Indefiniteness in future reference

Abstract

In some languages, future-oriented readings of the present have a puzzling distribution: in matrix clauses, the present can only be used to refer to settled events (The train leaves at 5pm), but in certain subordinate environments, the present can be used to refer to the future more freely (If John gets this award, he’ll be very happy). Taking English morphology at face value, much of the existing literature has proposed to unify these two readings, a move that has immediate consequences for how the phenomenon should be analyzed. In this paper, I bring data from Portuguese to argue that this future found in subordinate environments is inherently different from the scheduled future found in matrix clauses; in particular, I argue that the former contains a subjunctive mood morpheme. Then, focusing on the interpretation of this Subordinate Future in relative clauses, I show that the subjunctive has a distinctive semantic footprint: it introduces modal displacement in the form of an indefinite description of situations. Because of its indefinite nature, the subjunctive is able to (dynamically) bind situation variables outside of its domain of c-command, giving rise to the modal counterpart of donkey anaphora. I leverage this treatment of the subjunctive to provide a natural explanation to otherwise unexpected facts concerning the temporal interpretation of the Subordinate Future. The resulting picture has interesting implications for the semantics and taxonomy of conditionals.

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