Literary notes about conditional (AI summary)
The term "conditional" in literature is used in both technical and metaphorical ways. Grammarians and linguists employ it to describe specific sentence structures—illustrated by references to conditional clauses, protasis and apodosis, and the nuances of subjunctive mood in conditional contexts ([1], [2], [3], [4], [5])—while also emphasizing its role in constructing varied sentence moods ([6], [7]). At the same time, philosophers and literary figures have utilized "conditional" to express ideas about obligations, limitations, and the inherent dependency of moral, logical, or emotional states on external factors or circumstances. In this sense, duties, truths, or even human emotions are presented as contingent or dependent on certain conditions, a notion explored in works that range from moral treatises to reflections on human progress and existence ([8], [9], [10], [11], [12]). This dual use underscores the word's capacity to bridge formal grammatical analysis with broader reflections on the contingent nature of reality in literature.
- In such cases, there is no subordinate conditional clause.
— from An Advanced English Grammar with Exercises by Frank Edgar Farley and George Lyman Kittredge - A sentence that contains a conditional clause is called a conditional sentence.
— from An Advanced English Grammar with Exercises by Frank Edgar Farley and George Lyman Kittredge - The conditional clause is often called the protasis , and the conclusion is often called the apodosis .
— from An Advanced English Grammar with Exercises by Frank Edgar Farley and George Lyman Kittredge - A conditional clause may be introduced by provided (or provided that ), granted that , supposing (or suppose ), on condition that .
— from An Advanced English Grammar with Exercises by Frank Edgar Farley and George Lyman Kittredge - A conditional clause sometimes omits the copula and its subject.
— from An Advanced English Grammar with Exercises by Frank Edgar Farley and George Lyman Kittredge - The conclusion of a conditional sentence may be declarative, interrogative, imperative, or exclamatory.
— from An Advanced English Grammar with Exercises by Frank Edgar Farley and George Lyman Kittredge - A clause that expresses a condition introduced by if , or by some equivalent word or phrase, is called a conditional clause.
— from An Advanced English Grammar with Exercises by Frank Edgar Farley and George Lyman Kittredge - To save, to cure, to nourish are duties far less conditional than would be a supposed duty to acquire or to create.
— from The Life of Reason: The Phases of Human Progress by George Santayana - We may, however, if we please, distinguish two necessities—one absolute, the other conditional on knowledge.
— from The Consolation of Philosophy by Boethius - Thus the worth of any object which is to be acquired by our action is always conditional.
— from Fundamental Principles of the Metaphysic of Morals by Immanuel Kant - "This, as man is now constituted, is conditional for his rational life .
— from Know the Truth: A Critique on the Hamiltonian Theory of Limitation by Jesse Henry Jones - The categories are "truths" only in the sense that they are the conditions of our existence, just as Euclid's Space is a conditional "truth."
— from The Will to Power: An Attempted Transvaluation of All Values. Book III and IV by Nietzsche
