Conditionals and Hypotheticality in Taiwanese: Interface between Form and Meaning

[[abstract]]The present study explores form-meaning correlations in Taiwanese conditionals. It is found that Taiwanese conditionals have an imposing variety of conditional linking elements. For backward-linking elements, two are identified: toh and chiah. For forward-linking elements, there are twenty-two forms found in the data. These twenty-two forms can be further categorized into four categories: single-marking, double-marking, triple-marking, and multiple-marking, based on the number of basic conditional linking morphemes (i.e. na, chun,kasu, banit, e si(chun)) contained in each form. With the two types of linking elements, the protasis and the apodosis in Taiwanese conditionals are linked in the following four ways: first, each of the two clauses contains a linking element, with the protasis having a forward-linking element and the apodosis a backward-linking element; second, the protasis is marked with a forward-linking element, but the apodosis is not marked with any backward-linking element; third, the protasis in not marked with a forward-linking element, but the apodosis is marked with a backward-linking element; last, neither the protasis nor the apodosis is marked with any linking element. The analysis shows that the difference in forms leads to the difference in degrees of hypotheticality. Specifically, hypotheticality of different degrees is contributed to mainly by different forward-linking elements in the protasis. Na is the most prototypical forward-linking element in Taiwanese conditionals, which can be used to signal all degrees of hypotehticality in the hypotheticality continuum. A protasis with no linking element is also used often, which is, like na, employed to express hypotheticality of all degrees. However, this structure appears with an exceptionally higher frequency in conditionals of low degree of hypotheticality. The structures other than these two are used less frequently, and tend to be used only in conditionals of certain degree of hypotheticality. E si(chun), for instance, is associated only with low degree of hypotheticality. The other marked double- triple- or multiple-marking elements (e.g. kasu-na, banit-na, banit-chun-na-kong…e si(chun), etc.), contrary to e si(chun), usually appear when the speaker wants to intentionally express his/her extremely low certainty (i.e. high hypotheticality) toward the proposition in the protasis. The analysis seems to show a tendency that the more the number of conditional linking morphemes a conditional protasis has, the higher degree of hypotheticality it is associated with. This tendency conforms to the principle of ‘iconicity’. In addition, it is found that along the hypotheticality continuum, mid-level certainty is the most frequent one, which proves that the prototypical motivation for conditionality is to signal the speaker’s lack of full knowledge toward the protasis. The less prototypical conditionals on the continuum are not used necessarily to signal the speaker’s lack of knowledge. Rather, they often serve extra functions. For example, a large proportion of conditionals of marked higher certainty are used as topic-introducers, or to mark the speaker’s ‘epistemic distance’ to the protasis. Conditionals of marked lower certainty, in many cases, are used to express the speaker’s evaluative stance such as undesirability, or to serve the communicative function such as being polite.