Notes on the development of the Lithuanian and Latvian conditional

LTReikšminiai žodžiai: 3 asmens formos; Latvių kalba; Stango hipotezė; Sudėtinės veiksmažodžių formos; Supynas; Sąlygos sakiniai; Tariamoji nuosaka; Tikslo aplinkybė; 3rd person forms; Compound tense form; Conditional sentences; Conditional verb; Latvian language; Purpose close; Stang's hypothesis; Supine.

ENIn this paper an attempt is made to offer a more complete reconstruction of the development of the Lithuanian and Latvian conditional on the basis of Stang’s (1958; 1966) hypothesis. Stang as* sumed the supine to have supplanted participles as a constituent part of the conditional after it had been introduced in purpose clauses in a similar way as the infinitive was introduced instead of the participle in -I- with the conditional marker in Russian чтобы схать, Polish żeby jechać etc. These purpose clauses with the supine were no doubt originally non-finite, but they were subsequently finitised. It is suggested here that the finitisation of such combinations with the supine led, first of all, to the rise of new 3rd person forms of the type *-b(i) žinotų. 3rd person forms in -tų are not attested with the auxiliary because the old forms of the type -b(i) žinojęs (attested in Old Lithuanian) were reanalysed as compound tense forms, -b being interpreted as a reduced variety of būtų. This rcanalysis also affected 1st and 2nd person forms of the type -bime (-te) žinoję: these acquired the status of compound tense forms, and their auxiliaries, having become unanalysable after the reanalysis of the 3rd person form -b(i) were replaced with the modem forms būtum-bime (-te).*. [From the publication]