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INTRODUCTION
InteachingEnglishgrammartoPolishstudentsIhaveencounteredmanyprob-
lemswhenexplainingthemeaningofconditionalsentences.Thereexists
alongstandingtraditionofdescribingconditionalsinpedagogicgrammars(e.g.
Onions1904,EckersleyandEckersley1960,ThompsonandMartinet1960,
Graver1971,Murphy1994).Thesefocusondiscussingformaldifferencesin
threemajortypesofsuchsentences:
[1]
IfIstart/started/hadstartedearlyenough,Iwillcatch/would
catch/wouldhavecaughttheearlytrain.
Thedescriptioncentresaroundtheverbformsusedinsuchsentences,whereas
theanalysisofmeaningisreducedtoanabsoluteminimum.Mostlytheypointout
thedifferenceofverbformsusedinordertomarktimereferenceaswellasto
stresstherealityversusunrealityrelationinconditionals.Hardlyanyexamplesof
othercombinationsarementioned,andeveniftheyare,theyareconveniently
called“mixed”andtreatedasdeparturesfromtheformulasquotedabove.Themost
commonpedagogicresultofsuchanapproachisthatstudentsbecomeappropriate-
ly“mixed”andtrytoavoidproducingsentencesthatmaydifferfromtherule.
Conditionalsbringaboutanumberofquestions.Theirlogicalstructure
hasbeendiscussedsinceAristotleandthecomplexityoftheproblemaswell
asthevarietyofinterpretationswasputintowordsbyCicero:“(...)‘Ifitis
day,itshines’,howgreatacontestthereis;–Diodorushasoneopinion,Philo
another,Chrysippusathird.NeedIsaymore?”.Conditionalshavebeen
amediumfordevelopingmanyinfluentialtheoriesinthephilosophyoflan-
guage,suchasthetheoryofimplicature.Theyhavebeenanobjectofinterest
forlinguistsdoingresearchintosyntax,semantics,pragmatics,discourse,
languageuniversals,languageacquisition,historyoflanguageand,ashas
beenalreadymentioned,languageteaching.Exhibitingalargevarietyof
forms,conditionalstructuresbringaboutavarietyofinterpretations.They
createalanguageareawhereform,meaningandcontextinteract.
Oneofthemostfascinatingaspectsofconditionals,namelythediscussionof
truth–falsityvalue,Ihavedeliberatelyleftoutalmostinitsentiretyfrommy
bookasbelongingmoretothefieldoflogicratherthantopurelylinguisticanal-
ysis,especiallyasmyworkaimsatcontrastivestudies.Contrastiveanalysis
belongstosynchroniccomparativestudiesanddealswithinvestigationintothe
