What does żeby introduce? Old and new research questions about the Polish żeby complementizer

Abstract

Abstract The article explores the status of żeby-clauses in the Polish mood system. Clauses introduced by the complex complementizer żeby defy a unified description and traditional Polish grammars classify them either as indicative or conditional/subjunctive. The paper provides evidence that żeby-clauses can be classified as irrealis on the basis of their temporal properties. Furthermore, żeby-clauses introduced by non-veridical verbs share affinities with the subjunctive structures in other languages; specifically, they exhibit subjunctive-related phenomena, such as obviation effects. The present discussion also gives more general insights into the traditional mood classification in Polish and its problems.