9.6.2.8 Condition

Use this section for verbal auxiliaries, affixes, adverbs, and particles that indicate a clause in a conditional sentence (If this is true, then that is true). The following definitions are taken from Bybee, Joan, Revere Perkins, and William Pagliuca. 1994. The evolution of grammar. Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press.

Louw Nida Codes: 
89J Condition
  • Conditional sentences: Conditional sentences consist of two clauses, the 'if'-clause or protasis (which is a subordinate clause) and the 'then'-clause or apodosis (which is the main clause). Both of these clauses may take special verb forms. (Interestingly enough, they sometime both take the same special verb forms.)
  • There are at least three types of conditional sentences. (Labels, explanations, and examples from Li and Thompson 1981): [Li, Charles N., and Sandra A. Thompson. 1981. Mandarin Chinese: A functional reference grammar. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press.]
  • reality condition: a conditional relation between two propositions referring to the so-called real world: 'If you see my sister, you will know that she is pregnant'.
  • hypothetical: the situation is unreal or imagined, but one that could be true: 'If we moved, we could have a garden'.
  • counterfactual: the proposition describes an unreal or imagined situation that could have been true but was not: 'If you had taken algebra, you would know this formula' (but you did not).
  • The verb forms that occur in these sentences will be coded according to the type of sentence, and according to which clause of the sentence they occur in.
  • Example: the English 'had' + past participle would be coded as:
  • meaning label: protasis
  • meaning label: counterfactual
  • Since the conjunction 'if' obligatorily occurs in the protasis, there will also be the following:
  • Co-occurrence restriction: 'if'
  • This indicates that a morpheme meaning 'if' obligatorily occurs in the protasis. If no such morpheme is necessary, then there will be no co-occurrence restriction.
  • What words indicate the condition of a conditional sentence?
    condition, if, if indeed, if at all, whether...or, or else, otherwise, unless