Japanese conditional markers

The Japanese conditional markers -ra ~ -tara, nara, and -(e)ba, typed by Conditional.Marker, and the language's X-marking exponent. -ra marks only hypothetical conditionals; nara, which doubles as a topic marker, marks either ([Las25]); -(e)ba marks either, its Anderson and counterfactual uses distinguished by the consequent's tense rather than by the marker ([Miz24]).

References

• [Las25]
• [Miz24]
• [Ogi14]
• [MK19]

def Japanese.Conditionals.ra : Conditional.Marker

Japanese -ra ~ -tara marks only hypothetical conditionals: it is unacceptable once the antecedent has been asserted (17) and as the main marker of a bare left-nested conditional (19) ([Las25]).

Equations

• Japanese.Conditionals.ra = { form := "-ra", readings := {Conditional.Reading.hypothetical} }

def Japanese.Conditionals.nara : Conditional.Marker

Japanese nara marks either reading: it takes the premise reading when the antecedent has been asserted (16) and heads a bare left-nested conditional (18) ([Las25]).

Equations

• Japanese.Conditionals.nara = { form := "nara", readings := {Conditional.Reading.hypothetical, Conditional.Reading.premise} }

def Japanese.Conditionals.eba : Conditional.Marker

Japanese -(e)ba attaches to sentence radicals and marks either reading: premise use in Anderson conditionals ([Miz24], ex. 4a), hypothetical use in future less vivid conditionals (ex. 9a).

Equations

• Japanese.Conditionals.eba = { form := "-(e)ba", readings := {Conditional.Reading.hypothetical, Conditional.Reading.premise} }

def Japanese.Conditionals.xMarking : Option Modality.Exclusion.XMarkingExponent

Japanese X-marking: Fake Past -ta ([Ogi14], [MK19]; [Miz24] ex. 3).

Equations

• Japanese.Conditionals.xMarking = some { form := "-ta", components := [Modality.Exclusion.XMarkingHost.past] }