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<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">Dear all,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">I’m currently looking at conditional structures in a sample of Australian languages, and I’m considering the category of encoded necessary condition, i.e. ‘if and only if X’, and its negative guise ‘unless X’/‘only if
~X’. A quick Wiktionary search suggests to me that distinct ‘iff’-type markers are far less commonly innovated than distinct ‘unless’-type markers in the world’s/Europe’s languages (distinct meaning it’s not just ‘if’ + something else).<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><a href="https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/iff#Translations">https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/iff#Translations</a><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><a href="https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/if_and_only_if#Translations">https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/if_and_only_if#Translations</a><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><a href="https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/unless#Translations">https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/unless#Translations</a><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">As I understand it, not all languages *<b>need</b>* to be able to encode necessary condition, since necessary interpretation is pretty much the default interpretation of a conditional utterance (as per the maxim of relevance,
Horn 2000, Sperber & Wilson 1986); in English you are unlikely to hear (a) ‘If you mow the lawn, I will give you five dollars’ and then expect (b) ‘even if I don’t mow the lawn, I will get five dollars’, even though logic permits (b) to follow from (a) if
you just link them with ‘but’ – i.e. the necessary interpretation of (a) is defeasible. But many languages are able to encode (a) with an ‘iff’-type condition to preclude the possibility of (b) obtaining with an intensifier like ‘only’. Furthermore, going
by the possibly naïve impression that many languages have innovated ‘unless’-type words independent of ‘if’, it seems that it is more natural to say something like (c) ‘Unless you mow the lawn, you won’t get five dollars’ in order to encode necessary condition.
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">In sum my impressions boil down to:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<ul style="margin-top:0cm" type="disc">
<li class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-left:0cm;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1"><span lang="EN-GB">‘if’-type markers: relatively common, often entails ‘iff’-interpretation<o:p></o:p></span></li><li class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-left:0cm;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1"><span lang="EN-GB">‘iff’-type markers: very uncommon as a distinct marker, ‘iff’ cxns often encoded with ‘if’ + intensifier (like ‘only’)<o:p></o:p></span></li><li class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-left:0cm;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1"><span lang="EN-GB">‘if not’-type markers: probably mostly ‘if’ + NEG, also entails ‘unless’<o:p></o:p></span></li><li class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-left:0cm;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1"><span lang="EN-GB">‘unless’-type markers: more common than ‘iff’??
<o:p></o:p></span></li></ul>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">So my question is: what do ‘iff/only if’ and ‘unless’ look like in the world’s languages? Has anyone done a survey? What are some languages/areas/genera that follow/buck these trends? The literature on conditionality
still seems to consist of logic-oriented accounts with relatively scant reference to the world’s languages, but the lack of literature on necessary condition specifically might be due to the rarity of its attestation/description; in my sample of 75 Australian
languages, I could only find maybe two examples of encoded necessary condition: one with the use of an emphatic /-jahng/ ‘very’ in Yugambeh–Bundjalung (Sharpe 2005), and another with a scope-restricting ‘only’-type marker /-muwa/ in Jaru (Tsunoda 1981). Both
markers attach to non-‘iff’ conditional constructions. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="en-BE">Yugambeh–Bundjalung (Pama–Nyungan: Southeastern > Bandjalangic)<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="en-BE">wana-h munu-nu yana-h ngaju waje-hny-i-jahng.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="en-BE">leave-IMP</span><span lang="en-BE"> </span>
<span lang="en-BE">there-ABL</span><span lang="en-BE"> </span><span lang="en-BE">go-IMP</span><span lang="en-BE">
</span><span lang="en-BE">1SG.ERG</span><span lang="en-BE"> </span><span lang="en-BE">tell-IM-PRECON-very<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="en-BE">‘Don’t go there unless I tell you.’ (Sharpe 2005: 81)<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="en-BE">EL: </span><span lang="EN-GB">literally</span><span lang="en-BE"> ‘Leave and go from there, if and only if I tell
</span><span lang="EN-GB">(</span><span lang="en-BE">you</span><span lang="EN-GB">)</span><span lang="en-BE">.’<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="en-BE"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="en-BE">Jaru (Pama–Nyungan: Western > Ngumpin–Yapa<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="en-BE">ngadyu-nggu ngara-nya bali wu-nggu guju nyangga langga-muwa bid[+]nyin-ang-gu<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="en-BE">1Sg-Erg</span><span lang="en-BE"> </span>
<span lang="en-BE">can-1SgNom</span><span lang="en-BE"> </span><span lang="en-BE">find-PURP</span><span lang="en-BE">
</span><span lang="en-BE">game</span><span lang="en-BE"> </span><span lang="EN-GB">[‘if’]
</span><span lang="en-BE">head-ONLY</span><span lang="en-BE"> </span><span lang="en-BE">stick-CONT-PURP
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="en-BE">‘I can find game (e.g. a kangaroo) </span>
<span lang="EN-GB">if only[=only if?]</span><span lang="en-BE"> a head is sticking out (of grass).’ (Tsunoda 1981: 165)</span><span lang="EN-GB"> [square brackets are my additions]<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="en-BE">EL:</span><span lang="en-BE"> </span><span lang="en-BE">equivalent to ‘I can’t find game unless
</span><span lang="EN-GB">(</span><span lang="en-BE">I see</span><span lang="EN-GB">)</span><span lang="en-BE"> a head sticking out’</span><span lang="EN-GB">, alternatively the interpretation might be ‘I can find game, *<b>even</b>* if only a head is sticking
out’ (i.e. a scalar concessive condition, and not a necessary condition at all!)<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">Any comments/questions/corrections are welcome!<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">Best wishes,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">Ellison Luk<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">Doctoral candidate<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">KU Leuven<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="en-BE">Laurence R. Horn, ‘From If to Iff: Conditional Perfection as Pragmatic Strengthening’,
<i>Journal of Pragmatics</i> 32, no. 3 (2000): 289–326, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/S0378-2166(99)00053-3">
https://doi.org/10.1016/S0378-2166(99)00053-3</a>.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="en-BE">Dan Sperber and Deirdre Wilson, <i>Relevance: Communication and Cognition</i>, 2nd ed (Oxford ; Cambridge, MA: Blackwell Publishers, 2001).<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="en-BE">Margareth Sharpe, <i>Grammar and Texts of the Yugambeh-Bundjalung Dialect Chain in Eastern Australia</i>, Languages of the World/Materials 370 (München: Lincom Europa, 2005).<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="en-BE">Tasaku Tsunoda, <i>The Djaru Language of Kimberley, Western Australia</i>, Pacific Linguistics, B-98 (Canberra: Pacific Linguistics, 1981).<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="en-BE"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
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