Subjunctive main clauses and the restrictions on subjunctive selection in Portuguese polar interrogatives

Abstract

The subjunctive mood has been widely discussed from the perspective of its selection in complement clauses and has been considered the mood of subordination encoding a given type of dependency (Picallo 1984, Raposo 1985, a.o.). What is more, several studies (Ambar 2016, Giannakidou 2016) have shown that the selection of the subjunctive in main clauses contributes for the expression of speaker-related features, such as the speaker’s kind attitude and evaluations. Focusing on the selectin of the subjunctive mood in yes-no questions, it has been typically associated with the denotation of wondering and doubt, captured under the concept of epistemic subjunctive (Giannakidou 2016). Crucially, it appears that languages differ in allowing for subjunctive in polar questions. While in languages like Modern Greek and Bulgarian, nothing precludes the selection of the subjunctive in either yes-no or wh-questions, subjunctive is typically excluded in some Romance languages, like Portuguese. In view of this intriguing restriction, our goal in this paper is to discuss the data from Portuguese subjunctive main and embedded clauses, building on previous analyses discussing the syntax of polar questions and the properties of subjunctive main clauses (Ambar 2013, 2016, a.o.). We argue that Portuguese subjunctive polar questions are banned due to an intervening Interrogative Operator.