No other grammatical phenomenon causes as many problems in teaching and learning as the
subjunctive. Most grammars devote as many pages to the presentation of the rules as to the
exceptions. This becomes even more frustrating when dealing with the differences not only
between different language families but even within the Romance language family alone since
it seems that each language shapes the functional area of the subjunctive individually. The aim
of this volume is therefore to reconsider the representation of the subjunctive in Romance
languages in a crosslinguistic and contrastive way. First an overview of research in this area
from the beginnings to the latest neurolinguistic findings will explore the complexity of the
issue. Next specific phenomena of the subjunctive at the interface of its functional domain
with the indicative will be illustrated by means of appropriate case studies. On this basis an
attempt is made to trace the polyfunctionality and the differing uses in the Romance languages
and beyond to a common pattern with language-specific margins. This allows us to explain not
only contrastive differences but also the decline of the subjunctive in some domains and
languages as well as demonstrate the range of substitution possibilities. Finally the view is
extended to other language families and new impulses for foreign language teaching are
presented. With contributions from Tobias Gretenkort Sebastian Buchczyk Ingo Feldhausen
Michel Favre Helene Rader Liane Ströbel Aurélie Scheffe
