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Article In:
Asian Languages and Linguistics
Vol. 5:1 (2024) ► pp.72–90

A descriptive study of conditional constructions in Odia

| University of Artois
| Indian Institute of Technology (BHU)

This study investigates the types of conditional constructions found in the Indo-Aryan language Odia and studies the morpho-syntactic structure and linear function of it. In Odia, Conditional constructions consist of a main clause (adoposis), and a subordinate clause (protasis). It is usually protasis, which functions as antecedent, and adoposis functions as consequent, forming a single sentence, in which consequent is referentially linked to its antecedent by anaphoric relation. Odia Conditional clause is marked in one of the various morpho-syntactic ways: lexically by 4 conjunctive morphemes like, jad̪i ‘if’/ ‘whether’, manekara ‘supposing’, natʃet̪ ‘otherwise’, kāɭe ‘in case’ or grammatically by a bound morpheme ‑ile added with the verbal form as suffix, in the protasis, or by a je…se correlative phrase ‘as long as’. This paper tries to formalize such relation of conditional clauses and finds that a single conditional operator can map with different conditional scopes for denoting different types of conditional meanings.

Keywords: conditional constructions, Odia, Bijective function, surjective operator, injective operator
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Conditionals with conjunctive morphemes
    • 2.1Conditionals with the conjunction jad̪i ‘if’
    • 2.2Conditionals with the conjunction manekara ‘supposing’
    • 2.3Conditionals with the conjunction natʃet̪ ‘otherwise’ or nahele ‘or else’
    • 2.4Conditionals with the conjunction kāɭe ‘in case’
    • 2.5Conditionals with the verbal suffix ‑ile
      • 2.5.1‑ile morpheme with emphasis markers
    • 2.6The conditional correlative phrases je…se ‘as long as’
  • 3.Conditionals as adverbials
  • 4.Masked conditionals
  • 5.Linear function in conditional constructions
  • 6.Conclusion
  • Notes
  • Abbreviations used
  • References
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