Conditionals

A Comprehensive Empirical Analysis

Renaat Declerck, Susan Reed

• Publisher: De Gruyter Mouton
• Year: 2012
• Print ISBN: 9783110171440
• eBook ISBN: 9783110851748
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Languages & Linguistics
• Subtopic: Languages
• Index: Languages & Linguistics

This book is an extremely detailed and comprehensive examination of conditional sentences in English, using many examples from actual language-use. The syntax and semantics of conditionals (including tense and mood options) and the functions of conditionals in discourse are examined in depth, producing an all-round linguistic view of the subject which contains a wealth of original observations and analyses. Not only linguists specializing in grammar but also those interested in pragmatics and the philosophy of language will find this book a rewarding and illuminating source.

Table of contents

• Acknowledgements
• Abbreviations
• Table of contents
• Chapter 1: Introduction
• 1.1. Aim and scope of the work
• 1.2. The structure of the book
• 1.3. Terminological preliminaries
• 1.4. Symbols and conventions
• 1.5. The illustrative material
• Chapter 2: Conditional connecting devices
• 2.1. If
• 2.2. Connectors expressing a necessary condition
• 2.3. Unless
• 2.4. In case
• 2.5. Lest
• 2.6. Even if and only if
• 2.7. Whether...or
• 2.8. Supposing, assuming, etc
• 2.9. Zero-conjunction plus inversion
• 2.10. Comparative conditionals
• 2.11. Other clauses with a conditional connotation
• 2.12. Conclusion
• Chapter 3: Some preliminary terminology
• 3.1. ‘Subordinate’ clauses
• 3.2. ‘Fully integrated’ clauses
• 3.3. Restrictive postscript-P conditionals
• 3.4. Actualization conditionals
• 3.5. ‘(Non)assertoric’ vs ‘(non)assertive’ clauses
• 3.6. Inferential conditionals
• 3.7. Implicative conditionals
• 3.8. Case-specifying-P conditionals
• 3.9. Set-identifying P-clauses
• 3.10. Conditionals and possible worlds
• 3.11. Irrealis, nonfactual, counterfactual and imaginary P-clauses
• 3.12. Pseudo-Q conditionals
• 3.13. ‘Denied conditionals’ vs ‘conditioned denials’
• 3.14. Specificational (focusing) conditional structures
• 3.15. The three canonical tense patterns of conditionals
• 3.16. Conclusion
• Chapter 4: The possible-world typology of conditionals
• 4.1. Factual-P conditionals
• 4.2. Theoretical-world conditionals
• 4.3. Summary
• Chapter 5: The use of tenses in possible-world conditionals
• 5.1. The tense model
• 5.2. The use of tenses in factual-P conditionals
• 5.3. The use of tenses in neutral-P conditionals
• 5.4. The use of tenses in closed-P conditionals
• 5.5. The use of tenses in open-P conditionals
• 5.6. The use of tenses in tentative-P conditionals
• 5.7. The use of tenses in counterfactual-P conditionals
• 5.8. Conclusion
• Chapter 6: Modalized case-specifying conditionals
• 6.1. The subjunctive
• 6.2. Modal auxiliaries in the Q-clause
• 6.3. Ordinary modal auxiliaries in the P-clause
• 6.4. The use of special-P modals in P-clauses
• 6.5. Conclusion
• Chapter 7: The three canonical tense patterns
• 7.1. Canonical pattern 1 conditionals
• 7.2. Canonical pattern 2 conditionals
• 7.3. Canonical pattern 3 conditionals
• 7.4. Conclusion
• Chapter 8: The relation between the theoretical world and the actual world
• 8.1. Introduction
• 8.2. Epistemic modalizers
• 8.3. The importance of the relation between the theoretical world and the actual world
• 8.4. Nonassertoric interrogative Q-clauses
• 8.5. Conclusion
• Chapter 9: A typology of case-specifying P-clauses
• 9.1. Actualization conditionals
• 9.2. Inferential conditionals
• 9.3. Purely case-specifying-P conditionals
• 9.4. Conclusion
• Chapter 10: Rhetorical conditionals
• 10.1. Utterance conditionals
• 10.2. Comparing conditionals
• 10.3. Commenting-P conditionals
• 10.4. Pseudo-implicative conditionals
• 10.5. Pleonastic conditionals
• 10.6. Conclusion
• Chapter 11: Syntactically marked conditional structures
• 11.1. Postscript-P conditionals
• 11.2. Conditional anacolutha
• 11.3. Nominal-Q conditionals
• 11.4. Displaced-P conditionals
• 11.5. Stacked-P conditionals
• 11.6. Conditionals with coordinated P-clauses or Q-clauses
• 11.7. Syntactically incomplete conditionals
• 11.8. Conditionals with a reduced P-clause or Q-clause
• 11.9. Implicit P-conditionals
• 11.10. Implicit-Q conditionals
• 11.11. Semi-nominal-P conditionals
• 11.12. Split conditionals
• 11.13. Paratactic conditionals
• 11.14. Specificational (focusing) conditional structures
• 11.15. Conclusion
• Chapter 12: Sufficient and/or necessary conditions
• 12.1. Preliminaries
• 12.2. (In)dispensable P-clauses
• 12.3. Utterance-conditionals
• 12.4. A/T-conditions
• 12.5. Summary
• Chapter 13: Uses and interpretations of unless
• 13.1. Syntactically integrated nonirrealis unless-clauses
• 13.2. Syntactically nonintegrated nonirrealis unless-clauses
• 13.3. Unless in irrealis conditionals
• 13.4. Summary
• Chapter 14: The meanings and uses of even if
• 14.1. The meaning of even if in implicative conditionals
• 14.2. Nonimplicative even if-conditionals
• 14.3. Conclusion
• Glossary
• References
• Author’s index
• Subject index