Cognitive modelling of the semantics of subjunctive mood (a case for the English verb would)

The article offers a new look at the cognito-perceptual mechanisms for meaning-making within the English language category of subjunctivity, or counterfactuality. The object of study is the English verb would whose lexico-grammatical semantic properties are subjected to complex cognitive analysis and cross-language introspection. The results show that its conceptual structure is derived from the blended mental spaces PAST and FUTURE. The cognitive process of perspectivisation, fundamental to any language construal of reality, ensures a specific perceptual scope for conceptualisation of these blended spaces: the positioning of the mental perspective, or the figure of the abstract observer / viewer, allows different features to be foregrounded in discourse contexts. In particular, with the distanced viewer positioned outside the integrated spaces, the whole conceptual blend of PAST and FUTURE as underlying the semantic structure of would is perceived as a self-sufficient entity, an independent reality non-existent in the speaker's actuality. Hence, the meaning of unreality and unfulfilled hopes or desires is generated. This cognitive model is termed as the model of projection and lies behind what is traditionally and universally associated with the grammatical meaning of subjunctivity. The analysis of the modern English lexicography suggests that this model makes up only 13% of the total semantic usage of would. There are, however, another two viewing points that can be activated in the conceptual structure of would. When the observer is placed inside the mental space PAST, the space FUTURE is viewed retrospectively, i. e. with the awareness of the future being part of the past. Thus, the pragmatic meanings of chronological reconstruction and an account of typical and anticipated past behavior are created. They are, in turn, less felt to be subjunctive. Such a model of retrospection characterises 23% of the total semantic usage of would. The last model of conceptualisation is realised with the mental space FUTURE perspectivised, i. e. the observer is placed inside this space. In this way, the described reality is felt like (as-if) a real future with the space PAST backgrounded in the speaker's mind. Such a model of meaning-making termed as project helps express different shades of modality and emotionally coloured reference to precedent-based behavior. It constitutes 64% of the total semantic usage of would in the modern English language community. It is concluded that subjunctive has not lost its ground in the English linguo-cognitive culture because it characterises a special way of spatial intelligence and language categorisation. The controversy around it is related to nothing but its discourse interpretation. If viewed cognitively, the problem seems plain: the meaning of subjunctivity continues to be actualised in modern English through the semantics of would, but for some reasons the features of the space FUTURE (as in He would talk for hours) and space of 'inner' PAST (as in I thought you would enjoy...) are perspectivised more often now than those of the 'outer' PAST (as in if I were you, I would...).

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