Re: La Logique du conditionnel (was: Re: The phrase 'I'd like...')

En réponse à Douglas Koller, Latin & French :


>Actually, isn't French the odd man out here? Of the languages we've
>been discussing, most have something subjunctivish in the if-clause,
>
>si fuera (estuviera?) sano (de buena salud?),
>wenn ich gesund wäre,
>if I were healthy,
Of course, but in French the subjunctive is nearly dead, so the indicative 
replaces it. The conditional cannot: its meaning is too different to 
replace the subjunctive.


>Si je fusse sain (en bonne santé), je serais heureux.
I doubt many French people would be able to correctly conjugate *any* verb 
in the imperfect subjunctive.

>But imperfect subjunctive is *quite well* on the way out in French,
>so unless I'm handed the reins of the Académie Française, I shan't
>hold my breath. "Si je serais," ? <cringe>. Indeed, deplorable (no
>offense to your pal). Meanwhile the Esperanto sentence causes me no
>indigestion, since subjunctive forms don't exist ("Se mi estis sana,
>mi estus felicxa."? Blech!).
Actually, Esperanto does have a subjunctive (the form is -u). But this 
subjunctive is used only in jussive constructions (imperative and after 
things like "voli": to want) and as such is unfit for conditional 
constructions.

>  I doubt logic has much to do with it.
Well, logic tells me that in French, the conditional cannot be put in the 
condition itself, because its meaning doesn't allow it.

Christophe Grandsire.

http://rainbow.conlang.free.fr

You need a straight mind to invent a twisted conlang. 

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