Factividade e modo verbal

The traditional way of explaining the subjunctive mood in Portuguese is utterly related to the distinction made between reality and non-reality. That is, while the indicative mood has been explained in terms of reality, the subjunctive has been the mood of non-reality. Although this explanation covers many occurrences of the subjunctive mood, it is also recognized that it fails to explain the use of the subjunctive mood in factive contexts. This being so, the present study aims at explaining the variation between the indicative and subjunctive mood in factive contexts from a Cognitive Grammar perspective. The hypothesis put forward is that the mood variation can be explained in terms of dominion and control. Thus, it is claimed that the subjunctive mood in factive contexts can be explained by a reduced degree of active control, this being consistent with an event that is located outside the conceptualizer’s dominion of effective control. On the other hand, the indicative mood occurs in contexts of epistemic control that are located inside the conceptualizer’s epistemic dominion. An additional analysis of the subjunctive mood in other grammatical contexts corroborates the initial claim.