Toward a syntax of the subjunctive mood

In this paper I discuss the syntactic properties of the Italian subjunctive and their relevance at the syntax/semantics interface. The subjunctive mood plays a typical role in sequence of tense phenomena: languages that show the double access reading with the indicative, do not show it with the subjunctive, with some interesting exceptions. The double access reading is a peculiar interpretive effect having to do with the temporal location of the embedded event. I analyze the syntax associated with subjunctive clauses, and in particular the properties of the complementizer layer. I show that such properties systematically correlate with the interpretation assigned to the embedded clause, i.e., with the presence or absence of the double access reading. I argue that when the embedded clause has a double access interpretation, it contains a projection that is read off at the interface as pointing to the speaker’s temporal coordinate. In the other, non-double access cases, such a projection is absent and therefore the speaker’s coordinate does not intervene in the temporal interpretation of the embedded clause.