Il congiuntivo alla danese: A homage to Jørgen Schmitt Jensen

This article assesses the theory of ‘the subjunctive as a subordination marker’ proposed by Schmitt Jensen (1970a) in light of recent advances in the study of complementation. It argues that the theory is consistent with the functional framework of Givón (2001) where event integration is said to be mirrored in syntactic integration, but that it has to be revised on two points. Firstly, instead of marking syntactic subordination, we propose that the subjunctive is used to prompt a non-referring construal of the subordinate clause in certain constructions. Secondly, we suggest that the subjunctive prompts a conceptually secondary construal of the subordinate clause in other constructions. By proposing a twofold function of the subjunctive, we can keep the main findings of Schmitt Jensen while avoiding potential circularity and shortcomings that the syntactic theory of the subjunctive faces when applied to, e.g., mood alternation.