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Prescriptively or Descriptively Speaking?: How ‘Information-quality’ Influences Mood
Variation in Spanish Emotive-factive Clauses
Tris Faulkner
Georgetown University
(Final Manuscript Version: Faulkner, T. (2021). Prescriptively or Descriptively Speaking?:
How Information Quality Influences Mood Variation in Spanish Emotive Clauses. Pragmatics.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1075/prag.19044.fau
Journal: PRAGMATICS: Quarterly Publication of the International Pragmatics Association)
Abstract
It is generally put forth that Spanish has the subjunctive as the required mood in the
complements of emotive-factives (alegrarse de que ‘to be happy that’), desire verbs (querer ‘to
want’), dubitatives (dudar ‘to doubt’), modals (ser posible que ‘to be possible that’), causatives
(hacer que ‘to make that’), and directives (recomendar que ‘to recommend that’) (e.g., Real
Academia Española 2011). However, in spite of these traditional rules, it has been observed that
some of these environments allow the indicative (Blake 1981; Crespo del Río 2014; Deshors and
Waltermire 2019; Gallego and Alonso-Marks 2014; García and Terrell 1977; Gregory and Lunn
2012; Kowal 2007; Lipski 1978; Silva-Corvalán 1994; Waltermire 2019). The current study
explored one such environment; emotive-factive clauses. Results showed that the presuppositions
that speakers hold regarding the knowledge that their addressees possess influence the mood that
they select. This demonstrates the important role of pragmatics in mood variation.
Key words: mood variation, verbal mood, subjunctive, indicative, Spanish, emotive-factives.
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1 Introduction
1.1 Emotive-factive Predicates
Emotive-factive
1
predicates convey a speaker’s evaluation of a particular event (Becker
2010; Portner 2018). They include expressions such as be happy (that), be sad (that), and regret.
They are an intriguing class of predicates since they exhibit extensive cross-linguistic variation in
their selection of mood (Quer 1998; Portner 2018). For instance, whereas Romanian and Greek
require the indicative, French, Catalan, and Spanish call for the subjunctive (Farkas 1992b;
Giannakidou 2015; Quer 1998, 2009). Spanish, however, has proven itself to be much less well-
behaved than is traditionally portrayed. Alternations between subjunctive and indicative occur in
Peruvian Spanish (Crespo del Río 2014), Mexican Spanish (Blake 1981; García and Terrell 1977;
Quer 1998, 2010b; Silva-Corvalán 1994), and Iberian Spanish (Lope Blanch 1990). It is, therefore,
not uncommon to come across variation such as that seen below:
1. Es triste que se vaya tan pronto.
Be.3SG sad that REFL go.SUBJ.3SG so soon.
‘It is sad that s/he is leaving so soon.’
2. Es bueno que tenemos tiempo para visitar a Juan también.
Be.3SG good that have.INDIC.1PL time for visit.INF to Juan also.
‘It is good that we have time to visit Juan as well.’
(García and Terrell 1977, 222-223)
1
Emotive-factive predicates are also referred to as evaluative predicates.
Subjunctive
Indicative
3
1.2 Why Does This Variability Occur?: Semantic Approaches to Mood
Two main intuitions have been used to understand the semantics of mood choice: the
comparison-based approach (Giorgi and Pianesi 1997) and the truth-based account (Farkas 1985,
1992b; Giannakidou 2015; Quer 2001). Both theories describe the meanings of each mood in
contexts with and without a selecting predicate. However, it is important to note that the contexts
on which they focus are prescriptive. Thus, the non-prescriptive variation exhibited by emotive-
factives is difficult to explain using these approaches. In order to counteract this shortcoming, both
theories suggest that emotive-factives are inherently ‘hybrid’ in their nature; i.e., they have a
factive side as well as an emotive side. It is, consequently, the competition between these two
components that is explained as triggering their inconsistent selection of mood.
1.3 Why Does This Variability Occur?: A Pragmatic Approach to Mood
Another means of approaching mood is through an examination of its pragmatic
distribution. Crystal (2008) defines pragmatics as the “[…] study of language from the point of
view of the users, especially of the choices they make, the constraints they encounter in using
language in social interaction, and the effects their use of language has on the other participants in
the act of communication” (379). Encompassing the entire range of this definition is the theory of
‘information-quality’
2
. The hypothesis puts forth that mood choice is contextually constrained by
either of two factors: a) what the speaker views as (ir)relevant or (un)reliable, or b) what s/he
believes the other interlocutors know or do not know (Gregory and Lunn 2012). The theory states
that a speaker may choose the indicative to assert information that is either reliable or new to the
2
See: Gregory and Lunn (2012).
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listener, while the subjunctive may be used to de-emphasize what is unreliable, or what the hearer
already knows (Gregory and Lunn 2012; Lunn 1989; Quer 2001; Sessarego 2016). As such, it is
the proposition’s quality of being either (un)reliable or (un)familiar, which affects a speaker’s
choice of form. More on this theory is discussed in section 3.
2 Pragmatic Presupposition and Mood Choice
2.1 Pragmatic Presupposition
According to Stalnaker (2002), speakers presuppose certain things when they speak. He
states that it is these presuppositions that guide what they say and how they decide to say it (701).
However, in order to presuppose something, the speaker needs to take it for granted as background
information (701). In other words, the speaker has to be of the belief that the knowledge that s/he
is sharing is common ground to all of the conversational participants (Stalnaker 1973, 2002). Such
presuppositions (or background assumptions) are, thus, pragmatic in nature since they concern the
relationship between speaker, addressee/hearer, and context (Keenan, 1971).
2.2 Pragmatic Presupposition and Old Information
Emotive-factives have been widely recognized to be ‘presupposition-triggers’ (Levinson
1983). This is to say that said predicates are “presupposition-generating linguistic items”
(Levinson 1983, 179); i.e., they are sources of presuppositions (Levinson 1983; Keenan 1971;
Kiparsky and Kiparsky 1971; Zeevat 1992). The predicate ‘regret’ is frequently used to exemplify
this quality. For instance, Zeevat (1992) puts forth that ‘regret’:
[…] is usually taken to express the relation of being saddened by some event or state, the
one given in the complement of the verb. For this, the event or state is presupposed to exist
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(like the subject) and to be apperceived by the subject. This causes lexical presuppositions
to the effect that the event exists and that the subject believes that the event exists (21).
As such, “x regrets that S” presupposes S (Zeevat 1992, 2). This means that, in example (3) below,
the complement of Lamento que (‘I am sorry that’) is presupposed since it would make little sense
for the speaker/subject to be sorry that S (or not sorry that S), if S were not presupposed to have
taken place (Levinson 1983). Thus, through the speaker sharing that s/he is sorry that Peter lost
his job, it is logically implied that Peter lost his job (Keenan 1971). Keenan (1971) refers to these
types of assumptions as ‘logical presuppositions’. However, in addition to the speaker’s belief
state aligning with S actually happening (Zeevat 1992), s/he must also presuppose that the hearer
knows that S (Mejías-Bikandi 1998); i.e., pragmatic presupposition. Therefore, the hearer in (3)
has to already know that Peter lost his job for the sentence to be appropriate (Mejías-Bikandi 1998).
3. Lamento que Pedro haya perdido el trabajo.
To-be-sorry.1SG that Peter have.SUBJ.3SG lost the job.
‘I am sorry that Peter lost his job.’
(Mejías-Bikandi 1998, 942)
Mejías-Bikandi (1998) suggests that this indicates that “there is an intuitively obvious relation
between the notion of pragmatic presupposition and the notion of old information” (943). He states
that:
An utterance A pragmatically presupposes a proposition P iff (if and only if) in order for A
to be appropriate, P must belong to the mutual knowledge of speaker and hearer. A
proposition P belongs to the mutual knowledge of speaker and hearer iff (if an only if) the
speaker knows that P, and the speaker knows that the hearer knows that P, and the speaker
knows that the hearer knows that the speaker knows that P (and so on) (943).
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He subsequently proposes the use of two diagnostics to validate the claim that this relates to
emotive-factives (i.e., that speakers use emotive-factives to introduce information presupposed to
be hearer-old). The first demonstrates that an indefinite phrase within the complement of an
emotive-factive, cannot introduce a discourse referent that is new (Mejías-Bikandi 1998).
4. ??Lamento que conozcas a un amigo mío.
To-be-sorry.1SG that know.SUBJ.2SG to a friend mine.
(Él) se llama José.
(He) REFL name.3SG José.
??‘I am sorry that you know a friend of mine. His name is José.’
!
5. ??Me alegro de que conozcas a un amigo mío.
Me to-make-happy.1SG of that know.SUBJ.2SG to a friend mine.
(Él) se llama José.
(He) REFL name.3SG José.
??‘I’m happy that you know a friend of mine. His name is José.’
(Mejías-Bikandi 1998, 942)
This is not conventional since “an indefinite phrase generally establishes a discourse referent (in
the sense of Karttunen 1971). That is, it introduces a new entity in the discourse that may be
referred to later by a pronoun or a definite phrase” (942). An example of how this would normally
function is provided in example (6) below:
6. Una mujer entró en la tienda.
A woman enter.INDIC.3SG in the store.
7
(Ella) se acercó al mostrador.
She REFL approach.INDIC.3SG to-the counter.
‘A woman entered the store. She (then) approached the counter.’
(Mejías-Bikandi 1998, 942)
Thus, in order to explain the awkwardness of sentences (4) and (5), Mejías-Bikandi suggests that
there is “a principle that states that an indefinite cannot introduce a new discourse referent if it
appears in a complement that represents old information” (944). This is supported by Prince’s
(1992) claim that “hearer-old entities are typically definite […], [while] hearer-new entities are
typically indefinite […]” (302). That is, an indefinite can only introduce a new referent if it appears
in a clause representing new information. The second diagnostic used to show that emotive-
factives introduce old information relates to their use with the intensifiers tan ‘so’ and tanto ‘so
much’ (Mejías-Bikandi 1998).
7. Lamento que Pedro sepa tan poco.
To-be-sorry.1SG that Peter know.SUBJ.3SG so little.
‘I am sorry that Peter knows so little.’
8. Me alegro de que José sepa tanto.
Me to-make-happy.SUBJ.1SG of that Jose know.SUBJ.3SG so-much.
‘I am happy that José knows so much.’
(Adapted from Mejías-Bikandi 1998, 943)
Felicitous use of each form has to do with the hearer already being familiar with the information
tied to the complement (Mejías-Bikandi 1998). As follows, the addressees in (7) and (8) would
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have to already be aware that Peter knows very little and that José knows very much for the
sentences to be appropriate (Mejías-Bikandi 1998).
!
2.3 Old Information and the Subjunctive
The points discussed in section 2.2 show that emotive-factive matrices are sources of
presuppositions, and, consequently, present information that is old. However, these qualities also
correlate with the frequent use of the subjunctive with these predicates: “complements that
represent old information [usually] appear in the subjunctive” (Mejías-Bikandi 1998, 944). But,
what does this mean for the mood variation discussed in section 1?, an example of which is
provided below:
9. Me alegra que estudias tanto.
Me to-make-happy.3SG that study.INDIC.2SG so-much.
‘I am happy that you study so much.’
(Mejías-Bikandi 1998, 946)
The answer to this question lies with the difference between presupposition and assertion (Mejías-
Bikandi 1998). While the subjunctive is linked to presupposition (-assertion
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), the indicative is tied
to assertion (+assertion) (Mejías-Bikandi 1998; Terrell and Hooper 1974). Moreover, since we
“pragmatically assert what is presented as new information” (Mejías-Bikandi 1998, 947), it can be
said that the indicative in an emotive complement is used to foreground what the hearer does not
already know.
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i.e., a lack of assertion or non-assertion.
Indicative
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3 The Theory of ‘Information-quality’
The Spanish mood contrast has been said to incorporate the difference between assertion
(indicative) and non-assertion (subjunctive) (Borrego, Asencio, and Prieto 1986, Bosque 1990;
Collentine 2010; Gregory and Lunn 2012; Lavandera 1983; Lunn 1989; Mejías-Bikandi 1994;
Portner 2018; Quer 2009; Sessarego 2016; Terrell and Hooper 1974). It is said that the indicative’s
pragmatic function is to assert or foreground content of high informational value, while that of the
subjunctive is to background or de-focalize information whose value is low (Borrego, Asencio,
and Prieto 1986; Bosque 1990; Collentine 2010; Gregory and Lunn 2012; Haverkate 2002;
Lavandera 1983; Lunn 1989; Mejías-Bikandi 1994; Quer 2001, 2009; Sessarego 2016; Terrell and
Hooper 1974). According to the theory of information-quality, information deemed not worthy of
assertion may be unreliable or uninformative (already known), while that considered fitting of
assertion is reliable or newsworthy (Gregory and Lunn 2012). As related to emotive-factives, it is
the (un)informativeness of the proposition that is said to condition a speaker’s choice of mood
(Gregory and Lunn 2012). Thus, whereas the indicative may be used to highlight an emotive clause
that is new to the listener, the subjunctive is used to background information that the listener
already knows (Gregory and Lunn 2012; Lunn 1989; Quer 2001; Sessarego 2016). As such, when
evaluative complements contain the indicative, they yield an assertive reading that is not usually
present with the subjunctive (Quer 2001).
3.1 Information-quality and Mood Variation with Emotive-factives
The idea that emotive-factives are inherently tied to old information (Gregory and Lunn 2012;
Mejías-Bikandi 1998; Quer 2001) is plausible since they are most often used to evaluate situations
already known to the conversational participants. It would be unusual, for example, for John to tell
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Tim that he’s happy that Mary got married, if Tim did not share in the knowledge that Mary had
ever been engaged, or that she had ever been in a relationship (or even worse, if Tim did not know
who Mary was). This idea is elaborated on in (10) and (11) below:
10. No estoy sorprendido de que hayan roto.
Not be.1SG surprised of that have.SUBJ.3PL broken.
‘I am not surprised that they have broken up.’
11. Me da igual que a José no le guste.
Me give.3SG equal that to José not him please.SUBJ.1SG.
‘It doesn’t matter to me that José doesn’t like me.’
(Gregory and Lunn 2012, 336)
Examples (10) and (11) “only make sense if the hearer already knows that a couple has broken up,
or that José doesn’t like something. A hearer unaware of these facts would surely demand a
clarification. [(10) and (11)] refer to information that is assumed to be known to the speaker and
hearer alike, and it is this lack of need for assertion that produces the use of the subjunctive”
(Gregory and Lunn 2012, 336). It is, therefore, on the rarer occasion that the evaluative
complement is not presupposed to be known to the hearer, that assertion and the indicative are
considered appropriate. The following naturally-occurring examples from Davies’ Corpus del
Español (2016) ‘The Corpus of Spanish’, do not appear to contradict this hypothesis:
Subjunctive
Subjunctive
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Table 1: Examples of Spanish emotive-factive clauses with an embedded indicative verb
12. ¡Chiquillas! ¡Estoy demasiado contenta de poder presentarles por primera vez en el blog
a la marca COE! ¡Me encanta que todos los productos de la marca vienen con un sticker
que indica el olor y el estado de ánimo que genera!”
‘Girls! I’m too happy to be able to introduce the brand COE for the first time in this blog.
I love that all of the brand’s products come-INDIC with a sticker that indicates the smell
and emotion that it generates!’
13. Hola, mi bebe tiene siete meses, está bien en el peso y el tamaño para su edad, pero me
preocupa que no le agrada mucho la comida. Todavía toma leche materna.
‘Hello, my baby is seven months old and is a good weight and size for his age, but it worries me
that food does not please-INDIC him a lot. He still drinks breast milk.’
14. Me gustaría agradecer al director de la empresa quien me ha ayudado desde que tenía catorce
años, ya que sin él no estaría donde estoy. He trabajado muy duro para llegar a este punto
de mi carrera. Es fantástico que todos los sacrificios que he hecho ahora están siendo
recompensados”.
‘I would like to thank the director of the Company who has helped me since I was fourteen years
old, since without him I wouldn’t be where I am. I have worked very hard to reach to this point
in my career. It is fantastic that all the sacrifices that I have made now are-INDIC
being compensated.’
(Davies’ Corpus del Español 2016)
(Davies’ Corpus del Español 2016)
(Davies’ Corpus del Español 2016)
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In (12) a blogger introduces a new brand of cosmetics to readers who are presupposed to have had
no knowledge of its recent launching; i.e., use of the indicative to highlight or assert information
that is new. In (13), a mother reveals to the readers of a maternal blog, that she is worried that her
baby doesn’t like food other than breastmilk. This information had not been mentioned in previous
discourse and was, thus, assumed to be new to the blog participants who had read it. The
informativeness of this comment appears to be what allows for felicitous usage of the indicative.
(14) is an excerpt from a speech that was given to an audience that is presumed to have had no
knowledge or little knowledge of the biography being presented. The speaker, therefore, opts for
the indicative to call the audience’s attention to information that they did not already know.
The preceding discussion, thus, demonstrates that the theory of information-quality aptly
brings together the claim that there exists a tripartite relationship between the notions of pragmatic
presupposition/assertion, old/new information, and mood choice. The result of this integration of
concepts is that one general pragmatic theory of mood is established.
4 The Current Study
The theory of information-quality suggests that “speakers of Spanish can use grammatical
mood to rank the information value of clauses” (Gregory and Lunn 2012, 334). The objective of
the present study is, thus, to probe if the mood variation occurring with emotive-factives is in fact
influenced by the ‘newness’ or ‘oldness’ of the evaluated proposition at hand: i.e., speakers’
presuppositions regarding the common ground of the conversation. If this is found to be the case,
findings will not only contribute to the study of pragmatics, but also to research on language
acquisition and instructed language learning (ILL). A case in point is that instruction on mood
tends to be diminished to prescriptive lists of rules and pneumonic devices (e.g., WEIRDO - wish-
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will/emotion/impersonal expressions/request/doubt-denial/ojalá ‘perhaps’) (Gregory and Lunn
2012; Sessarego 2016). Through these tactics, the appearance of an emotive-factive is explained
as co-occurring with that of the subjunctive. As such, learners are taught that mood selection is
mechanical and, thus, devoid of meaning. However, if the theory of information-quality holds true,
instead of memorizing lists of rules, students can learn “how mood choice is used to convey
[specific] information” (Gregory and Lunn 2012, 337). Additionally, if these constraints affect
emotive-factives, the non-prescriptive variation occurring in other ‘subjunctive’ environments,
may also be explained
4
. The research questions guiding the present study are, therefore, the
following:
RQ1) Does the hypothesis that new information tends to be asserted with the indicative, while
old information is “un-asserted” with the subjunctive, explain the mood variation that
occurs in Spanish emotive-factive clauses?
RQ2) If this is so, is the acceptability of the non-prescriptive indicative mood constrained to
contexts of information that is new?
5 Method
5.1 Participants
All participants forming part of the present study were recruited for through the principal
investigator’s extended network of connections. No participant had a background in linguistics.
They included nineteen native speakers (NSs) of Spanish from Argentina (n = 1), Bolivia (n = 4),
Chile (n = 1), Colombia (n = 1), Mexico, (n = 5), Venezuela (n = 6), and Spain (n = 1). Ten
4
Emotive-factives are not the only environment in which non-prescriptive mood variation occurs.
14
participants were female and nine were male. The average age of the group was thirty-four years.
NSs from a variety of countries were chosen in order to “cancel out potential dialectal effects”
(Borgonovo, Bruhn de Garavito, and Prévost 2015, 48).
5.2 Instrument Creation
5.2.1 Corpus Search
A search of Davies’ Corpus del Español (2016) ‘The Corpus of Spanish’ was conducted
in order to obtain naturally-occurring examples of mood use in emotive-factive clauses. The thirty-
two items that were obtained were adapted to an appropriate length in order to facilitate ease of
reading. They were then attached to invented scenarios which indicated if the information being
evaluated would have been ‘new’ or ‘old’ to the original reader. It followed that all corpus item -
scenario pairs were used in the creation of a contextualized Acceptability Judgment Task (AJT).
Additional details regarding the composition of this task are provided in section 5.2.2 to follow.
5.2.2 Acceptability Judgment Tasks
I. Contextualized Acceptability Judgment Task
The first AJT contained the authentic emotive-factive expressions that were extracted from
Davies’ Corpus del Español (2016) ‘The Corpus of Spanish’. Various evaluative phrases (e.g., me
encanta que ‘it pleases me that’, es increíble que ‘it is incredible that’, etc.) were searched for with
the purpose of finding items containing both the indicative and subjunctive. At the end of the
search, thirty-two items were selected. Each of these items was then adapted to an appropriate
length and subsequently attached to an invented context that signaled if the information being
15
evaluated was ‘new’ or ‘old’ to the original reader. The invented scenarios preceded each sentence
so as to explicitly indicate to the participants, the contexts with which they should associate the
specific form. Eight originally indicative clauses were preceded by contexts describing them as
containing information that was unfamiliar to the initial readers (new information), while eight
originally subjunctive sentences had scenarios that described them as containing information that
the readers would have already known (old information). The remaining sixteen sentences were
also divided equally between the two moods. Eight had indicative emotive complements as
associated with old information, while the other eight involved the subjunctive as connected to
information that was new; i.e., a reversal of the informational contexts said to be most suitable
with each mood. The final version of the contextualized AJT, therefore, contained sixteen
indicative sentences equally preceded by contexts of new and old information, and sixteen
subjunctive sentences anteceded by contexts of the same nature.
II. Context-free Acceptability Judgment Task
Context-free evaluative sentences, similar to what would be seen in a Spanish grammar
textbook, constituted the second AJT. This second AJT contained ten items; five in the indicative
and five in the subjunctive.
5.3 Data Collection
Before commencing any language activities, participants were required to read and sign
informed consent forms (five minutes).
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5.3.1 Language Background Questionnaire
All participants then completed an adapted LEAP-Q language background questionnaire
(five minutes) that contributed the participant information in section 5.1. The questionnaires were
provided to the participants in Spanish.
5.3.2 Acceptability Judgment Tasks
After completion of the language background questionnaire, participants were required to
perform two Acceptability Judgment Tasks (approximately fifty-five minutes). One AJT was
contextualized, while the other was composed of stand-alone (context-free) evaluative sentences.
The purpose of using two AJTs was to test if information-quality (new/old information) would
affect the participants’ judgments.
Participants were instructed to rate how the items in both tasks sounded using a 4-point
scale. The rating options were: muy bien ‘very good’ (4), aceptable ‘acceptable’ (3), rara ‘odd’
(2), and inaceptable ‘unacceptable’ (1). Participants were told that their ratings should correspond
with how they personally spoke or with speech that they were familiar with. This was done in an
attempt to diminish the role of grammaticality in their rankings.
Each response on the contextualized AJT was coded for three variables. The dependent
variable was the ratings provided by the participants, while the independent variables included the
type of introductory scenario (new vs. old) and the mood contained in each emotive-factive clause.
For the stand-alone sentences, the dependent variable was again the participants’ ratings, while the
independent variable was the mood contained in the specific evaluative clause. These variables
were thought to be most important for this study since its principal goal was to better understand
the workings of the theory of information-quality itself.
17
6 Results
Mann-Whitney U tests were run in order to test for differences in the three sets of ratings
that were obtained; indicative new vs. indicative old, subjunctive new vs. subjunctive old, and
indicative vs. subjunctive in context-free emotive clauses. Ratings for the indicative in contexts of
new and old information were compared first, followed by those obtained for the subjunctive.
Ratings for subjunctive versus indicative, as related to the context-free environments, were
compared last.
Non-parametric Mann-Whitney U tests were used since, in all three instances, two sets of
ordinal data were being compared. Tests were run using SPSS Statistics version 24 and alpha levels
were set to 0.05.
6.1 Contextualized Acceptability Judgment Task
6.1.1 The Indicative with New and Old Information
The indicative, in evaluative complements containing information that was both unknown
(new) and known (old) to the original reader, was examined first
5
. Table 2 below shows that in
contexts of information that was new to the reader, ratings were primarily favorable (70%).
5
Examples of the sentences that were used in the AJTs are included in the Appendix.
18
Table 2
The acceptability of the indicative mood in contexts of familiar and unfamiliar information
Indicative with New Information
Very good
Acceptable
Positive
Total
Odd
Unacceptable
Negative
Total
27%
43%
70%
18%
12%
30%
Indicative with Old Information
Very good
Acceptable
Positive
Total
Odd
Unacceptable
Negative
Total
16%
24%
40%
28%
32%
60%
However, its use with information that was already known to the addressee received mostly
negative scores (60%).
19
A Mann-Whitney U test was run to further investigate these findings. Since this test is based on
rankings, each value (muy bien ‘very good’, aceptable ‘acceptable’, rara ‘odd’, and inaceptable
‘unacceptable’) was assigned a numerical counterpart from 1-4. The number 4 represented the
most positive ranking (muy bien), while 1 stood for the lowest (inaceptable). Results from the test
corroborated the above percentages since it was revealed that the ratings attached to new
information were significantly more positive (Mdn = 3) than those associated with information
that was old (Mdn = 2), U = 7806, p = 0.000, z = -5.072, r = -0.02.
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
100%
Indicative New
Information
Indicative Old
Information
Percentage of responses
Positive Ratings
Figure 1
20
6.1.2 The Subjunctive with New and Old Information
The prescriptively correct subjunctive was the mood looked at next. Table 3 below presents
the ratings provided for both of the contexts.
Table 3
The acceptability of the subjunctive mood in contexts of familiar and unfamiliar information
Subjunctive with Old Information
Very good
Acceptable
Positive
Total
Odd
Unacceptable
Negative
Total
61%
30%
91%
7%
2%
9%
1
2
3
4
New
Information
Old
Information
Ratings
Medians for the Indicative with New and Old
Information
New Information
Old Information
Figure 2
21
Subjunctive with New Information
Very good
Acceptable
Positive
Total
Odd
Unacceptable
Negative
Total
42%
46%
88%
9%
3%
12%
In contexts of information that was shared between speaker and reader, the subjunctive received
primarily positive scores (91%). However, it also received very positive ratings (88%) in contexts
of information that was reader-new. This was, nonetheless, not unexpected since the subjunctive
is the default in Spanish emotive-factive clauses.
Figure 3
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
100%
Subjunctive New
Information
Subjunctive Old
Information
Percentage of Responses
Positive Ratings
22
It was, however, interesting to note that the distributions of the ratings attached to each context
were significantly different. With old information, the subjunctive received a median of 4
(Mdn = 4), whereas with information that was new it received a median of 3 (Mdn = 3),
U = 9316.5, z = -3.251, p = 0.001, r = -0.01. Figure 4 displays the medians for both contexts.
6.2 Context-free Acceptability Judgment Task
The context-free AJT demonstrated a strong preference for subjunctive (95%) over
indicative (31%). Disapproval ratings for the indicative were seen to be relatively high (69%).
Table 4 and Figure 5 address these results:
1
2
3
4
Old
Information
New
Information
Ratings
Medians for the Subjunctive with Old and New
Information
Old Information
New Information
Figure 4
23
Table 4
The acceptability of the subjunctive and indicative in context-free ‘stand-alone’ emotive
sentences
Subjunctive
Very good
Acceptable
Positive
Total
Odd
Unacceptable
Negative
Total
68%
27%
95%
2%
3%
5%
Indicative
Very good
Acceptable
Positive
Total
Odd
Unacceptable
Negative
Total
7%
24%
31%
31%
38%
69%
24
Figure 5
Mann Whitney U tests backed up these percentages since rankings for the subjunctive (Mdn = 4)
were significantly more positive than those attached to the indicative (Mdn = 2), U = 1006.5,
z = - 9.603, p = 0.000, r = -0.05.
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
100%
Subjunctive Indicative
Percentage of Responses
Acceptability Ratings for the Subjunctive and
Indicative in Context-free Sentences
Subjunctive
Indicative
1
2
3
4
Subjunctive Indicative
Medians
Medians for Stand-alone Emotive Clauses
Figure 6
25
6.3 Contextualized AJT vs. Context-free AJT
Additional Mann-Whitney tests were carried out in order to see the extent to which context
influenced the participants’ ratings. In terms of the indicative, the ratings provided for its use with
new information (Mdn = 3) were significantly more positive than those attached to its selection
without context (Mdn = 2), U = 3952, z = -6.224, p = 0.000, r = -0.4. However, there was no
statistical difference between the ratings it received with old information (Mdn = 2) as compared
to its non-contextualized selection (Mdn = 2), U = 6410.5, z = -1.546, p = 0.122, r = -0.1. When it
came to the subjunctive, its use in emotive clauses containing new information (Mdn = 3) was
significantly more negatively rated than its context-free selection (Mdn = 4), U = 5252.5,
z = -3.896, p = 0.000, r = -0.25. Contrarily, no significant difference was found between the ratings
it received with old information (Mdn = 4) and its use without context (Mdn = 4), U = 6660.0, z =
-1.058, p = 0.290, r = -0.07.
7 Discussion
According to the theory of information-quality, the non-assertive subjunctive is the default
in emotive clauses since the evaluation of an event usually takes place when the hearer/reader
already has some knowledge of said event (Gregory and Lunn 2012). This means that Mary is
happy that S is likely to be relayed to a hearer who is presupposed to already know about event S.
Thus, because the hearer would share in common knowledge of the proposition (the event), the
speaker would have no need to assert or highlight it. However, when the S being evaluated is new
to the listener, the speaker may use the indicative to bring it to his or her attention. The aim of the
current investigation was to probe the validity of this hypothesis. The objective was to find out the
26
extent to which the mentioned conversational contexts, working alongside speaker intent
6
, played
a role in grammaticality being disregarded (i.e., the indicative being considered acceptable in
prescriptively subjunctive-selecting clauses).
7.1 Contextualized Acceptability Judgment Task
The contextualized AJT provided some eye-opening findings regarding the use of the
indicative. Results showed that in emotive clauses containing information that was new, the
indicative was associated with predominantly positive ratings (70% positivity, Mdn = 3
‘acceptable’). However, when the same mood appeared in emotive complements with information
that was old, the ratings it received were primarily negative (60% negativity, Mdn = 2 ‘odd’).
Through Mann-Whitney U tests, it was observed that this difference was statistically relevant. The
indicative in evaluative clauses that had information that was new to the reader, was assigned
significantly more positive ratings than it received with evaluated information that was old. This
gives weight to the idea that speakers use the indicative as “… an instruction to attend to a piece
of information” (Lunn 1989).
When it came to the subjunctive, it was observed that participant ratings were positive
regardless of the context in question. This was most likely due to the fact that subjunctive selection
is normative in Spanish emotive-factive clauses. However, although it was received favorably in
both environments, the difference between the ratings provided for each was of statistical
significance. In contexts of old information, the subjunctive received a considerably more positive
distribution of scores (Mdn = 4) than it did with evaluated information that was new (Mdn = 3).
6
The speaker’s decision to assert or background the information.
27
This supports the hypothesis that the subjunctive is preferred in clauses containing information
that the reader/listener already knows (Lunn 1989).
These findings suggest that the acceptability of the indicative is more context-dependent
than that of the subjunctive. Whereas the subjunctive was received favorably in both environments,
the indicative was ranked highly only when used with evaluated information that was new.
7.2 Context-free Acceptability Judgment Task
Findings from the context-free AJT coincide with the aforementioned postulation. The
indicative, in emotive clauses without a preceding context, received ratings that were largely
unfavorable (69% unfavorability, Mdn = 2 ‘odd’). Ratings attached to the subjunctive, however,
were expressly positive (95% favorability, Mdn = 4). This did not appear to be random since “it is
necessary to know quite a lot about the discourse […] in order to understand the mood choices
[that sentences] contain” (Lunn 1989). Thus, without an idea of the contexts in which the speaker
and hearer/reader were found, participants found it difficult to attach positive ratings to the non-
prescriptive indicative. The subjunctive, on the other hand, was not impacted by this lack of
context. This is likely due to the fact that the use of an emotive-factive itself presupposes that the
addressee shares common ground with the speaker; i.e., the default context in which an evaluative
predicate is employed is one in which the hearer and speaker share in mutual knowledge of the
proposition (Gregory and Lunn 2012; Mejías-Bikandi 1998; Quer 2001).
7.3 Contextualized AJT vs. Context-free AJT
Comparisons between both AJTs were also carried out in order to determine how exactly
information-quality affected the participants’ ratings. It was already observed that the indicative
28
with new information was preferred to its use with evaluated information that was old. However,
it was also important to ascertain how its use in these environments differed from its context-free
selection. For instance, it was observed that with old information, it was not rated significantly
differently from its use without context (i.e., the negativity of the ratings attached to its use with
old information was similar to that associated with its uncontextualized use). That being said, when
its context-free selection was compared to its use with new information, the latter was ranked
considerably more favorably. This corroborates the hypothesis (see section 7.1) that the
indicative’s acceptability is context-dependent; the context on which it is dependent being that of
an emotive-factive clause containing information that is new.
In terms of the subjunctive, although ratings were all-round positive, its use with old
information was preferred over new. However, how did this compare to its appearance without
context? An important finding was that its use with new information was significantly more
negatively rated than its selection without context. In contrast, when its uncontextualized use was
compared to its selection with old information, there were no substantial differences between the
rankings.
These findings suggest that both moods have contexts in which their use is preferred. Since
emotive-factives are inherently tied to information that is old (Gregory and Lunn 2012; Mejías-
Bikandi 1998; Quer 2001), their use in contexts of known information and no contextual
information is similarly interpreted. This appears to be why the subjunctive was ranked
analogously in both environments. However, when used with information that was new, the
participants’ dispreference for its use became more obvious. Participants did not seem to favor
selection of the non-assertive mood in evaluative contexts revealing information that was new. On
29
the other hand, being the assertive mood, the indicative was deemed most appropriate when it
appeared alongside evaluated information that was not already familiar to the addressee.
8 Concluding Remarks
There are several benefits to having explored a pragmatic theory of mood such as this one.
One of these benefits is that it can account for variation that is non-prescriptive. A second
advantage is that it highlights the important roles that speaker intent and context play in speech.
Additionally, if a speaker’s choice of form is understood to be a consequence of his/her
surroundings, deviations from the norm can be better understood. In other words, pragmatic theory
can provide solutions to problems that are difficult to resolve when (un)grammaticality is the focus.
Findings from the present investigation show that there is a strong relationship between the
mood that a speaker chooses and the context in which the statement is uttered. Results showed that
although the subjunctive is the ‘go-to’ mood in Spanish emotive clauses, the indicative becomes
acceptable if certain pragmatic conditions are met. When the information being evaluated is
hearer-new, there is a surge in its acceptability. The same occurs with the subjunctive when used
with information that is hearer-old. This demonstrates that mood use with emotive-factives is
greatly affected by the presence or absence of “[…] mutually recognized shared information”
(Stalnaker 2002, 204). If the speaker presupposes that there is no common ground between what
s/he knows about the event to-be-evaluated and what the hearer knows about said event, the
assertive and marked indicative becomes appropriate. In this way, the speaker can call the
addressee’s attention to the newness of the information being shared. If the information to-be-
evaluated is, however, identified as being common knowledge to both speaker and hearer, the non-
assertive subjunctive is preferred. This demonstrates that what is hearer-new is more “assertable”
30
than what is hearer-old. Thus, in response to RQ1, new information being asserted with the
indicative and old information being unasserted with the subjunctive, does aid in explaining the
mood variation occurring in Spanish emotive-factive clauses. In terms of RQ2, since the indicative
was highly ranked with new information alone, its use does appear to be largely restricted to such
environments.
9 Future Research
The above findings are consequential for various reasons. The first is that there is
substantial evidence that the mood variation occurring in Spanish evaluative clauses is not random;
pragmatic factors contribute to its occurrence. A second reason is that evaluative clauses may not
be the only environment in which mood variation is affected by information-quality; the same may
be the case for the variation occurring in other prescriptively ‘invariable’ environments.
Additionally, since similar intra-linguistic variation can occur in the emotive clauses of Catalan,
Brazilian Portuguese, Turkish, and French (Giannakidou 2015; Quer 1998, 2009), it might be
beneficial to explore if this theory is applicable beyond the context of Spanish. A fourth reason for
why these findings are important is that it was seen that mood choice goes beyond the type of
predicate at hand. It involves the relationship between the speaker, his/her addressee, and their
shared or unshared common grounds. Finally, both learners and instructors can benefit from
knowing that choice of mood carries pragmatic purpose and is, thus, meaningful.
In closing, it is also important to mention that there are other variables which may have
influenced the results that were obtained. Extra-linguistic factors such as language background,
gender, age, and education could have also played a part in the participants’ responses. These
factors were not examined in the current study, primarily because it was focused on figuring out
31
the intricacies of the theory of information-quality itself. It is, thus, important for any future studies
on the topic to take this into consideration, and perhaps extend the study in such a way that these
variables are accounted for.
32
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APPENDIX
SAMPLE ITEMS FROM EACH OF THE TWO AJTs:
Contextualized AJT
1.1. Indicative New Information
Respuesta extraída de la sección de comentarios de un artículo periodístico titulado: Un nuevo gato en casa.
Esta mujer está contando su experiencia personal con los gatos a lectores que no saben nada acerca de su experiencia
con las mascotas.
“Hola, soy Meli. A mí me encantan los gatos. Son hermosos. El mío se llama Néstor. Lástima que se lleva tan mal
con mi perra...”
Me suena: a. muy bien b. aceptable c. rara d. inaceptable
1.2. Indicative Old Information
Comentario extraído de un blog sobre la religión:
Este hombre le hace una pregunta a su pastor después de haberle contado algunos detalles sobre la relación que
tiene con su novia.
“Estimado Padre Rivero:
Tengo más de 3 años saliendo con mi novia y la amo muchísimo. Siempre ha existido respeto y mucha
comunicación entre nosotros, mas solo le veo un pequeño problemita; ella es atea. ¿Es malo que yo salgo con ella?”.
Me suena: a. muy bien b. aceptable c. rara d. inaceptable
37
1.3. Subjunctive New Information
Noticia extraída de un blog sobre el maquillaje:
Esta bloguera está informándoles por primera vez a sus lectores de un recién creado sitio de web en el que se venden
cosas de belleza. Los lectores no saben que existe esta página web ni saben nada de los productos que se ofrecen.
“¡Hola internautas! Tengo buenas noticias. ¡Hay un nuevo sitio web que vende solo productos de belleza! ¡Me encanta
que todos sus productos vengan con un sticker que indica el olor y el estado de ánimo que genera!”
Me suena: a. muy bien b. aceptable c. rara d. inaceptable
1.4. Subjunctive Old Information
Comentario extraído de un foro de internet sobre el sobrepeso:
Este comentario está dirigido a lectores que ya sabían del aspecto físico y del peso de la mamá mencionada.
“O sea, creo que nuestras madres y abuelas no estaban bajo la presión que las mujeres de hoy tienen después de tener
un bebé. ¡Mi padre dice que no hay nada mejor que un poco de carne en los huesos! Cree que es bueno que mi madre
esté un poco gordita”.
Me suena: a. muy bien b. aceptable c. rara d. inaceptable
Context-free AJT
2.1. Subjunctive
Es fundamental que adquieren algunos conocimientos básicos antes de especializarse.
Me suena: a. muy bien b. aceptable c. rara d. inaceptable
38
2.2. Indicative
Lástima que no le conozcan porque es un tipo fenomenal.
Me suena: a. muy bien b. aceptable c. rara d. inaceptable
39
About the author:
Tris Faulkner (pronouns: she, hers, her) is a fifth-year Ph.D. student in Spanish Linguistics at
Georgetown University in Washington D.C. Her work centers on investigating the meanings
behind the ‘unexpected’ mood variation that occurs in embedded clauses that are traditionally
described as requiring the subjunctive. You can learn more about her work by visiting:
https://trisfaulkner.com/.
Email address: tjf70@georgetown.edu
Affiliation address (Georgetown University Department of Spanish and Portuguese):
Edward B. Bunn S.J. Intercultural Center,
403A 37th and O Streets,
Washington, DC 20057
(Final Manuscript Version: Faulkner, T. (2021). Prescriptively or Descriptively Speaking?:
How Information Quality Influences Mood Variation in Spanish Emotive Clauses. Pragmatics.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1075/prag.19044.fau
Journal: PRAGMATICS: Quarterly Publication of the International Pragmatics Association)
