On the role of protases in conditional statements: Some evidence from Hindi

Abstract

International audienceProviding evidence from Hindi, the present study determines the crucial role played by the protasis (or antecedent or P-clause) in the actualization of conditional constructions. It maintains that tense-aspect-mood elements of the protasis establish different degrees of hypotheticality in a conditional statement. The paper questions some widespread misunderstandings about the clause ordering in conditional constructions, namely that condi-tionals can exhibit both the protasis-apodosis (P-Q) and apodosis-protasis (Q-P) orderings. By examining data from Hindi and making reference to data from other languages, the paper reiterates our earlier claim that protasis-apodosis ordering in conditional constructions cannot be reversed and advances a new idea that a 'conditional string' is the defining characteristic of a conditional construction. In other words, it is either the proposition contained in the apodosis – not the entire apodosis – which is pre-posed by the speaker to accomplish different communicative tasks, or the entire 'conditional string' which is added to a non-conditional statement to give it conditional dimensions