ONE-PREDICATE INTERROGATIVE CONDITIONAL CONSTRUCTIONS IN CATALAN (IN COMPARISON WITH SPANISH AND FRENCH)

Abstract

The article deals with mononuclear interrogative conditional constructions in Catalan (in comparison with Spanish and French), a topic addressed for the first time in a separate study. The tense and voice uses in these constructions, their transformations into two-predicate constructions, and their meanings are examined in detail. Conclusions about the differences in tense use are made, constructions with positive and negative meanings are analyzed. The following conclusions are made: One-predicate conditional constructions are characteristic of interrogative, but not of declarative utterances. One-predicate conditional constructions can be split into those that elide the main clause and those that do not. Elliptical constructions imply the meaning of consequence, while non-elliptical constructions do not. One-predicate interrogative conditional constructions normally begin with a special marker, a conjunction combination - i si in Catalan, y si in Spanish, and et si in French. Interrogative conditional constructions with main clause ellipsis can express both real and unreal condition in the present, past or future by means of tenses and moods. The use of tenses and moods in constructions with main clause ellipsis in the three targeted languages mostly coincide. The differences can be summed up as follows. In Catalan and Spanish, the imperfect of the conjunctive generally corresponds to the imperfect of the indicative in French. In Catalan and Spanish, the pluperfect of the conjunctive is opposed to the pluperfect of the indicative in French. The same difference is also true of non-interrogative conditional constructions. In Catalan and Spanish, non-elliptical interrogative conditional constructions use imperfect subjunctives as opposed to French where imperfect indicatives occur instead. Elliptical one-predicate interrogative conditional constructions address events whose realization or consequences are not obvious to the speaker, or low-probability events. Such constructions mostly express negative meaning. Non-elliptical one-predicate interrogative conditional constructions express request, suggestion, or advice.