In the following conditionals, speaker’s marked higher certainty is inferred from the broader context (such as the physical context of the utterance, or the interlocutors’ encyclopedic knowledge), rather than obtained from the co-text. Since speaker’s certainty is implicitly inferred rather than explicitly obtained, such conditionals are thus of relatively lower certainty than the ones discussed in the previous section.
In conditionals in examples (4.11) and (4.12) below, the speakers are describing non-future-tending habitual experience, i.e. the protases refer to a particular participant but do not specify a specific event. Since habitual experiences are based on many events that may have indeed occurred at specific times, we can implicitly infer from speaker’s knowledge that they hold higher certainty toward the protases.
(4.11) ((newspaper))
→1. C: 啊
若
, 以早 我若
看 報紙, a na, icha goa na khoaN pochoa, DM if before 1SG if read newspaper 2. 別 人 著 掛 目鏡,baklang toh koa bakkiaN , others just wear glasses
3. 我 攏 毋免 掛 目鏡, hoN.
goa long m-bien koa bakkiaN, hoN.
1SG all NEG-need wear glasses UFP 4. A: haN.
haN.
RT
5. C: 我 著 有 法度 通 看 報紙, goa toh u huattou tong khoaN pochoa, 1SG then have way can read newspaper
6. 到 這碼 我 嘛 仝款 是 毋免 掛 目鏡, kah chitma goa ma kangkhoan si m-bien koa bakkiaN, to now 1SG also same COP NEG-need wear glasses 7. 有 [法度] 通 看 報紙, hoN, --
u huattou tong khoaN pochoa, hoN, -- have way can read newspaper UFP 8. A: [是,] 是.
si, si.
COP COP
9. C: --按呢, 啊 這碼, hoN, 報紙 啊-- -- anne, a chitma, hoN, pochoa a -- -- like-this DM now UFP newspaper UFP 10. A: aN.
aN.
RT
→11. C: --大字 的 看 hoN, -- toa-ji e khoaN hoN , big-word NOM read UFP
大字 的 看 頭殼 勿會 痛, toa-ji e khoaN thaukhak be thiaN, big-word NOM read head NEG ache
→12. 細字 的 若 認真 共 看 oN, se-ji e na jinchin ka khoaN oN, small-word NOM if seriously THE read UFP 13. 啊 頭殼
著
痛 起來, 按呢.a thaukhak toh thiaN khilai, anne.
DM head then ache up like-this
C(1-3): Whenever I read the newspaper before, other people had to wear glasses, but I didn’t have to.
A(4): Hm.
C(5-7): I could read the newspaper clearly. I still can read the newspaper without wearing glasses nowadays.
A(8): Right, right.
C(9): Like this.. now.. the newspaper…
A(10): Hm.
C(11-13): If/Whenever I read big words, I don’t have a headache. But if/whenever I read small words seriously, I have a headache.
Example (4.11) is a snatch of talk from a radio call-in show. The audience A is telling the doctor B about his eye-problem. To describe his symptom, A contrasts his past experience of reading newspapers with the present experience. In line 1, A reports his past habit by a conditional sentence (marked by a forward-linking element na). In line 12, the same conjunction na is used to depict his present experience of reading the newspaper. Another conditional is found in line 11. In line 11, there is no lexical conjunction; rather, the two propositions toa-ji e khoaN ‘reading large characters’ and thaukhak be thiaN ‘not having headaches’ are simply juxtaposed, with the protasis placed before the apodosis.
(4.12) ((mahjong game))
(B is asking G whether it is the case that whenever there is not enough people for a mahjong game, G’s friends would call him to join the game.)
1. B: 阿偉, 又閣 teh <M 三 缺 一 M> 矣 hio?
A-ui, iukoh teh <M san que yi M> a hio?
A-ui again ASP three lack one CRS UFP …(ellipsis of four lines)
6. B: 是毋是 人
若
欠著
揣 你?si-m-si lang na khiam toh chhoe li ? COP-NEG-COP people if lack then call 2SG …(ellipsis of four lines)
→11. G: 有 時間
才
有, u sikan chiah u, have time then have →12. 啊 無 時間著
無.a bo sikan toh bo.
DM NEG time then NEG
B(1): A-ui, there are not enough people for a mahjong game again?
...
B(6): Is this the case that if there are not enough people, they would call you?
G(11-12): I only go if I have time. I don’t go if I don’t have time.
In example (4.12), the aunt (B) asks her nephew (G) if it is the case that whenever there is not enough people for a mahjong game, G’s friends would call on G to join the game (line 6). In other words, B is asking about G’s habit. The proposition in the protasis is lang khiam ‘there is not enough people’ and the proposition in the apodosis is (lang) chhoe li ‘(they) call on you’. The two propositions are conjoined by na. In answering this question, G utters two conditionals in lines 11 and 12. The two conditionals are unmarked in the protases, but marked with backward-linking elements—chiah and toh, respectively. In these two conditionals, G is describing his personal experience, and therefore we implicitly infer that G has higher certainty toward the protases.
The conditional in the following example (4.13), like the conditionals in (4.11) and (4.12), refers to a particular participant but does not specify a specific event. We can also implicitly infer from the context the speaker’s higher certainty toward p.
However, while the conditionals in (4.11) and (4.12) are non-future-tending, the conditional in (4.13) is future-projecting. Therefore, by comparison, the conditional in (4.13) is of relatively lower certainty/higher hypotheticality than the conditionals in (4.11) and (4.12).
(4.13) ((nob))
1. O: haN? 你 是 畚掃仔?
haN? li si Pun-so-e?
DM 2SG COP Pun-so-e 2. F: hng.
hng.
RT
3. O: 哇! 喔,