Verbal mood distribution in Brazilian Portuguese

Abstract

This paper aims to describe the indicative and subjunctive mood distribution in Brazilian Portuguese, especially in complement clauses. We assume that the expression of an attitude towards a proposition governs the mood selection (or its alternation). In this sense, we follow Farkas (1992), who proposes that this distribution is related to either the lexical meaning of the matrix predicate or the contextual reading of the sentence. In the first case, we assume the subjunctive selection is triggered by an imperative meaning of the predicate (KEMPCHINSKY, 2009), as well as by a temporal sequence between events in the sentence (FARKAS, 1992). Secondly, the indicative mood is selected by the commitment of the matrix subject on the truth of the proposition. Finally, the contextual reading occurs in cases allowing mood alternation, a phenomenon described by different authors in different languages, also in Portuguese (MARQUES, 2004; MARQUES; OLIVEIRA, 2016; OLIVEIRA, 2006, among others). Applying the proposal formulated by Farkas (1992), the picture we draw is that mood distribution in Brazilian Portuguese remains on a scale that goes from only indicative mood selection (by positive categorical epistemic verbs) to an only subjunctive mood selection (by directive ones). Cases which allow alternation are mainly related to fiction, factive-emotive, belief and desiderative predicates.