On the elusive grammatical status of da-construction in Macedonian and Serbian (independent type)

Abstract

The da-construction in Macedonian and Serbian languages combines the modal conjunctive particle da with the finite form of the verb to express a wide range of modal meanings. Being a Balkan Sprachbund novelty, the da-constructions in dependent clauses take on the functions of the infinitive in a complex predicate (in all cases in Macedonian, partly in Serbian). The da-construction in independent simple sentences has a complete conjugation paradigm with the imperative meaning and competes with the synthetic imperative forms in both languages, expressing also optative meanings. The article offers an analytical review on the status of these forms based on data gathered from Macedonian, Bulgarian (being closely related to Macedonian) and Serbian languages. There are two salient extremes in it: 1) the da-construction is not an analytical form of the verb and does not have an independent status in the verb system, instead it functions as a syntactic construction; 2) it is indeed an analytical form of the subjunctive mood, with da being a grammatical indicator of modality with the general non-factual meaning. The article concludes that the first view should be regarded as definitive in determining the status of the da- constructions in the Serbian language. To support this conclusion, we are putting forward the following arguments: a) the verb form is non-adjacent to the da particle in the form; b) there is a competition between the infinitive and the da- constructions as complex predicates as well as in some tenses (future tense: ja ću ići / ja ću da idem) and negative structures (nemoj ići / nemoj da ideš); c) The conjunctive particle da does not always have the non-factual meaning, and in most cases the following verb form can take on any tense or mood. In Macedonian the da-construction should be regarded as an analytical form of the subjunctive mood on account of the following characteristics: а) the da-construction has a syntactically fixed component order, which means that it is a semantically bound or fused chain of components which lost their individual meanings; b) the da-construction has a complete conjugation paradigm, one for da+praes and another for da+imperf, on which stems a wide range of modal meanings: imperative, optative and some others; c) the particle da has an invariant meaning of non-factuality, and it marks the verb form in this construction as non-indicative.

Keywords: subjunctive mood, da-construction, imperative, optative, Balkan Slavic languages, Balkan Sprachbund, Macedonian, Serbian, Bulgarian.