A Cognitive Account of Mood in Complements of Causative Predicates in Spanish

Abstract

Complements of causative predicates such as hacer in Spanish present a problem for analyses of mood that are based on semantic or pragmatic notions of assertion. The problem results from the fact that information expressed by these complements is presented both as true and new, and yet the complement verb appears in the subjunctive mood. This makes these clauses a counterexample to analyses that claim that asserted propositions appear in the indicative. This study proposes an account of the use of mood in these complements that combines the Cognitive Grammar notion of clausal grounding (Langacker 1987, 1991, 2009) with Cristofaro’s study of subordination (2003). It will be argued that the complement of causative predicates in Spanish is not independently grounded; that is, its temporal relation to the speech situation is established via the matrix predicate. Not being independently grounded, it does not have an autonomous profile (Langacker 1991, 2009). Following Langacker (1991) and Cristofaro (2003), the current study claims that for a clause to be asserted, it must have an autonomous profile. This necessary condition is not met in complements of causative predicates and consequently they cannot be asserted.