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Settledness and Mood Alternation: A Semantic-Pragmatic Analysis of Spanish Future-Framed Adverbials

Hoff, Mark Randall
http://orcid.org/0000-0003-4205-9468
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1555349686252856

Abstract Details

2019, Doctor of Philosophy, Ohio State University, Spanish and Portuguese.
Traditional descriptions of Spanish adverbial clauses containing a subordinated verb in the present tense state that the indicative mood expresses eventualities occurring prior to or simultaneous with speech time (1), while the subjunctive must be used for future eventualities unrealized at speech time (2). (1) Cuando llueve [I], se inunda todo. `When it rains, everything floods.’ (2) Cuando vengas [S], te lo presto. `When you come, I’ll lend it to you.’ However, data from Bonaerense Spanish reveal that the indicative may appear in future-framed adverbial clauses (3). (3) Cuando baj&aacutes [I] del bondi, llamame.
 `When you get off the bus, call me.’
 Here I demonstrate that the speaker’s presumption of settledness (Kaufmann 2002, 2005) of the realization of the future eventuality conditions native-speaker acceptance of the indicative. Presumed settledness is the semantic-pragmatic notion that every future world compatible with the speaker’s beliefs at speech time is one in which the future eventuality necessarily occurs. I operationalize settledness using stimuli that are maximally distinct in terms of contextual factors related to speaker confidence. That is, cases presumed as settled are [+immediate, +certain, +temporally specific], whereas non-settled stimuli are [-immediate, -certain, -temporally specific]. I then use qualitative methods to examine more closely the behavior of each individual contextual factor. The quantitative data come from an online questionnaire completed by 429 native speakers of Bonaerense Spanish which consisted of a forced-choice task (n=151) and an acceptability judgment task (n=278). In the forced-choice task, participants were presented with 8 target items and 16 fillers, each containing a preceding context and a bolded sentence, and chose between an indicative and a subjunctive form to fill in the blank. In the acceptability judgment task, participants evaluated 8 target items and 16 fillers for acceptability using a 7-point Likert scale. Ratings were converted into z-scores, and data from both tasks were analyzed using mixed-effects regressions in R. Results of both tasks show that acceptability of the indicative is greatest when the future eventuality is presumed by the speaker to be settled, whereas the subjunctive is preferred in non-settled cases. Qualitative analyses confirm these results and indicate that the indicative is also accepted for habituals continuing into the future and for future eventualities that represent typical circumstances, are under a speaker’s control, or are strongly desired by the speaker. Together, these findings demonstrate the central role of settledness for acceptable use of the indicative and show that, rather than failing to adhere to a standard mood distinction, speakers may use the indicative to express confidence about the future. Furthermore, I demonstrate that presumed settledness accounts for tense/mood variation in Brazilian Portuguese and Italian future-framed adverbials as well. I show that Spanish, Portuguese, and Italian encode settledness via similar grammatical means and, although these languages vary in the degree to which speakers accept non-normative indicative forms in future-framed contexts, the underlying constraints guiding form-function mapping of tense/mood and settledness are the same. Thus, these findings reveal a heretofore unattested cross-linguistic pattern of pragmatic conditioning in tense/mood variation.
Scott Schwenter (Advisor)
Terrell Morgan (Committee Member)
Janice Aski (Committee Member)
Ashwini Deo (Committee Member)
251 p.
Language; Linguistics; Sociolinguistics
Spanish; Portuguese; Italian; linguistics; settledness; future; tense; verbal mood; morphosyntax; semantics; pragmatics; variation

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Citations

  • Hoff, M. R. (2019). Settledness and Mood Alternation: A Semantic-Pragmatic Analysis of Spanish Future-Framed Adverbials [Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1555349686252856

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Hoff, Mark. Settledness and Mood Alternation: A Semantic-Pragmatic Analysis of Spanish Future-Framed Adverbials. 2019. Ohio State University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1555349686252856.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Hoff, Mark. "Settledness and Mood Alternation: A Semantic-Pragmatic Analysis of Spanish Future-Framed Adverbials." Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University, 2019. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1555349686252856

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

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