Bosnian, Croatian, Serbian, a Grammar: With Sociolinguistic Commentary

CHAPTER 13

215 CHAPTER 13 131 The conditional mood, introduction The BCS conditional mood is a compound verb form. It is composed of the L-participle and an auxiliary derived from the aorist tense of biti (review [122a]). As in other compound tenses, the conditional auxiliary has three forms: full, negated, and clitic. What is different about this auxiliary is that (except for the presence of ne in the negated form) all three forms look exactly alike on the printed page. They are differentiated by their accent and by the grammatical rules concerning word order. Namely, the clitic forms are unaccented and obey the word order rules applying to clitics, while the full forms are separately accented words and can occur at any point in the sentence (for more on word order in conditional sentences, see [137]). FULL NEGATED CLITIC bih bismo nè bih nè bismo bih bismo bi biste nè bi nè biste bi biste bi bi nè bi nè bi bi bi In spoken Bosnian and Serbian, it is also common to simplify the forms bih, bismo, biste, and to pronounce all six persons of the auxiliary simply as bi. The distinctions must be maintained in writing, however. Croatian is also more likely to keep the forms distinct in speech as well, shortening them only in faster, very colloquial speech. The sample paradigms below give the auxiliaries in their fully distinguished form. The L-participle must agree with the verb’s subject. CONDITIONAL Singular Plural infinitive masculine neuter feminine masculine neuter feminine ići 1 ìšao bih ìšla bih ìšli bismo ìšle bismo 2 ìšao bi ìšla bi ìšli biste ìšle biste 3 ìšao bi ìšlo bi ìšla bi ìšli bi ìšla bi ìšle bi staviti 1 stavio bih stavila bih stavili bismo stavile bismo 2 stavio bi stavila bi stavili biste stavile biste 3 stavio bi stavilo bi stavila bi stavili bi stavila bi stavile bi The forms of the conditional mood as given above are used in all meanings of the conditional in Bosnian and Serbian. In Croatian (and in more archaic forms of Bosnian and Serbian), there is also a past conditional, in which the verbal auxiliary is the compound past of biti. CHAPTER 13 216 PAST CONDITIONAL Singular Plural masculine neuter feminine masculine neuter feminine 1 bio bih ìšao bìla bih ìšla bìli bismo ìšli bìle bismo ìšle 2 bio bi ìšao bìla bi ìšla bìli biste ìšli bìle biste ìšle 3 bio bi ìšao bìlo bi ìšlo bìla bi ìšla bìli bi ìšli bìla bi ìšla bìle bi ìšle The conditional is a mood rather than a tense. Whereas the primary meaning of a verbal tense (past, present, or future) is concerned with the idea of time, the primary meaning of a mood makes reference to other factors of the speech situation. Thus, the ways in which the conditional mood expresses the idea of time is dependent on each of its different meanings. The most widely used of these is that which gives the conditional mood its name: its use in sentences of the sort if A, then B. BCS differentiates three types of such sentences according to the speaker’s view of the prediction inherent in such a statement. The conditional mood is also used to soften the force of a statement or request, in the expression of various politeness formulas, to describe past repeated action, and in clauses of purpose. All but the last of these uses parallel those of the English conditional mood, albeit not exactly. 132 Conditional sentences Conditional sentences take the form IF A, THEN B. That is, a speaker first states a condition, and then comments on his/her perception of the consequent result. In other words, a speaker describes something which will [or would, might, or could] be the case, and then draws a conclusion as to what will [or should, might, would, would have, or might have] come after. The plethora of helping verbs in the definition above gives some indication of the broad scope of meaning conditional sentences can take. English conditional sentences are easily recognizable, because they all contain the conjunction if: it is the form of the verb in each of the two halves of an English sentence which distinguishes the different possible meanings. By...