The Semantics of the Spanish Conditional in Discourse

Abstract

The Spanish Conditional has not received the attention of other grammatical features in recent years. Yet it plays an important role in Spanish syntax and appears as a part of informal everyday as well as formal written and spoken discourse. It is much more complex than the grammaticalization of subsequence within a context of past tense, one of its major uses. Hadlich (1971) followed Stockwell et al. (1965) in describing the conditional as subsequence ( + past, + subsequence) in relation to past tense, similar in analysis to subsequence demonstrated in future tense (-past, + subsequence). Distinct from Hadlich (5152), we note that future tense appears in subordinate and independent sentences while the subsequence conditional appears only in subordinate sentences following a matrix verb in past tense. Thus, although both share the feature of subsequence, their status in independent and subordinate clauses is entirely different. The other equally important meaning of the conditional which incompasses unreality and hypothesis has not been studied adequately as a grammatical feature or as it is used in spoken and written passages. The purpose of this study is to reveal the scope of unreality and hypothesis as distinct from subsequence as manifested in the Spanish conditional, and to demonstrate the use of this hypothetical conditional (known as potencial in earlier studies) in spoken and written discourse. To this end, passages are included from El habla de la ciudad de Mixico and from works by Carballido and Borges. As distinct from the subsequence usage, the hypothetical conditional may be used to express conjecture, hypothesis, doubt, speculation, possibility, probability, potentiality, unknown futurity, supposition, vagueness, speculation, irreality, uncertainty or indeterminacy. As distinct from the subsequence conditional, the hypothetical conditional appears both in independent and subordinate sentences.