Chen Chen. Conditional Constructions in the Manchu Language: A Study from the Perspectives of Semantics, Morphosyntax, Pragmatics and Typology

University of Auckland, 2013. — 239 p.The present study investigates conditional constructions in the Manchu language (of the Tungusic language family) from several perspectives: semantics, morphosyntax, pragmatics and typology. The category ?conditional constructions? is defined in terms of prototypes, which satisfy both semantic and morphosyntactic criteria. The semantic criterion states that a prototypical conditional construction relates two states of affairs such that one state of affairs is a cause of the other, while neither state of affairs can be inferred as realised. The morphosyntactic criterion states that a prototypical conditional construction frequently and primarily expresses the conditional meaning. Constructions that only partially satisfy these criteria are non-prototypes of this category. Both prototypes and non-prototypes are objects of the present study. The data (example sentences) analysed in this study come from a corpus of Manchu that consists of a variety of written texts dating from the Qing Dynasty (1644 ? 1911), during which Manchu was the most important official language. These sentences either express the conditional meaning, or in their subordinate clauses contain verb structures formed by the converb V-ci, which is the primary ? but not the only ? device for expressing conditionality. In accordance with the above definition, those satisfying both descriptions are candidates for the prototypes of conditionals. The rest are the non-prototypes of the category ?conditional constructions?. The present study identifies morphosyntactic patterns of prototypical conditionals based on actual language use in the corpus, as well as considering the conditional sentences recorded in ?grammars? written by native Manchu speakers. The non-prototypes are discussed in relation to the prototypes. This discussion recognises multiple domains (including content, speech-act, epistemic and perceptual) where certain aspects of conditionality are presented. The present study also compares Manchu conditionals with conditionals in other Altaic (and Altaic-like) languages, which are genetically or typologically close to Manchu. The comparison places Manchu within a larger typological picture and shed some light on future research in languages in which conditionality has not been systematically studied.