In order to investigate the hypothesis systematically, a corpus of examples
of both indicative and subjunctive mood in similar contexts has been collected. For this investigation the largest group of contexts in which both
moods occur was selected, namely all clauses introduced by some form of
the conjunction que 'that'. All instances of these clauses were taken from
García Márquez (1994), in total 727 introduced by some form of que, of
which 611 (84%) were in the indicative, and 116 (16%) in the subjunctive
mood. Table 1 presents the distribution of both moods in different kinds of
clauses introduced by que.
One thing is clear from table 1: practically all clause types show both
indicative and subjunctive mood, so it is safe to say that there is no relation
between syntactic categories and use of mood in Spanish. Within these
categories, however, there are some groups of examples that show exclusive
use of the subjunctive in the subordinate clause, while other groups exclusively show the indicative mood. The next step in the analysis is to show
6
This reasoning may seem circular, but in fact it is not. In the search for an alternative, only the
verb in the subjunctive is taken into consideration, eventually with its negation, which has a
fixed position in relation to the verb. Its relevance is to be found in the rest of the context,
which is not fixed. Some subordinate conjunctions, such as para que (cf. De Jonge 1999) and
sin que trigger this contextual relevance through their general meaning, and so no further
context needs to be taken in consideration.
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Bob de Jonge
whether the postulated hypothesis is capable of explaining the mood distribution within each of these categories.
Table 1: Distribution of indicative vs. subjunctive mood in subordinate clauses introduced by
(x)que, in García Márquez 1994
indicative mood
subjunctive mood
Total complement clauses
140/81%
33/19%
Total (X) prep.que
93/67%
46/33%
Subject clauses
32/67%
16/33%
Relative clauses
284/95%
15/5%
Total (X) adj. que
19/95%
1/5%
Adv.que
16/89%
2/11%
Total prep.N que
17/100%
-Imperative que
1/50%
1/50%
sino que
2/100%
-#Que
7/78%
2/22%
Total
611/84%
116/16%
For reasons of space limitations we will not be able to discuss all examples
and all categories. Therefore, we will select a number of representative
groups and minimal pairs in order to submit the hypothesis to the most
severe test possible. 7
4.
Complement clauses
Table 2 contains the different groups of complement clauses with indicative
and subjunctive mood. Some predicates trigger exclusive use of the subjunctive or indicative, just as each and every grammar. For example, in
sentences with querer que 'to want that', we always find subjunctive mood
in the complement clause. This should not surprise us in the light of the
postulated hypothesis, since the main verb is normally uttered in a situation
in which the occurrence of the complement clause has not (yet) taken place.
Thus, since verbs of desire are only and exclusively used in situations where
the desired occurrence is not taking place, there is always a relevant alternative -the actual state of affairs-, which explains the overall presence of the
subjunctive mood.8
7
The pairs given in this paper are not minimal in the sense that there is only one observable
difference between the two members, namely use of indicative or subjunctive mood alone. The
pairs presented here share a number of features, but are also (and necessarily so) different in
other aspects. It is precisely these aspects that permit us to detect the relevance of the alternative in one of the examples, and the absence of it in the other. The use of the word 'minimal' is
therefore omitted from here onwards; the presented pairs should be taken as 'as minimal as
possible, given the corpus under analysis'.
8
There are cases that seem to contradict this reasoning, as Quiero que continúes (S) así 'I want
you to go (S) on like this'. In fact, also here there is an alternative relevant: the speaker is
presupposing or has reason to assume that the addressee may stop his activities.
Spanish subjunctive mood
85
Things become more interesting when we study the groups of examples in
which both moods occur. One of these consists of complement clauses with
decir que 'to say that' in the matrix clause. As can also be inferred from Vet
(1996:144-145), who presents a structural analysis, there is no reason to
assume that there is more than one meaning for decir que in order to account for the fact that both moods occur with it. This would be a circular
way of reasoning. We therefore assume that with verbs of saying the difference in meaning is uniquely due to the meaning of the moods. In (6) and (7)
we offer a pair that illustrates this:
Table 2: Distribution of indicative vs. subjunctive mood in complement clauses in different
matrix clauses, in García Márquez 1994
decir que
pensar/creer que
no pensar/creer que
esperar que
ruego/mandato que
saber que
no saber que
imaginar que
ver/sentir, etc. que
no ver/sentir etc. que
recordar que
no recordar que
suponer que
comprender que
jurar que
querer que
permitir que
agradecer que
indicar que
tener en cuenta que
buscar que
soñar que
prometer que
Total compl. cl.
indicative mood
31
34
1
--13
2
3
27
2
4
-1
12
5
---2
1
-1
1
140/81%
subjunctive mood
5
-3
6
11
------1
1
--3
1
1
--1
--33/19%
(6)
-Baltazar -dijo Montiel, suavemente-. Ya te dije que te la lleves (S).
'-Baltazar -said Montiel, softly-. I already told you that you should take (S) it with
you.' (GGM 1994:78)
(7)
-¿Entonces?
Ana se arrodilló frente a la cama.
-Que además de ladrón eres embustero -dijo.
-¿Por qué?
-Porque me dijiste que no había (I) nada en la gaveta.
'And so?
Ana knelt down in front of the bed.
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Bob de Jonge
-That apart from a thief, you are also a cheater -she said.
-Why?
-Because you said to me that there was (I) nothing in the drawer.' (GGM 1994:35-6)
In (6), Baltazar, a carpenter who made a birdcage for Montiel's son without
Montiel knowing it, refuses to take the cage with him and finally gives it to
the boy. Not taking it away is therefore an alternative and Baltazar's refusal
to do so indicates its relevance in the given context. This corresponds, as
expected, to the used subjunctive form. In (7), on the other hand, Ana
claims that Dámaso, who has stolen a set of French snooker balls from a
bar, has lied to her about the amount of money he is supposed to have found
in the drawer of the bar. She is reporting his uttered words (that in the end
turn out to be true) and since an assertion was made, there is no relevance
for an alternative, in spite of the fact that Ana believes Dámaso is lying: she
is asserting his alleged lies.
Although these cases fit well in the proposed hypothesis, it could be objected that they are special, since they represent reported speech, and that
(6) is a reported imperative. There are historical relations between the imperative and the subjunctive mood -it is not difficult to link the function of
the imperative to the proposed meaning of the subjunctive mood. However,
I will not dwell on this matter any further, due to space limitations, but
instead, another pair that does not exhibit reported speech will be discussed.
In (8) and (9), we find two instances of no pensar que in the main clause,
with indicative in (8) and subjunctive in (9):
(8)
No pensó -como no lo había pensado la primera vez- que Dámaso estaba (I) aún
frente al cuarto, diciéndose que el plan había fracasado, y en espera de que ella saliera dando gritos.
'She did not think -as she had not thought the first time- that Dámaso was (I) still
standing outside the door, telling himself that the plan had failed and waiting for her
to come out screaming.' (GGM 1994:63)
(9)
A nadie se le había ocurrido pensar que la Mamá Grande fuera (S) mortal, salvo a
los miembros de su tribu, y a ella misma, aguijoneada por las premoniciones seniles
del padre Antonio Isabel.
'It never crossed anybody's mind that la Mamá Grande was (S) mortal, except for
the members of her tribe, and herself, stimulated by the senile warnings of Father
Antonio Isabel.' (GGM 1994:145)
In (8), Ana is waiting for Dámaso, who has left to return the balls to the bar,
because the owner of the bar is practically ruined and Dámaso is unable to
sell them to anybody. In this example, a description is given of a thought
she did not have on the first occasion, when Dámaso left in order to steal
them, and that she is not having now. In (9), on the other hand, the alternative, namely that la Mamá Grande, the most important and richest woman in
Spanish subjunctive mood
87
the village, would not be mortal, is clearly relevant: most of the people of
the village had acted as if she were not and had not taken any precaution.
In (10) and (11), another interesting pair is given, with suponer que 'to
suppose that' as the main clause verb:
(10)
-Bueno -dijo sin levantar la cabeza-. Y suponiendo que así sea (S): ¿qué tiene eso de
particular?
'-All right -she said, without raising her head-. And supposing that it were (S) so:
what is so special about that?' (GGM 1994:138)
(11)
Adormilado en el corredor del hotel, entorpecido por el bochorno, no se había
detenido a pensar en la gravedad de su situación. Suponía que el percance quedaría
(I) resuelto al día siguiente con el regreso del tren, de suerte que ahora su única preocupación era esperar el domingo para reanudar el viaje y no acordarse jamás de ese
pueblo donde hacía un calor insoportable.
'He had fallen asleep in the hallway of the hotel, lethargic because of the warm wind
and had not realized the seriousness of his situation. He supposed that his bad luck
would (I) be over the next day when the train returned, so that the only thing to do
was to wait until Sunday when he could continue his journey and forget about this
village where it was unbearably hot.' (GGM 1994:119)
In (10), the speaker's grandmother reproaches her with passing the night
writing letters. By saying 'supposing it were so', she is claiming that she did
not; the subjunctive mood –according to its supposed meaning- indicates
that an alternative -it is not so- is relevant. In (11), on the other hand, the
uttered supposition is expected to take place: the person of the fragment has
lost his train and supposes he will be able to take the next one the next day,
a perfectly normal thought, induced by the train-table.
After having examined a number of pairs that fit into the proposed theory
and that give reason to assume that within this syntactic category the theory
provides a plausible explanation for mood alteration in complement clauses,
we will now pass on to another grammatical category where there is variation in the use of subjunctive and indicative mood, namely relative clauses.
We will ingestigate if here too we find evidence for the correctness of the
proposed meaning.
5.
Relative clauses
Table 3 contains the distribution of subjunctive and indicative mood over
different types of relative clauses:
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Bob de Jonge
Table 3: Distribution of indicative vs. subjunctive mood in different types of relative clauses, in
García Márquez 1994
definite antecedent
indefinite antecedent
lo (x) que
def.ant.más adj.que
neg.antecedent
algo/alguien que
Relative clauses
indicative mood
186/97%
68/96%
24
2
-4
284/95%
subjunctive mood
6/3%
3/2%
1
2
2
1
15/5%
It is clear from this table that there is a great preference for the indicative
mood in relative clauses. Therefore, it is even more interesting to study the
small amount of cases in which a Subjuntive is used. In (12) and (13) the
antecedent is indicated by the definite article –el en (12) and los in (13)alone:
(12)
-Pobre hombre -suspiró Ana.
-Pobre por qué -protestó Dámaso, excitado-. ¿Quisieras entonces que fuera yo el
que estuviera (S) en el cepo?
'Poor man -Ana sighed.
-Why poor -protested Dámaso, excited-. Did you want me to be the one who is (S)
in jail?' (GGM 1994:39-40)
(13)
-Los que vienen (I) aquí ruedan una silla para el corredor que es más fresco -dijo la
muchacha.
'-The people that come (I) here move a chair to the hall-way because it is cooler said the girl.' (GGM 1994:114)
In (13), the people that do not come there -the same hot place as indicated in
(11)- do not have anything to do with this context, so they do not have any
relevance and an indicative is used. In (12), on the contrary, Dámaso is
speaking about an alternative situation: he himself is not in jail, but someone else, falsely accused of the robbery he committed (see also (7) and (8)).
The relevance of this alternative situation, again, justifies the use of the
subjunctive mood in this example.
It is interesting to note that traditional grammars state the importance of
the acquaintance with the antecedent in relation to the used form. According
to these grammars, the use of the definite article can be taken as an independent indication of acquaintance with the antecedent, implicit or explicit,
and trigger use of the indicative. An indefinite article or its absence would
indicate that the antecedent is unknown, which, in its turn, should lead to
the subjunctive. One would expect, then, that antecedents preceded by the
definite article would show a preference for the indicative mood, and the
Spanish subjunctive mood
89
antecedents preceded by the indefinite article for the subjunctive mood.
However, table 3 shows that quantitatively speaking, there is no significant
difference between the two groups. Qualitatively speaking, the next pair,
with antecedents preceded with the indefinite article, again shows that the
proposed hypothesis is capable of explaining both forms in their respective
contexts (cf. (14) and (15)):
(14)
A pocas cuadras de allí, en una casa atiborrada de arneses donde nunca se había
sentido un olor que no se pudiera (S) vender, permanecía indiferente a la novedad
de la jaula.
'Only a few blocks away, in a house filled with harnesses where never anything had
given a smell that could (S) not be sold, he [Montiel] remained indifferent to the
novelty of the cage.' (GGM 1994:74-5)
(15)
Después de que el alcalde les perforaba las puertas a tiros y les ponía el plazo para
abandonar el pueblo, José Montiel les compraba sus tierras y ganados por un precio
que él mismo se encargaba (I) de fijar.
'After the mayor perforated their doors with gunshots and gave them a deadline for
leaving the village, José Montiel bought their land and cattle for a price he fixed (I)
himself.' (GGM 1994:89-90)
In both cases the antecedent is inanimate and unknown in the previous context, as indicated by the indefinite article. Nevertheless, in one case the
subjunctive is used and in the other, the indicative. The hypothesis proposed
in this article again serves perfectly to explain these two cases: (15) presents
a description of how people were expelled from the village and how Montiel bought their properties and fixed the prices. There is no relevant alternative present in the context, so an indicative form is used. In (14), on the
contrary, the context implies that anything that had a smell in that house
could be sold.9 This is an alternative to the expression in the fragment and
therefore the subjunctive is used here.
Another remarkable result that can be drawn from table 3 is the fact that
relative clauses with lo as an antecedent mostly take the indicative mood,
with only one exception within a total of 25 examples. This single case of
subjunctive is given in (16); (17) offers a similar context with the indicative:
9
In syntactic and traditional analyses, the negation nunca 'never' in the matrix is said to provoke use of the subjunctive in the subordinate clause (cf. for instance Kampers-Manhe
(1991:49) for French and Quer (1998:37) for Catalan). However, as stated above in general
terms, this observation does not explain its appearance in these contexts, whereas the proposed
hypothesis justifies why the subjunctive is the most coherent choice: a negation of this kind
automatically implies the relevance of an alternative one.
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Bob de Jonge
(16)
Si usted quiere, llévese lo que le haga (S) falta y déjeme morir tranquila.
'If you want, take whatever you need (S) and let me die in peace.' (GGM 1994:91)
(17)
Cuando tuvo las cosas dispuestas sobre la mesa, rodó la fresa hacia el sillón de
resortes y se sentó a pulir la dentadura postiza. Parecía no pensar en lo que hacía (I),
pero trabajaba con obstinación, pedaleando en la fresa incluso cuando no se servía
de ella.
'When he had everthing on the table, he moved the drill towards the chair and sat
down to polish the denture. He seemed not to think about what he was doing (I), but
he was working fanatically, pedalling on the drill even when he did not use it.'
(GGM 1994:21-2)
In (16), Montiel's widow tells the person who is helping her to settle Montiel's affairs shortly after his death to leave and take whatever he may want.
Of course there are many alternatives among the things he might want to
take –and if he is polite, he does not take anything- and the use of the subjunctive indicates that there are no restrictions in his choice. In (17), on the
other hand, we see a description of a dentist preparing his tools and working
with them. Since it is a normal description of what he is doing, no possible
alternative is relevant in this particular fragment, so an indicative mood is
used.
The pair in (18) and (19), finally, is very interesting, Out of any context,
the indicative as well as the subjunctive mood may be used in cases such as
these, with a superlative antecedent. However, the way both forms are used
in these particular contexts confirms the postulated hypothesis:
(18)
Hasta cuando cumplió los 70, la Mamá Grande celebró su cumpleaños con las ferias
más prolongadas y tumultuosas de que se tenga (S) memoria.
'Even when she was 70, Mamá Grande celebrated her birthday with the longest and
most tumultuous fancy fair that people remember (S).' (GGM 1994:146-7)
(19)
-Es el alambre más resistente que se puede (I) encontrar, y cada juntura está soldada
por dentro y por fuera -dijo.
'-It is the strongest wire that can (I) be found, and every joint is solded on the in and
the outside -he said.' (GGM 1994:73)
The main difference between (18) and (19) is that (18) presents an almost
hyperbolic description of the importance and richness of Mamá Grande,
whereas in (19), Baltazar is merely describing the cage he has just finished
(see also (6)). Baltazar does not do so in a boasting way, for the cage has
already been sold and therefore, there is no need to do so. The fact that there
is no alternative relevant in (19) only stresses Baltazar's modesty: he is
merely describing what he has just made and which materials he has used.
The use of the subjunctive in (18), on the other hand, has the effect of
Spanish subjunctive mood
91
stressing the length and tumult of the fancy fair. According to our hypothesis, this is so because the subjunctive indicates implicitly that a longer and
more tumultuous fancy fair is not remembered. Therefore, use of the subjunctive is more appropriate in (18) than in (19) and the indicative more in
(19) than in (18).
6.
Conclusion
I have tried to show in this article that a theory that parts from the meaning
of the linguistic sign is not only capable of describing, but also of explaining the distribution of linguistic forms, and thus provides parts of the linguistic structure as a whole. Although we have not discussed meaning and
use of subjunctive vs. indicative mood in all possible contexts, the results of
the investigation presented here are, in my view, promising. The data from
my corpus showed that a classification according to traditional syntactic
constructions does not offer a satisfactory explanation for the use of both
forms, because in all constructions both forms occur without clear preference for either one of them. Thus, no cause and effect relation could be
established between form and syntactic construction. Only more detailed
study of subcategories did reveal some correlations. These had to do with
coherent relations in meaning between the main clause verb and the subjunctive mood rather than the syntactical construction, as we have seen, for
instance, in the case of querer que + subjunctive mood. More interesting,
however, were the cases in which variation was observed, as in the complement of decir and in relative clauses with a superlative antecedent. In
those cases the proposed meaning provides an explanation for the occurrence of both forms in the given contexts. It should be stressed that these
results were obtained by investigating the sentence in its broader context;
the relevance of an alternative can only be demonstrated by taking into
consideration the communicative setting.
Of course, this is not the last word to be spoken on this matter. Other
constructions that were not discussed here, such as conditional and temporal
clauses, also need to be examined. The results obtained so far give reason to
be optimistic about the next episode of this project.
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