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structuresoftwolanguageswiththeaimofcomparingthem.Contrastiveanaly-
sisgrewoutofpedagogicalneedstobeappliedinforeignlanguageteaching.Its
purposewastodescribeandcomparetwolanguagesinordertoimproveboth
teachingandlearningprocesses.Itwasbasedontheassumptionthatthemain
sourcesofdifficultiesare,generallyspeaking,languageinterferenceandthe
differencesbetweenthetwolanguagesaswellasthefactthatthelearnermust
dotwothingsatthesametime,namelytodecidewhichstructureissuitablefor
agivensituationandtoconcludethatthestructureitselfiscorrect.Contrastive
analysisprovideslistsofsimilaritiesanddifferencesbetweenthetwolanguages
and,whatismore,establishesahierarchyofdifficultyonthelanguagestruc-
turesimplyingtheselectionandgradationofproblems,whichhelpsthestudent
toimprovehis/herevaluationtechniques.Italsoleadstonewformulationsof
grammarofthelanguagebeingdescribedortotherevisionofalanguageal-
readydescribed.Besidesitspracticalapplication,contrastiveanalysiscontrib-
utestotwomajorgoalsoflinguistics:thegeneraltheoryoflanguageandthe
descriptionofparticularlanguages(cf.Szwedek1981:6–22,Marmaridou1988).
Unavoidably,anycontrastiveanalysisdealswithtranslation,whichgivesrise
toanotherproblemoflogic,namelytheidentityofmeaning.Specialistsinlogi-
co-linguisticsobservethat“speakersdonotreadilyacceptthattwodifferent
expressionsactuallymeanthesame”(WilliamLabor,quotedinBolinger
1997:IX).Theysuggestfinding“aclassofsentenceswhichhavethesameinten-
tionalsignificanceforanyonewhounderstandsthem”(Ayer1936/1990:85).To
puttheaboveintomorelinguisticphraseologyonemayquoteFisiaketal.,who
claimsthat“theequivalenceofconstructionisdeterminedbyabilingualper-
son’scompetencewhichinpracticeamountstotranslationandparaphrasing”
andheconcludesthat“theequivalenceofagivenpairofconstructionsshould
bedeterminedbytheidentityofthesemanticinput”(Fisiaketal.1978:16).Yet,
probablythebestsummaryisWeise’sstatement:“…theequivalencebetween
SL(sourcelanguage)textandTL(targetlanguage)textisapproximaterather
thanabsolute…”(Weise1988:190).
Thepurposeofthisworkistogiveadetaileddescriptionofthewaysofex-
pressingconditioninEnglishandinPolish,andtopresentsimilaritiesanddif-
ferencesbetweentheformsinthesetwolanguages.InordertodothatIwillana-
lysethoseaspectsofconditionalsentencesthatcontributetotheirinterpretation
andIwilltrytopresenthowtheformofconditionalsinfluencesthemeaningthey
convey.Thus,thedescriptionwillcovertheroleofthecomponentclausesand
conjunctions,verbformsandfunctionwords,butalsoclauseandwordorder.
IhavefoundmanyusefulpointersformyworkinBarbaraDancygier’sbook
ConditionalandPrediction.Time,KnowledgeandCausationinConditionalCon-
struction.
IwouldliketoexpressmygratitudetoProf.RafałMolencki(Universityof
Silesia)forhisinvaluablehelpandinsightfulcomments,toProf.ElżbietaMań-
czak-Wohlfeld(JagiellonianUniversity)forheraptandinspiringremarks,and
toProf.JanuszArabski(UniversityofSilesia)forhisthoughtfulcommentary.
