On the modal status of Northern Sotho conditionals

Abstract

This article opposes the view that the conditional verb form of Northern Sotho should be regarded as an autonomous mood, and shows that the notion of condition is nothing but one of several modalities which can be expressed by indicative verbs. It is argued that although both situative and conditional verb forms can be used in conditional clauses, they differ in respect of the factuality versus non-factuality of the conditions they express. Despite this difference, it is nonetheless suggested that both situative and conditional verbs are subsumed under the broader category ‘indicative mood’, since strong evidence exists in languages across the world of a direct discourse-pragmatic link between the modality of condition and declaratives. Proposals put forth in this contribution effectively reduce the number of moods in Northern Sotho to three, namely the indicative, subjunctive and imperative.