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Chapter1
STRUCTUREANDBASICDISTINCTIONS
Syntactically,conditionmaybeexpressedbymeansofsimpleorcomplexsen-
tences,orsentenceequivalents.Therearemanydefinitionsofwhataconditional
sentenceis.Generally,fromthepointofviewoflogic,conditionalsentencesare
formedbyfillingupblanksinthefollowinguniversalformula:
[1]
if...(antecedent),then...(consequent)
whichmaybeabbreviatedtothefollowingrule:
[2]
AąB
Thestructuremayberepeatedifnecessary(cf.BarthandKrabbe1982:42–43).
Logiciansandphilosophersusuallyfocustheirattentiononstudiesonthe
true-falsevalueofsentences.Wealsoowetothemthedistinctionbetween
counterfactualconditionals(contrarytothefact)andindicativeconditionals
(nopredictionsaboutthefulfilmentornon-fulfilmentofthecondition).
Linguistsandgrammarianshaveofferedvariousclassificationsofcondition-
alsdependingonthestancetheyadopted.Traditionally,basingonLatin,condi-
tionalsentencesaredividedintothreegroups:real(realis),potential(potential-
is)andunreal(irrealis),whichmaybeinterpretedasadistinctionbetweenal-
waystrue,possiblytrueandnevertrue.Themostpopularcontemporarypeda-
gogicalanddescriptivegrammarbookspresentathreefolddistinctionintothe
so-calledfirstoropen,secondorhypothetical,andthirdorunrealcondition-
als.Thedistinctionisbasedonverbformsandappliedtenses,whichmeansin
themainclausethefuturetenseforthefirsttype(shall/will+infinitive),the
futureinthepastforthesecondtype(should/would+infinitive),andthefuture
perfectinthepastforthethirdtype(should/would+have+pastparticiple).The
subordinateclauseshaverespectivelypresentsimple,simplepastandpastper-
fecttenses.Thetimereferenceofthefirsttwotypesisthepresentorthefuture,
whereasforthethirdoneitisthepast.Thefollowingmayserveastypicalex-
amplesoftheabove:
