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Lfdƒq(nt) ‘give, let’ ([19]) or, less usually, lƒq(nt) ([20]) assume the addressee is the authority:

[19]Lfdfqnt ds,thtv<1pl pf prs> yjdsq ghbynth lkz dfituj jabcf. Let’s select a new printer for your office.

[20]Lfqnt z gjghj,e/<1sg pf prs> . Let me have a go at it.

With gécnm ‘let’, the proposed event depends on the situation rather than on the addressee:

[21]Djn gjqle ctqxfc d vbkbwb/ pfzdk/! Gecnm ghbtlen<3pl pf prs> lf pf,then<3pl pf prs> .

I’ll just go right now to inform the police. Let them come and take them off.

[22]D gjldfkt jyb rfrjq-nj vfufpby [jnzn jnrhsnm. Vfkj kb xtv jyb nfv pfybvf/ncz. Dtxthjv ghbtle ljvjq, gjpdjy/ d vbkbwb/. Gecrfq ghbtlen<pf prs> , ghjdthzn<pf prs> .

In the basement they want to open a store. There’s hardly anything there’re not into. This evening I’ll go home, call the police. Let them come, check it out.

With gecrƒq, less frequent by a ratio of at least five to one, the expectation is more tentative.

6.2.3 Conditional constructions

In their most explicit form, conditionals in Russian have a condition (protasis) introduced by a conjunction such as †ckb ‘if ’ (or rjulƒ ‘when’) and a consequence (apodosis); the apodosis can be marked with the particle(s) (f) nj´ ‘or else, and then’.4 To be a conditional, a situation needs some degree of uncertainty about whether the condition and then also the consequence will be fulfilled. Four cardinal types of less-than-certain situations can be distinguished.

Epistemological conditions: The condition can be considered less than certain if the speaker’s knowledge about an event is uncertain. Epistemological conditionals state that in the speaker’s opinion, knowledge, or worldview, if the protasis is true, the truth of apodosis follows. The relation is not causality in the usual sense, whereby one state of the world is responsible for the existence of another state of the world; the sequence is in the speaker’s epistemology. Tense, aspect, and mood are open.

4 On conditionals in Russian, see Kubík 1967 ([33]), Ueda 1998, and now Hacking 1998. A relevant general study is Dancygier 1998.

Mood, tense, and aspect 377

[23]Tckb hfymit ghtj,kflfkj<if pst> cjxedcndbt, nj ntgthm e ytrjnjhs[ djpybrkj<pf pst> xedcndj, rjnjhjt vfhrcbcns yfpsdf/n ≤rkfccjdjq ytyfdbcnm/≥. If earlier a feeling of sympathy predominated, then now some have begun to experience the feeling that Marxists call “class hatred.”

General (iterative) conditions: In repeating situations, some uncertainty of the protasis comes from the fact that the condition is not in force at every moment, but arises from time to time. In such general or iterative conditions in Russian, the verbs of both clauses are almost always imperfective. General conditions hold across time, and are naturally expressed in the present tense and realis mood ([24]), though they can be moved into the past ([25]) or the future or to counterfactual worlds. The conjunction is often rjulƒ ‘when’ ([25]) rather than the quintessential conditional conjunction †ckb ‘if’.

[24]Tckb rnj-kb,j bp exbntktq pf,jktdfk<if pst> , jyf tuj pfvtyzkf<if pst> . If anyone of the teachers fell ill, she replaced him.

[25]Rjulf vs ,thtv<if prs> bpdjpxbrf, jy vtyz gjlcf;bdftn<if prs> , rfr ,elnj ,s z ,skf ubvyfpbcnrjq gznjuj rkfccf.

When we take a carriage, he seats me as if I were a gymnasium student of the fifth form.

Occasionally iterative conditionals can have a perfective protasis (instead of imperfective), emphasizing that the hypothesized condition is a result of an unpredictable event:

[26]F e; tckb rfrjq udjplm gjuyekcz<pf pst> , nfr yt dsrblsdfnm<if inf> tuj, f ytghtvtyyj dsghzvkznm<if inf> .

And if some nail has managed to get bent, do not throw it out, rather, straighten it out.

Hypothetical: The speaker may invite the addressee to consider a world the speaker knows is not real. In such counterfactual conditions, both clauses use the particle ,s and, accordingly, the past tense of a finite verb:

[27]Tckb ,s jyb dcnhtnbkbcm<pf pst> ktn gznm yfpfl, nj dct ,s e;t lfdyj rjyxbkjcm<pf pst> .

If they had met five years ago, then everything would have ended long ago.

Hypothetical situations often lie in the past ([27]), but they can hold in the present ([28]):

[28]Pfvtxe kbim, xnj {ectqy, yfdthyjt, j,bltkcz<pf> ,s, tckb ,s tuj yfpdfkb<pf> fkmnhebcnjv.

I would only say that Hussein would most probably be offended if he were to be called an altruist.

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Potential: Some conditions are uncertain in that they deal with potential states -- states that are not actual at this moment but which might still come to pass. Potential conditions, which often lie in the future, are expressed by present-tense perfective forms or the imperfective futures.

[29]E vtyz ;fh, jy ghjqltn<pf prs> , tckb z yfqle<pf prs> ,fyre c dfhtymtv. Yj tt cghznfkb, nfr rfr Djdf b z dct ,thtv ,tp cghjcf.

I have a fever, it will pass, if I can just find the jar with the jam. But they’ve hidden it, because Vova and I keep taking from it without asking.

[30]Tckb ;ehyfkbcns yt lflen<pf prs> cdjtuj cjukfcbz, ghjcnj dsht;tn<pf prs> b[ cnfnmb b ,eltn<if fut> yfrktbdfnm ,tp ujyjhfhf.

If the journalists won’t give their permission, he’ll simply cut the articles out and put them up without paying for them.

[31]Tckb z yt dsexe<pf prs> dct[ ukfd, jn gthdjq lj gjcktlytq, vyt ,eltn<if fut> gkj[j.

If I do not learn all of the chapters, from the first to the last, it’ll be bad for me.

The cardinal patterns discussed are summarized in [32].

[32] type	prototypical tense-aspect and mood
epistemological	any; realis
general	past present imperfective; realis
hypothetical	past perfective; irrealis
potential	present-tense perfective imperfective
	future; realis

If the condition is hypothetical, then the irrealis mood with ,s is used. If iterative, then imperfective is used.

In the usual case, the protasis and apodosis represent the same degree of reality -- both are potential or hypothetical -- and are expressed with the same or comparable tense and mood. (The imperfective future and perfective present are comparable in both referring to events in the future.) In iterative conditionals, aspect also matches in the two clauses. Mismatches in mood (or “hybrid” conditionals) require special semantic conditions. The least unusual hybrid is that in which the protasis is in the irrealis mood and the apodosis in the indicative; this condition is possible if ,s is understood as concessive and the apodosis reports a negative result (‘no matter what, there will be no result’):

[33]Tckb ,s<irr> z, yfghbvth, gjghj,jdfk hfpdjlbnm jdjob bkb tot xnj-yb,elm gjktpyjt, -- ybxtuj yt dsqltn<pf prs> .

Even if, for example, I were to try to grow vegetables or do something else productive, -- still, nothing will come of it.

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Conditionals can also use imperatives in the protasis, and not only with second persons:

[34]Gj;tkfq<pf imv> jy, jyb ,s d Vjcrde gthtt[fkb<pf> . If he had just wished it, they could move to Moscow.

[35]:bdb<if imv> vs c Dfvb d fyukjcfrcjycrb[ cnhfyf[, ajyjkjubxtcrjt jgbcfybt vbhf ,skj ,s e;t ujnjdj.

Let us live in Anglo-Saxon countries, the phonological description of the world would already be done.

The imperative as protasis has been idiomatized: ,élm tuj´ dj´kz ‘if he could have his way’. The apodosis can also be imperative:

[36]Ghfdbntkmcndj bplfkj cnhj;fqibq pfrjy: jgjplfk<pf pst> yf hf,jne ,jktt xtv yf ldflwfnm vbyen -- rfnbcm<if imv> rj dctv xthnzv.

The government issued an extremely strict law: if you’re late to work by more than twenty minutes, go to the devil.

The protasis may be a free infinitive not governed by any overt modal predicate:

[37]Tckb dpznm<inf> tt d hjn, xedcndetncz<if imv> ghjnbdysq drec vtlb.

If you put the spoon in your mouth, you get the unpleasant taste of copper.

The protasis may be a negated nominal:

[38]Tckb ,s yt htdjk/wbz, ,eleobq ,hfr vt;le ldevz pyfnytqibvb hjlfvb cxbnfkcz ,s bcrk/xbntkmyj elfxysv.

If it were not for the revolution, this future marriage between two very eminent clans would have been thought to be extraordinarily successful.

The syntax of this phrase is a puzzle: it seems to be a negative existential, yet the argument is nominative, not genitive.

Conditionals can be defective, with only one clause explicitly stated. A protasis used without an apodosis leaves the consequence to the imagination:

[39]Djn tckb , rnj-yb,elm ghbytc kbvjyyjt vjhj;tyjt, cnfrfyxbr pf nhb rjgtqrb, yf,bnsq lbdysv vjhj;tysv . . .

And think what if somebody were to bring lemon ice cream, a three-kopeck container filled with amazing ice cream . . .

The protasis can be stated in compressed form (d nfrj´v ckéxft ‘in that case’ = ‘if the condition just under discussion is fulfilled’) or derived from the context ([40--41]):