The Interrelation of Mood, Tense, and Modality in the Italian Language

Abstract

Mood is a morphological category. In the Italian language, traditionally, the indicative, subjunctive, conditional, and imperative moods are distinguished. It is precisely the subjunctive mood that is one of the main morphological expressions of modality. However, modality, as a semantic category, is much broader and implies the "status of the proposition," the speaker’s attitude toward what is said and toward the act of utterance itself. Since the subjunctive is the mood form most closely related to modality, we have examined in detail the nature of the subjunctive mood, its characteristics, and the conditions under which it is used in a construction, primarily in a subordinate clause.

Instances of emphasizing modal meaning in the Italian language are evident both in the past and the future; as the future is not fully known it necessarily includes elements of prediction, assumption, or something similar. Accordingly, the future tense is frequently used without any temporal meaning, in the so-called epistemic sense of assumption or possibility. For example, the verb in the future tense in this sentence acquires a meaning of assumption:

Hanno bussato alla porta, sarà Marco.

Modal meaning is also emphasized in the past imperfect tense, and accordingly, the following types are distinguished:

Conative imperfect (imperfetto conativo)

This verb tense expresses actions that remained at the level of intent, desire, or risk of execution:

Per poco, sabato, non avevo un conflitto con quelli del terzo.

The situation with them from the third group almost turned into a conflict on Saturday.

Polite imperfect (imperfetto di modestia, attenuativo)

Desiderava?  What would you like?

Irreal imperfect tense (irreale)

Through the imperfect tense in such sentences, an unrealized assumption (irrealità del passato) is almost always conveyed:

Se lo sapevo, non venivo. If I had known that, I wouldn’t have come.

Prospective imperfect tense (imperfetto prospettivo)

Used with a future meaning in the context of the past:

L’ospite giunse nel pomeriggio del 15 giugno. Ripartiva due giorni dopo.

The guest arrived on June 15 in the afternoon. He was leaving two days later.

The same can be said about the pluperfect tense (trapassato prossimo), which acquires modal meaning when, in spoken language, it is used instead of a conditional form in the result clause of a hypothetical construction:

Se non mi fossi ammalato a quest’ora avevo già terminato gli esami.

If I hadn’t gotten sick, I would have already finished the exams by now.

In other cases, it carries a “softening” meaning:

Buongiorno, ero venuto per chiederle una cortesia.

Good morning, I came to ask you for a favor.