Conditional Constructions in Amhar
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Date
2010-09
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
This study aims at describing conditional constructions in Amharic. Two secondary
sources, Hartmann (1980) and Leslau (1995), have been used, along with the primary
intuition of the researcher.
Amharic conditionals are constructed from two clauses one of which is an adverbial,
the antecedent, and the other of which is a main clause, which is the consequent.
Canonical and non-canonical forms of conditionals have been identified. The canonical
forms consist of conditional markers in their antecedent clauses. The non-canonical
forms are composed of two independent clauses conjoined by such conjunctives like
alyam, ɨnǰi and ɨnna. kǝ-, ɨndǝ- and bɨ- are identified as conditional markers. kǝ- occurs
with main verbs or with their auxiliaries in the perfective aspect, whereas ɨndǝ- occurs
only with the auxiliary hon- and its reduced forms in the same perfective aspect. bɨoccurs
with main verbs or their auxiliaries in the imperfective aspect.
The semantic-based classification of Amharic conditionals is dealt with in light of
Thompson et al.‟s (2007) typology. It is shown that Amharic real conditionals are
marked by kǝ- (and sometimes by ɨndǝ-). Except predictives which may take any of
the three conditional markers, other types of unreal conditionals are marked by bɨ-.
Counterfactuals differ from hypothetical conditionals in that they mostly contain nor-o
as a marker of counterfactuality in their antecedent clauses. Concessive conditionals
are characterized by the focus suffix -mm and the adverb ɨnkwa(n) „even‟ which mostly
co-occur in antecedent clauses. Exceptive conditionals are characterized by bǝk‟ǝr
(bǝstǝk‟ǝr) or ɨnǰi in their antecedent clauses and the choice between these is
determined by polarity type of the antecedent clause.
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describing conditional constructions in Amharic