Conditional Constructions In Amhar

This study aims at describing conditional constructions in Amharic. Two secondaryrnsources, Hartmann (1980) and Leslau (1995), have been used, along with the primaryrnintuition of the researcher.rnAmharic conditionals are constructed from two clauses one of which is an adverbial,rnthe antecedent, and the other of which is a main clause, which is the consequent.rnCanonical and non-canonical forms of conditionals have been identified. The canonicalrnforms consist of conditional markers in their antecedent clauses. The non-canonicalrnforms are composed of two independent clauses conjoined by such conjunctives likernalyam, ɨnǰi and ɨnna. kǝ-, ɨndǝ- and bɨ- are identified as conditional markers. kǝ- occursrnwith main verbs or with their auxiliaries in the perfective aspect, whereas ɨndǝ- occursrnonly with the auxiliary hon- and its reduced forms in the same perfective aspect. bɨoccursrnwith main verbs or their auxiliaries in the imperfective aspect.rnThe semantic-based classification of Amharic conditionals is dealt with in light ofrnThompson et al.‟s (2007) typology. It is shown that Amharic real conditionals arernmarked by kǝ- (and sometimes by ɨndǝ-). Except predictives which may take any ofrnthe three conditional markers, other types of unreal conditionals are marked by bɨ-.rnCounterfactuals differ from hypothetical conditionals in that they mostly contain nor-ornas a marker of counterfactuality in their antecedent clauses. Concessive conditionalsrnare characterized by the focus suffix -mm and the adverb ɨnkwa(n) „even‟ which mostlyrnco-occur in antecedent clauses. Exceptive conditionals are characterized by bǝk‟ǝrrn(bǝstǝk‟ǝr) or ɨnǰi in their antecedent clauses and the choice between these isrndetermined by polarity type of the antecedent clause.

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