On Two Types of Mood Shift in Icelandic Conditionals

Abstract

Ordinarily, the finite verb of Icelandic "o-marked" conditional ef-protases occurs in the indicative. However, subjunctive finite verbs are obligatory under "conditional inversion," i.e., in V1-protases, and they occasionally show up in present tense ef-protases. In this squib, interpretive consequences of these two types of "conditional mood shift"—referred to as CMS_1 and CMS_2, respectively—are characterized. Thus, CMS_1 may lead to "neutralization" of perfect semantics, where a present perfect subjunctive has to stand in for a past indicative, and to outright unacceptability if the main verb is a reportively used form of kveða ("say," "speak"). CMS_2 is interpretively neutral in some instances but appears to allow "potentialis" uses like its historical precursor in Old Norse in others. An analysis is sketched for CMS_1, drawing on a competition approach to the semantics of the perfect.