Keywords - L322.7 F00

Intermediate Syntax

Week 7: Mood

Declarative Mood

• Also called the indicative mood
• Marked with the feature [-Irreal] (irrealis)
• Marks a clause that the speaker avers to be true or false
• Can be used in a future context where the event is certain or predictable.

Irrealis Mood

• Any mood that is not declarative
• interrogative
  • seeks out information
  • two types
    • yes - no
    • WH-questions
  • normally marked as [+Strong]
    • [+strong] blocks copying from out of.
      • In effect it sets up a barrier
    • exceptions
      • embedded sentences
      • WH-sentences where the subject is a WH-word.
    • [+Strong] marks which end of the link is spelled out.
    • The default is the head of the link is [+Strong]
  • [+Strong] marked on the tail of the interrogative link means that spell-out occurs at the tail of the link; the head is marked [-Strong] which indicates that spell-out does not occur.
  • needs T as a host
• imperative
  • issues a command
  • takes a host in matrix clauses
    • does not in embedded clauses
    • marked with that
  • does not subcategorize tense or relevance.
    • passive and progressive rarely used, esp. in matrix clauses.
    •  
• conditional
  • marks a condition
  • takes two arguments
    • consequence (main clause) and conditional (embedded).
  • marked with 'if'.
  • negative conditional
    • marked with 'unless'.
• contrary-to-fact
  • marks a conditional event that did not take place.
  • takes two arguments
    • consequence (main clause) and contrary-to-fact-conditional (embedded).

Course outline.322

Keywords

Keywords 8