The Subjunctive in Aspectual Verb + Subjunctive Constructions
The Subjunctive in Aspectual Verb + Subjunctive Constructions

Summary/Abstract: This paper explores the use of clause complements with verbs in the subjunctive, selected by aspectual verbs such as nis ‘begin’, filloj ‘start’, vazhdoj ‘continue’, etc. The selection of the subjunctive by this semantic class of verbs is unexpected if we consider the conceptual nature of the subjunctive. The subjunctive is a verb mood expressing an irrealis situation or assertion, whereas the class of aspectual verbs fits the logical model of implicative verbs, suggesting they express realis modality. The paper describes the subjunctive selected by aspectual verbs according to several parameters, including: the epistemic dependency exhibited by subjunctive complements, possible worlds dependency, dependency from a temporal reference, semantic interpretation of temporal reference in the subjunctive complement clause, and the dependency governed by the control mechanism of the selecting verb through the governing subject.

• Details
• Contents