The specifics of conditional conjunctions in modern Russian

Van Lan' Postgraduate student; Department of Russian Language, General Linguistics and Speech Communication; Ural Federal University 620000, Russia, Sverdlovsk region, Yekaterinburg, ul. Belinsky, 108, sq. 51 wlan2016@163.com

The relation of a condition in linguistics can be represented by the following formula: "if P, (then) Q", which proves "bisituativity", while the situation P, as a rule, helps to implement the situation Q ^[22]. In the Russian language, there are several ways to express conditional relations, one of the most important is a complex sentence (hereinafter referred to as SPP) with a subordinate condition ^{[3, 9, 23, 25]}.

The SPP is a prototypical conditional construction, so, firstly, two dictum propositions, or two states of affairs, are expressed in it, and one of the two depends on the other in a certain way; secondly, in such SPPs a conditional union is used. A conditional union, as a specialized means of expressing conditional semantics, has a full set and maximum concentrations of their characteristic features.

When describing conditional conjunctions, there is no complete/stable list of conjunctive means in the grammar. Russian Russian Grammar contains 7 subordinate conjunctions: if (if), if, if, if, if, once, if ^{[7, p. 715]}, and in Russian Grammar - 21: if, if, if, if, if, if, if, if, if, if, if, if, if, if, if, if, if, if, if, if, if, if, if, if, if, if, if, if, if, if, if, if, if, if, if, if, if, if, if, if, if, if, if, if, if, if, if, if, if, if, if (if), if only, it would be good, if only, as if, if soon, whether ... whether... whether, including a compound union if, if, provided if (that), provided if (that), in case if, in case if ^{[14, p. 567]}. The Grammar of the Modern Russian Language does not contain conjunctions how and when, however, they are qualified as conditional conjunctions in the Explanatory Dictionary ^{[19, pp. 225 and 241]} and in other sources ^[5]. The materials of explanatory dictionaries prove that the list of allied means expressing the relations of "conditions" can be expanded. The purpose of our study is to identify conjunctions based on lexicographic sources and speech contexts that can express a conditional attitude.

Russian Russian Dictionary. We analyzed the dictionary entries of unions in the dictionaries "The New Dictionary of the Russian language: explanatory and word-formation" ^[13] and "The Great Explanatory Dictionary of the Russian language" ^[2] and selected those unions, the definition of which includes indicators of conditional relations: first, the lexeme condition and its derivatives (conditionally, conditionally, conditionally, conditionally, conditionally, conditionally, conditionally, conditionally, conditionally, conditionally, conditionally, conditionally, conditionally, conditionally, conditionally, conditionally, conditionally, conditionally, conditionally, conditionally, conditionally, conditionally, conditionally, conditionally, conditionally, conditionally, conditionally, conditionally, conditionally Secondly, the union of if, which many scientists consider to be among the so–called semantic primitives - elementary terms that cannot be further decomposed ^{[1, 4]}.

Here are examples of unions, the definition of which includes these indicators:

Some of the conjunctions have the meaning of a condition in both dictionaries, which allows us to consider these lexical units as regular expressions of the condition category. There are conjunctions that have the meaning of a condition only in one dictionary, but they are also included in the analyzed material.

Based on the definitions of conjunctions in explanatory dictionaries, we received a list including 38 units: if, if, and not that, but that, if, if, otherwise, because, in (that) case, if, divi, good, if, if, more, if, as if, as if, whatever, when, whenever, if (if), if, if soon, and, whether, in (that) case if, not that, provided if (that), let it be, let it be Once, unless, just, at least, at least.

Since the SPP is the main means of expressing conditional meaning, in grammar, when describing conditional relations, only subordinate conjunctions are given (see above), but our materials made it possible to supplement this list with conjunctions as if, after all, still, how, whatever, let, let, unless, only, at least, which they are not included in the directory.

As our observations have shown, compositional conjunctions can also express the semantics of a condition, since the particular meanings of a complex sentence exist and are organized into a certain system "based on hierarchical and paradigmatic relations" ^{[21, p. 145]}. The conditional meaning is usually actualized by the compositional conjunctions and not that, but that, otherwise, not that, else, and.

The second feature by which conditional unions differ is stylistic coloring. Our materials present neutral unions and stylistically colored unions.

The main exponent of conditional relations is the neutral union if, which has no restrictions in functional and stylistic use, expresses the conditional meaning in the most general and undifferentiated form and therefore can be used in all types of conditional sentences, with any modal-temporal plan of the subordinate part. Most of the conditional conjunctions have no stylistic commentary in dictionaries, i.e. It is also neutral: if, as if, in case (that), as if, as if, whatever, when, whenever, and, whether, in case (that), only, provided if (that), at least.

Stylistically colored unions have marks in the explanatory dictionary. There are three types of litter in the list of conditional unions: bookish. (bookish) – for words that are used primarily in texts and in the field of intellectual communication (as long as the union. books. If, since); 2. razg. (colloquial) – for words used as a means of casual communication, including in a business or official setting (once, union. razg. If (1, 4 zn.); 3. outdated. (obsolete) – for words that have fallen out of use and are used as an expressive means of imitating the speech of past eras (if, union, obsolete. The same as if).

Unions are marked as book ones if soon, otherwise. For example: And since each of the students is His deputy, then relations begin to develop between them (and therefore between people in general) quite differently than they were before (Archpriest Georgy Chistyakov, Reflections on the Gospel of John, 2021).

Colloquial unions include not that, not that, after all, it would be good, let it be, let it be, once, unless, else, not that. For example: Anyway, once they wrote, they won't put it on," Danilenko stated, "they'll be afraid that you'll write on them too (V. I. Maksimov, Diary of a researcher, 2022).

The unions of bude, kaby, and koli, which have the mark nar.-razg. (folk colloquial) or nar.-poet, are singled out separately. (folk poetry). For example: How many congregations would be added in churches if the service were conducted in modern Russian (D. N. Karalis, Diary, 2005).

Swim out, nemo-nautilus ship, Push the meat sail out of the body, If the fish had learned this, the sea would have exploded and disintegrated! (O. A. Yuryev, Pan nautilus, 2013-2014).

How obsolete unions are marked if, if, if, if, if. For example: Well, if your mother had complained to your father, he would have gone mad and taken you and her away from here that minute. (D. I. Fonvizin. Brigadier, 1783-1786).

Conjunctions, however, would not be included in modern explanatory dictionaries. They are presented only in old explanatory dictionaries, such as the "Dictionary of the Old Russian Language (XI-XIV centuries)" ^[16], "Dahl's Explanatory Dictionary" ^[18], etc.

Conditional conjunctions in the Russian language have differences in the semantic aspect. A neutral conditional union if (would) expresses these conditions in its pure form and occupies a central place among conditional unions. This union has already been studied in sufficient detail: studies have been carried out on it from the point of view of semantics ^{[4, 6, 12, 20]}, from a historical point of view ^[17], a comparative analysis was carried out with conditional conjunctions of other languages ^[23], and studies were also carried out on the compatibility of this union with various modal particles ^[15].

At the same time, in the group of conditional conjunctions there are syncretic conjunctions with additional shades of meaning, expressing various modal meanings. Such unions include the peripheral union of kindness, which has a colloquial coloration ^{[14, p. 563; 8, p. 19; 17, p. 45]} 483 occurrences were found in the National Corpus of the Russian Language (NKRYA) in the main corpus and 49 in the newspaper subcorpus. Of the 483 occurrences of the main body, only 27 relate to the household sphere, 118 in the field of journalism, and 338 in the artistic sphere, but in book styles this union usually marks the direct speech of the characters in a relaxed situation. For example: Everything worked out. Except for my personal life. My personal life was just a disaster. It would simply be better if there was no next "brilliant party". Dina, as an extremely intelligent woman, would have accepted this and continued to look for something worthy, but quite unexpectedly — like a punch in the gut! (Tatyana Ustinova, 2003).

Shrugging her shoulders and muttering something about abstruse fools, she gave out the book, but warned that the world had never seen more boring: "Welcome to the university..." At home, taking it out of my bag, I thought about what I should read before calling (Elena Chizhova, Zvezda, 2002).

Below is a graph of the frequency of use of the word good according to the NCRE.

It can be seen that the peak of its use occurred in the 19th century, in the 20th century the frequency of use of this union decreased significantly, since the norms of written speech did not allow the use of colloquial elements.

Let's consider the specifics of the semantics of this union in modern Russian.

1. The union seems to express the meaning of the condition, but the conditional relations expressed by it are presumptive – this is a hypothetical situation, either an unrealistically existing condition, or a desirable condition.

For example? You have to pay eight rubles for a kilogram of seed potatoes, but you have to buy a ton. So calculate how much we get a kilo of potatoes. And you also need to buy piglets, chickens and food for them. If we were given a loan, we would quickly pay off the lender (Irina Ivoilova, Trud-7, 03/15/2001);

They say, for example, in the banks "Russian Standard" and "Home Credit and Finance Bank" and impose the opening of an account as a condition for issuing a loan. As a result, such helpfulness of the lender costs the borrower much more than interest payments on the loan itself. I came to get a haircut, but they took off my head. And if the client had known about this in advance, maybe he would have turned around and gone to a cleaner bank (Bank Navigator, Kommersant, 04/29/2007);

The SPP with the union of good would represent the inflexible structure of the semantic model "if P, then Q can take place". In the first part, the unreal condition P is called: if they had given a loan; if the client had known about it in advance, the second part expresses the conditioned situation Q: we quickly settled with the lender; turned around and went to a cleaner bank.

V.N. Migirin qualifies the particle of being as an "indicator of modality" ^{[11, p. 68]}. V. V. Vinogradov points to the modal functions of the particle of being, its ability to express a whole spectrum of shades of the values of conditionality, possibility, desirability within the framework of a hypothetical modality ^{[5, p. 528]}. In ^{[10, p.128]}, the effect of a particle of being on this hypothetical is noted.

2. It would be used to express a condition as part of inflexible two-person constructions with a dividing union or even with the meaning of "alternative motivation". The meaning of such statements can be defined as "conditionally objectionable".

For example: For lack of free space, Brodsky turns over a sheet of typewritten text and expresses in the margins a general statement regarding the resulting collection of poems: "As for rhymes: they can be inaccurate at best when there is no stress on them. And here you have both metric and semantic. I wish the phrase would continue, otherwise it breaks off" (Zvezda, 2023, May 5, issue 5);

Why put up with his next tour, he can't calm down in his old age, a man turned fifty, and all the girls are interesting, and girls would be good, otherwise he coveted his wife's age (Gohar Markosian-Kasper, Zvezda, 2003);

In the Nizhny Novgorod region, there is even a division of labor: some make blanks, others paint, others varnish. They work in their kitchens, they don't pay taxes. It would be good if the competition was fair, otherwise it turns out: the market is flooded with products, and the taxpayer enterprise is put in worse conditions (Agisheva Guzel, Trud-7, 30.01.2007).

In the above statements, structures with an allied complex would be welcome... Otherwise... the first predicative part, introduced by the good union, expresses the unreal condition "if P" (if the phrase continued, if he coveted girls, if the competition was fair), which the speaker considers the best option for the situation. Whereas in the second predicative part, attached by the union a, the real situation is presented, the opposite of the desired condition (the phrase ends, he covets his wife's age, the market is flooded with products, and the taxpayer enterprise is put in worse conditions). A speaker using the union of good would suggest the best choice for the development of the situation, since other options (if not P) are an undesirable or bad result.

The grammar states that "outside of this connection, the union of good would be rare" ^{[14, p. 567]}. E. S. Gretskaya also noted that in the absence of a, the union meaning is lost, and not a single sentence without a is found in her materials ^{[8, p. 31]}. However, in our materials 166 statements out of 483 have component a to, whereas in the remaining 317 statements component a to is missing.

3. The conditional value is close to the previous one, complicated by a subjective modal value. For example, in such constructions: Deputy Chairman of the State Duma Committee on Transport Vitaly Efimov proposed to ban passengers from carrying alcohol on airplanes. It seems that such a bill is being prepared for submission to the State Duma. The reason is clear: drunken brawls on planes, emergency landings, miraculously escaped passengers, stressed-out crews. I wish all the drunks on board were like the intelligent Zhenya from "Irony of Fate" performed by actor Myagkov. But somehow not so (Natalia GRACHEVA, Komsomolskaya Pravda, 02/04/2013)

In favor of the "star" team, other budget expenditures were partially "cut off" and sequestered: for medicine, agriculture, and education. Representatives of other sports could complain as much as they liked, and deputies of the regional Duma could be indignant. The regional government simply did not hear them. And it would be good if budget money really went to football. But, apparently, the football club instantly turned into an organization for their "sawing" and "mastering". According to investigators, the CEO transferred money to the accounts of fictitious companies for allegedly insuring fans at Sokol matches, which were subsequently stolen — about 100 million rubles were spent in total! (Andrey Kulikov, Trud-7, 08/24/2005);

Everything was done overnight. The results are deplorable. The country has become impoverished, the state has found itself in a broken trough. It would be good if an effective owner appeared at the same time. But we had an owner who transferred money to the Virgin Islands, bought villas on the Cote d'Azur and Chelsea (Evgeny Ukhov, Trud-7, 05/13/2004).

The structural specificity of such statements lies in the fact that the second proposition is formed, as a rule, by an independent predicative construction. The semantic difference lies in the collision of the real and possible worlds, in the actualized evaluative–desirable modality. Such proposals, when one dictum proposition remains, and the second one "goes" into mode, are noted in the work of T. V. Shmeleva ^{[24, p. 103]}.

The above sentences represent the possible world and the real world. A possible world is described in the first statement with the dobro union as desirable: all the drunks on board were like the intelligent Zhenya from Irony of Fate; budget money really went to football; an effective owner appeared. The second statement, joined by the Union of but, reveals the situation in the real world (the football club instantly turned into an organization for their "sawing" and "mastering"; we had an owner who transferred money to the Virgin Islands, bought villas on the Cote d'Azur and Chelsea) or gives it a direct assessment (as if not so). The speaker gives a positive assessment of the desired situation localized in the possible world, contrasting it with the situation in the real world, which he evaluates negatively.

4. The subjective modal meaning becomes the leading one when the constructions introduced by the union of goodness are used in isolation (60% of the materials we found). The predicted second predicative part is missing.

For example: If you were a registered feuilleteer (K.I. Chukovsky);

And it would be good if the whole problem was only in the price of energy (Vesti.ru , 02/25/2013);

My mother is working three jobs, and she and her boyfriend are running around naked! Welcome to the girl! (Mikhail Uspensky, 2003);

He did not think of himself outside of Russia and in a recurring dream crawled across the neutral zone "from there to here." "Alibi in this country, / that is, being outside / her and myself, / for me, is the most impossible. / The country is unusual: here / they will kill – they will not let you die. / Alive or dead – hump!/ Welcome to the motherland..." (Nezavisimaya Gazeta: 2023: September 7).

There is no second event in such sentences, which does not coincide with the characteristic of the semantics of the condition – bisituativity. Here, not only the value of the condition is weakened, but the allied function of goodness is eliminated. Only the mode remains, only the pure modal meaning – the subjective assessment or the desire of the speaker.

Thus, the union of goodness manifests not only conditional relations in its "pure form", it reveals the ability to designate non-conditional relations: presumptive and conditionally opposed. Also, this union is able to acquire additional modal shades of desirability and evaluation.

Conclusions. Being the most important marker of the expression of a conditional relation, the union plays a key role in the formation of the semantic and modal meaning of sentences. The range of conditional unions is wide: in addition to the main subordinate union if (would), which is represented in the central zone of the means of expression, many unions are located in the peripheral area. Among them there are not only subordinate, but also compositional unions, neutral and stylistically colored unions. Most conditional conjunctions have great syntactic and semantic-pragmatic potential.