Studii de Stiinta si Cultura (Feb 2015)
THE SUBJUNCTIVE IN DIRECT OBJECT CLAUSES IN FRENCH AND ITALIAN
Abstract
Our study aims at exploring subjunctive modes in completive subordinates in French and Italian. The differences in the syntactic behavior of these verbs are sometimes important especially that French mainly employs the indicative mode while Italian prefers the subjunctive one. To understand these differences we refer to the concept of "deflexivity" which shows a different synchronic systemic balance between the two languages due to a shifting in the historical evolution. The interlocutive orientation of the verbs from a semantic point of view – the objective verbs oriented towards an external reality and the subjective verbs oriented towards the subject - and the different values of the subjunctive, modal (virtual) in French and modal and temporal in Italian, contribute to the explanation of the main differences.
