Documentation

Linglib.Phenomena.Conditionals.Studies.Iatridou2000

@cite{iatridou-2000} — Morphological Data @cite{iatridou-2000} #

Theory-neutral cross-linguistic data on counterfactual morphology from @cite{iatridou-2000} "The Grammatical Ingredients of Counterfactuality", Linguistic Inquiry 31(2): 231–270.

Key Empirical Generalizations #

  1. Past morphology is uniform: FLV, PresCF, and PastCF all use past morphology, but differ in the number of past layers.
  2. Imperfective is not universal: languages that lack imperfective (e.g., English) omit it in CFs; languages with imperfective (e.g., Greek) use it in all CF types.
  3. Subjunctive mirrors past subjunctive availability: a CF can contain subjunctive only if the language has a distinct past subjunctive form (generalization 42).

Data Sources #

A morphological datum for counterfactual conditionals.

Each datum records the verb morphology in the antecedent and consequent of a specific counterfactual type in a specific language.

  • language : String

    Language name

  • cfType : String

    Counterfactual type: "FLV", "PresCF", or "PastCF"

  • antecedentForm : String

    Verb morphology in the antecedent

  • consequentForm : String

    Verb morphology in the consequent

  • hasPastMorph : Bool

    Whether past morphology is present

  • hasImpfMorph : Bool

    Whether imperfective morphology is present

  • hasSubjMorph : Bool

    Whether subjunctive morphology is present

  • pastLayers :

    Number of past morpheme layers

  • gloss : String

    Gloss of the example

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      A datum for whether a language requires subjunctive in counterfactuals.

      Iatridou's generalization: a language requires subjunctive in CFs iff it has a morphologically distinct past subjunctive.

      • language : String

        Language name

      • hasPastSubjunctive : Bool

        Whether the language has a distinct past subjunctive form

      • cfRequiresSubjunctive : Bool

        Whether counterfactuals require subjunctive morphology

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          English FLV: "If he were to take the exam tomorrow,..."

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            English PresCF: "If he knew the answer,..."

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              English PastCF: "If he had taken the exam,..."

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                Greek FLV: "An + past + impf, tha + past + impf"

                Based on @cite{iatridou-2000}, example (6). Greek FLV and PresCF have identical morphological form; the FLV/PresCF distinction is made by predicate type and temporal adverbials, not by morphology.

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                  Greek PresCF: "An + past + impf, tha + past + impf"

                  Based on @cite{iatridou-2000}, example (6). Morphologically identical to FLV in Greek; the counterfactual reading arises from the stative predicate.

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                    Greek PastCF: "An + past + past + impf, tha + past + past + impf"

                    Based on @cite{iatridou-2000}, example (6c). The additional past layer (the pluperfect ixe + participle) distinguishes PastCF from PresCF/FLV.

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                      French FLV: "imparfait, conditionnel"

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                        French PresCF: "imparfait, conditionnel"

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                          French PastCF: "plus-que-parfait, conditionnel passé"

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                            English: no distinct past subjunctive, no subjunctive required.

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                              Greek: no past subjunctive, no subjunctive required in CFs.

                              Greek CFs use past + imperfective morphology (indicative), not subjunctive. Greek has a subjunctive-like particle (na), but this is not used in counterfactual conditionals.

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                                French: no productive past subjunctive, no subjunctive required in CFs.

                                French CFs use the indicative imparfait ("si j'avais..."), not the subjonctif. French has a literary past subjunctive (subjonctif imparfait), but it is not used productively in counterfactuals.

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                                  Italian: has distinct past subjunctive, subjunctive required in CFs.

                                  Italian CFs require the congiuntivo (subjunctive), which has a robust past form (congiuntivo trapassato). This is one of the positive cases for Iatridou's generalization (42): "A CF can contain a subjunctive morpheme only if that subjunctive morpheme has a past tense form."

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                                    The actual context: world = true (actual), time = 0 (now).

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                                      FLV/PresCF: one subjunctive shift to a counterfactual world. The counterfactual world (false) differs from the actual world (true).

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                                        The tower has depth 1 — matching 1 past morpheme layer.

                                        PastCF: two shifts — one modal (subjunctive, world shift) and one temporal (additional past layer, time shift to -5).

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                                          Tower depth is 2 — matching 2 past morpheme layers.

                                          Even in a PastCF tower (depth 2), the origin context is preserved.