This book investigates the properties of a phenomenon occurring in the main Western Romance languages subjunctive obviation, the unavailability of coreference involving the subject of a subjunctive clause and the experiencer of the main clause. Subjunctive obviation displays a series of peculiar properties regarding the lexical class, tense, mood, and person of the embedded verb, the thematic role of the embedded subject, the typology of the subordinate clause, and the presence of the discourse-related elements within the subjunctive clause. Building on results from a range of independent phenomena involving the syntax and the semantics of the subjunctive mood, this book shows how the phenomenon at issue depends on the interface properties of subjunctive clauses. The book will be of interest to researchers and advanced students in all fields of linguistics.
