9: Relevance, Assertion and Possible Worlds: A Cognitive Approach to the Spanish Subjunctive

Abstract

The alternation between indicative and subjunctive moods in Spanish has long been a subject of interest for semantics and pragmatics. This chapter shows that the insights of both of these approaches can be maintained, and their problems avoided, by adopting a cognitive perspective on utterance interpretation. The difference between the indicative and the subjunctive is best explained in terms of how the proposition expressed by the clause in question contributes to the inferential process of utterance interpretation: as a premise in its own right or by making a less direct contribution. The chapter briefs about survey of the data. Then outlines the assertion/non-assertion approach to the indicative/subjunctive contrast. The chapter also presents a relevance-theory-based account of the contrast, applies this to the data and finally relates this to alternative accounts before concluding. Keywords: assertion approach; indicative moods; non-assertion approach; pragmatics; semantics; Spanish; subjunctive moods; utterance interpretation