Counterfactuals in the History of Greek: An Enriched Diachronic Typology using a Context-Sensitive Evolutionary Model Ghent University
(1) If I were you,… (2) I should (have) know(n). (3) If only she had listened. These constructions are counterfactuals. They speculate about an unrealizable state of affairs based on an unrealized condition. Every language has these expressions but in varying forms. Counterfactuals originate from formerly non-counterfactual expressions through semantic bleaching, phonological reduction etc. in a grammaticalization cycle. Cross-linguistic ...