Conditional & Subjunctive
This structure has a meaning closer to an "if... then..."' sentence in English than the kind of structure usually referred to as "conditional". It generally involves using an additional marker of the future tense or the conditional mood in the main clause:
- Qaiguvit niriniaqpit?
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qai- + -guvit niri- + -niaq- + -pit to come + 2nd pers. sg. non-specific conditional to eat + future tense + 2nd pers. sg. non-specific interrogative - If you come, will you eat?
- Qanniqpat aninajanngittunga
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qanniq- + -pat ani- + -najaq- + -nngit- + -tunga to snow + 4th pers. sg. non-specific conditional to go out + conditional mood + not + 1st pers. sg. non-specific - If it were snowing, I wouldn't go out.
Read more about this topic: Inuit Grammar
Famous quotes containing the word conditional:
“Computer mediation seems to bathe action in a more conditional light: perhaps it happened; perhaps it didn’t. Without the layered richness of direct sensory engagement, the symbolic medium seems thin, flat, and fragile.”
—Shoshana Zuboff (b. 1951)