Re: Irrealis and if-clauses in Rinya

Carlos Thompson sikayal:

> Daniel Andreasson wabbe
>
> > 2. Discovery one led to discovery two. If-clauses have been
> > a problem since it's kinda boring to have just a word 'if'
> > and a word 'then'. But when I discovered the irrealis mood,
> > I also discovered a better way of doing if-clauses. Like this:
> [examples snipped]
> > Thus, the if-clause is expressed by present + irrealis and
> > the then-clause is expressed by future + irrealis. What do
> > you think?
I like it.  Nice and logical, but not boring.

In Yivríndil, the then-clause must be in the irrealis mood, while the
if-clause can be in the indicative or irrealis.  If the if-clause is in
the irrealis mood it indicates a hypothetical.  Tense is completely free,
so a wide variety of variations can be expressed, some of them
nonsensical.  For example:

Lan al rodurnyal lai rofainyata.
"If I had died, I would not be here."

BUT
Lan al durnyal lai rofainyata
"If I died, I am not here."

That last one's grammatical in Yivríndil and possibly in English, but is
semantically weird in both of them.

> Two kind of conditionals is as Spanish has it ("si" = if; "entonces" =
> then):
>   "si" + indicative, "entonces" + indicative
> or
>   "si" + subjunctive, "entonces" + conditional
>
> The second one is an "hipotetical" conditional, while the first shows
> a cause-effect relationship.  This could be made in Biwa as:
>   interrogative + indicative (either positive or negative)
>   irrealis + contidional.
This is quite similar to Yivríndil, although not on purpose.


Jesse S. Bangs jaspax@u.washington.edu
"It is of the new things that men tire--of fashions and proposals and
improvements and change.  It is the old things that startle and
intoxicate.  It is the old things that are young."
-G.K. Chesterton _The Napoleon of Notting Hill_