Article

Name: Structural and semantic types of conditional sentences in the Altai language

Authors: Aiiana A. Ozonova

Institute of Philology of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Novosibirsk, Russian Federation

In the section Linguistics

Abstract: We analyze the structural-semantic types of conditional polypredicative constructions in the Altai language. Conditional relations are expressed by monofinite constructions with an all-Turkic conditional-temporal form with =sa, analytical conditional forms with bolzo ‘if’ and a rare conditional-temporal form with =qažïn. The all-Turkic =sa form does not have an absolute temporal meaning: this meaning is communicated by the main clause, with its predicate commonly used in the future tense or imperative mood. The analytical conditional forms consist of the participial form and the verb bol= ‘to be, to become’ in the conditional mood, with personal formants in the first and second person and zero formants in the third person. The participial forms within an analytical form express the temporal meanings. We distinguish proper conditional and improper conditional constructions with different modal planes of the dependent clauses: irreal modality in proper conditional constructions and real modality in improper conditional ones. Improper conditional constructions include some temporal, causal, subordinate, and comparative clauses following the conditional construction model. Proper conditional constructions fall into potential-conditional and irreal-conditional subtypes according to their semantic and formal traits. Potential-conditional constructions denote possible events. However, irreal-conditional constructions denote events that could not, cannot, and will not take place. In potential-conditional constructions, the main predicates are represented by indicative, imperative, and optative forms, with the subjunctive mood used in irreal-conditional constructions. In Altai conditional constructions, the taxis dependence between conditions and consequences is defined by the possibility of two types of correlation (from three possible correlations), namely ‘condition before consequence’ and ‘simultaneous condition and consequence’.

Keywords: Altai language, syntax, complex sentence, conditional constructions, proper conditional constructions, irreal-conditional constructions, potential-conditional constructions

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