Subjunctive clauses as Weak NPIs in Russian

Abstract

This paper investigates a case of polarity-sensitivity of subjunctive complements with verbs like pomnit’ ‘remember’ in Russian: such clauses are possible only in Strawson Downward-Entailing (SDE) environments. I argue that the subjunctive particle by is lexically focus-marked, and activates subdomain alternatives of the predicate it combines with. These alternatives are later on acted upon by a focus operator which requires that all the alternatives to the prejacent are entailed by it. This makes subjunctive complements under verbs like ‘remember’ logically trivial in cases when the sentence is not SDE with respect to the embedded proposition, giving rise to the polarity-sensitivity of subjunctive embedding. One consequence of this proposal is that clausal weak NPIs can be treated on par with pronominal weak NPIs: the only difference between the two is that the latter are indefinite expressions ranging over individuals, whereas the former are indefinites ranging over situations.