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Article published In: Studies in Language
Vol. 47:1 (2023) ► pp.1–31

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Concessive conditionals beyond Europe

A typological survey

ORCiD logo with link | Ghent University
Published online: 14 February 2022
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/sl.20068.bos
Abstract
The present study is concerned with complex sentences known as concessive conditionals from a functional-typological perspective. It examines the coding strategies used in the protasis of the three subtypes of concessive conditionals – viz. scalar, alternative, and universal concessive conditionals – in a global sample of 17 languages, thus complementing a previous study of their formal properties in European languages (Haspelmath, Martin. & Ekkehard König. 1998. Concessive conditionals in the languages of Europe. In Johan van der Auwera (ed.), Adverbial constructions in the languages of Europe, 563–640. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar). The results include some coding strategies which are unattested in European languages and suggest that Haspelmath & König’s division between languages which mark the three subtypes uniformly and languages which mark them differentially is too simplistic, there being at least four overall marking patterns rather than two. Although these results are only preliminary in nature, they do look promising for future research, which should be based on a larger and more strictly stratified sample.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Language sample
  • 3.Coding strategies
    • 3.1Scalar concessive conditionals
      • 3.1.1Identical to conditional
      • 3.1.2Conditional clause plus focus particle
      • 3.1.3Specialized marker meaning ‘even if’
      • 3.1.4Connective without conditional component, also used in concessives
    • 3.2Alternative concessive conditionals
      • 3.2.1Based on conditionals
      • 3.2.2Based on (embedded) conditionals
      • 3.2.3Marked by subjunctive or optative
      • 3.2.4Marked by ‘(you) want’
      • 3.2.5Marked by an expression of irrelevance
      • 3.2.6Special connective
    • 3.3Universal concessive conditionals
      • 3.3.1Particle on or following the verb
      • 3.3.2Particle following the question word
      • 3.3.3Particle preceding the question word
      • 3.3.4Reduplication
      • 3.3.5Marked by subjunctive, conditional, or optative mood
      • 3.3.6Marked by an expression of irrelevance
      • 3.3.7No question word
  • 4.Analysis and discussion
    • 4.1Some generalizing remarks
    • 4.2Uniform and differential marking in concessive conditionals
  • 5.Conclusion and outlook
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • Abbreviations
  • References
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