Le conditionnel des langues romanes: une question de mode ou de temps?
The Conditional in Romance Languages: a Modal or Temporal Verbal Form?

Summary/Abstract: The article aims at analysing and defining the prototypical semantic value of (present) conditional forms in Romance languages, based on their anaphoric expression capacities. In other words, the study starts from the assumption that any form of Romance conditional is able to convey a semantic relation of posteriority [ultériorité] compared to a referential group, without specifically placing the process expressed by the predication on the temporal axis, and compared to the standard benchmarks of the communication situation. Such a way to define conditional, which does not strike a clear distinction between the scope of temporality and modality, allows to justify all the uses and meaning effects of these verbal forms in the Romance area (Spanish, Italian, French and Romanian).

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