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Article published In: Spanish in Context
Vol. 20:1 (2023) ► pp.76–95

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Mood alternation in Mexican Spanish in Georgia

 | New Mexico State University
ORCiD logo with link | Centre College
Published online: 20 February 2023
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/sic.20043.bov
Abstract
The current study analyzes mood alternation in Spanish spoken in Georgia among first-generation Mexican immigrants. Using sociolinguistic interview data, tokens of the subjunctive and indicative in dependent clauses were examined, particularly in the following syntactic contexts: depender, aunque, me gusta que, no porque, quizás, tal vez, and no sé si/ cómo/dónde/qué. We argue that mood selection in the contexts under study is determined by the evaluation of the proposition in the dependent clause. We then use this data to inform theories of possible world semantics (i.e., Anand, Pranav, and Valentine Hacquard. 2013. “Epistemics and attitudes”. Semantics and Pragmatics 6.81, pp.1–59. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar; Giannakidou, Anastasia, and Alda Mari. 2021. Truth and Veridicality in Grammar and Thought. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar; Villalta, Elisabeth. 2008. “Mood and gradability: an investigation of the subjunctive mood in Spanish.” Linguistics and Philosophy 311: 467–522. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar) to better understand mood alternation. Moreover, while many U.S. Spanish varieties may demonstrate what Silva-Corvalán (Silva-Corvalán, Carmen. 1994. Language Contact and Change: Spanish in Los Angeles. Oxford: Clarendon.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar, 91) refers to as “a reduced system that made it more difficult to distinguish between more or less possible situations in a hypothetical world,” we show that cases of alternation in the present data still differentiate speaker meaning and evaluation.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Mood alternation in contact varieties
  • 3.Methodology
  • 4.Results
  • 5.Discussion of Semantics of Alternation
    • The Possibility of P
    • Certainty
    • Ranking Possibilities
    • Unified Theory
  • 6.Discussion and conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
References (37)
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