@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 #
- Past morphology is uniform: FLV, PresCF, and PastCF all use past morphology, but differ in the number of past layers.
- 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.
- Subjunctive mirrors past subjunctive availability: a CF can contain subjunctive only if the language has a distinct past subjunctive form (generalization 42).
Data Sources #
- Tables 1–2 of @cite{iatridou-2000}
- Example sentences from §2
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 : ℕ
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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All CF types use past morphology.
PastCF has more past layers than PresCF/FLV.
English FLV: 1 past layer = 1 ExclF (FLV).
English PresCF: 1 past layer = 1 ExclF (PresCF).
English PastCF: 2 past layers = 2 ExclFs (PastCF).
Greek FLV: 1 past layer = 1 ExclF (FLV).
Greek PresCF: 1 past layer = 1 ExclF (PresCF).
Greek PastCF: 2 past layers = 2 ExclFs (PastCF).
French FLV: 1 past layer = 1 ExclF (FLV).
French PresCF: 1 past layer = 1 ExclF (PresCF).
French PastCF: 2 past layers = 2 ExclFs (PastCF).
English: no past subjunctive, no CF subjunctive required.
Greek: no past subjunctive, no CF subjunctive required.
French: no productive past subjunctive, no CF subjunctive required.
Italian: has past subjunctive, CF requires subjunctive.
"If he knew French" (ILP + 1 modal ExclF) → PresCF.
"If he were to leave" (telic + 1 modal ExclF) → FLV.
"If he had left" (telic + 2 ExclFs) → PastCF.
"If he were sick" (stative + 1 modal ExclF) → PresCF.
"If he had known" (ILP + 2 ExclFs) → PastCF.
PastCF is exempt from ULC via Deal's refined ULC.
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Root tower: the actual speech-act context, depth 0.
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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.
Modal ExclF holds: counterfactual world ≠ actual world.
Temporal ExclF does NOT hold: time is unchanged (0 = 0).
Tower depth (1) matches English FLV past layers (1).
Tower depth (1) matches English PresCF past layers (1).
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.
Modal ExclF holds: counterfactual world ≠ actual world.
Temporal ExclF holds: shifted time (-5) ≠ speech time (0).
Tower depth (2) matches English PastCF past layers (2).
Tower depth (2) matches Greek PastCF past layers (2).
Even in a PastCF tower (depth 2), the origin context is preserved.