DSpace at VNU: The semantic relations between the clauses in Vietnamese conditional sentences

VNU Jo urnal o f Science, Social Sciences an d H um an ities 23, No.5E (2007) 15-22 The semantic relations between the clauses in Vietnamese conditional sentences Nguyen Khanh Ha* College o f Social Sciences and Humanities, VNU 336 Nguyen Trai, Thanh Xuan, Hanoi, Vietnam R eceived 24 M arch 2007 A b stra ct T his acco u n t is an a tte m p t to p ro v id e a brief d esc rip tio n of som e sem an tic relations b etw e en th e clauses of V ietn am ese conditional sentences, a n d th e focus w ill be th ree of them , n am ely , th e cau sal relations, th e inferential relations, an d th e speech act relations T he "sufficient co n d itio n ality " th eo ry su g g e ste d by V an d e r A u w era is re g a rd e d as the basis of the p re sen t an aly sis In th e cau sal co nditionals, the ev e n t or state of affair d escribed in the co n d itio n al clause, if realized , w ill be sufficient for the realization of the ev e n t or state of affairs d escrib ed in the m ain clause T hese relations, w h ich hold in th e ran g e of the "real w o rld " , are reco g n ized an d su p p o rte d by b o th th e sp e a k e r a n d th e listener th ro u g h th e ir b ac k g ro u n d k n o w led g e T he causal relations in co n d itio n als are in so m e aspect d iffe ren t from those in causal conjunctions A n o th er k in d of p ro m in e n t co n d itio n al relatio n s is th e referential one T his k in d of re latio n expresses th e sp e a k e r's reaso n in g , a n d sen ten c es h o ld in g th ese relations th en function in th e epistem ic, n o t content, d o m ain , an d connect ep istem ic states Essentially, the conditional clau se p ro v id es a p rem ise, and th e m ain clau se th e conclusion in ferred from the p rem ise T hese relations are pragm atically com plex a n d m u ch d e p e n d s on th e context T he th ird k in d of relation is th e sp ee ch act one T he p ro tase s of su c h sen ten c es are largely in d e p e n d e n t of the co n ten t of th eir ap o d o ses, a n d the p ro p o sitio n al co n ten t of th e sen ten ce as a w h o le does n o t co n tain a ssu m p tio n s of seq u e n tia lity and cau sality b etw e en th e states of affairs described Introduction consequence of other related changes" [1], A ssum ing such a com plex task, the sem antic relations betw een the clauses of conditional sentences are certainly not sim ple, giving rise to linguists' focus on these relations in their stu d y of conditional sentences G enerally, researchers often pay attention to tw o relations betw een the clauses of conditional sentences, nam ely, sem antic relations and structural relations Semantically, m any linguists share the idea C onditionals in n atu ral language reflect h u m an beings' one w ay of u n d e rsta n d in g the w orld "w ith the p u rp o se of reasoning over situations in consideration, of giving references based on incom plete inform ation, of considering possible relations of situations, and of discovering changes as the • Tel.: 84-4-5572024 E-mail: hakhanhha@yahoo.com 15 16 N guyen Khanh Ha / V N U Journal of Science, Social Sciences and Humanities 23, No.5E (2007) 15-22 that conditional sentences are constructions in w hich the tru th of one clause d ep en d s on the other clause [2] Logicians call this abstract relation m aterial im plication, i.e p —► q This form ula holds tru e given q (the consequent clause) and p (the antecedent clause) also hold true, and is considered false given that p is true b u t q is false This view point is applicable to factual conditionals and not to counterfactual ones such as "If pigs had wings, they could fly" A nother direction in linguistic research m ainly focuses on the analysis of m arkers signalling structural relations betw een the clauses of conditional sentences This direction is strictly developed by school gram m arians w ith a view to help language learners u n d erstan d an d use conditional constructions gram m atically For instance, learners of English need to know in w hich context to use the verb in the protasis in the past tense form, w hich consequently m akes it obligatory to use the m odal w o u ld preceding the verb in the apodosis to indicate impossibility The above analysis proves useful for language learners, b u t the sem antic relations betw een the clauses seem cursory, and this can be a source of confusion for learners of higher level w h en they have to deal w ith the lack of rules in a variety of sem antically com plex conditional statem ents To overcom e the above shortcom ings, cognitive gram m arians tend to see gram m ar not as a p u re description of language form s b u t as the display of the speakers' know ledge of the w orld th ro u g h linguistic conventions The stu d y of the relations b etw een the clauses of conditional sentences in the light of this tendency includes (a) an exam ination of aspects of sem antic relations betw een the tw o clauses; (b) a search for m arkers form ing the relations; (c) an analysis how the param eters of m eaning and the param eters of form correlate W e have attem p ted to ap p ly the above discussed cognitive tendency to analyze the relations, m ostly sem antic ones, betw een the clauses of V ietnam ese conditional sentences, as it is typical th at w o rd s in V ietnam ese not change forms, th u s m ark ers of typical conditionals are hard ly noticeable in V ietnam ese form N orm ally, a sentence is categorized as a conditional provided it contains conditional conjunctions such as n ếu (th ì), g iá (th ì), etc Som e sentences still belong to this category w ith o u t any conditional conjunctions p ro v id in g that they are un d ersto o d and realized as conditionals by native speakers of V ietnam ese Types of semantic relations between the clauses of Vietnamese conditional sentence Relations betw een the clauses of conditional statem ents play a crucial role in expressing conditionality T he fact that participant clauses of conditionals are not interpreted as factual (that is, just hypothetical) seem s to be attributable to the presence of one of the conditional conjunctions such as in Vietnamese, w hich is an exponent of the assu m p tio n in its scope N o clauses of a conditional are treated as assertions of tru e or false propositions even though the content of one clause is identified as true in the context Consider (1): (1) Tao thây điều mày viêl (tôi đưa sơ'cho Châu) mày Sính hai người khác [3, p.74] The tru th of the content of the conditional clause (những điểu mày viêĩ này) is Nguyen Kỉianh Ha / V N U journal o f Science, Social Sciences and Humanities 23, No.5E (20U7) 15-22 17 ascertained in the context, yet it is introduced real world) Also sharing this view point, by the conjunction nếu, w hich entails Sw eetser points o u t that the presence of uncertainty in-the m ain clause conditional conjunctions indicates that the As the conditional clause, on w hich the event or state of affairs described in the consequent d ep en d s, serves only as an conditional clause, if realized, will be assum ption, the m ain clause is no m ore than sufficient for the realization of the event or another assu m p tio n (in F auconnier's theory state of affair described in the m ain clause In [4], the an teced en t is the consequent's this case, the conditionals describe the event spiritual space) It can be stated th at the only or state of affair in the range of the real w orld assertion p re sen t in a conditional Follow ing are som e typical conditionals in construction is th at in the relations betw een the range of the real w orld the antecedent an d the consequent (3) (Như sô'vốn trăm bảy mươi đồng Sw eetser [5] points o u t that speakers of củ, cộng với ba mươi đồng anh Cao cho hụt xuống natural lan g u ag es obviously require trâm năm mươi tư đồng) Nếu mua hai som ething m ore than the presence of áo bông, ba mươi sáu đồng, felicitous real values before accepting a hụt bẩy mươi hai đồng [6, p.161] conditional sentence to be com plete That (4) (Đu đủ chùa già, thân nhỏ quắt som ething sh o u ld be a relation betw een the cao đêu Phải bạo gan trèo tw o clauses In n atu ral languages, conditional nổi.) Nêu run tay ngã xuống gạch chí constructions can be u sed to indicate things vỡ đầu hay què cẳng [6, p.55] that are related in som e w ay As a result, the In the above statem ents, the relation follow ing sentence m ay so u n d od d to betw een the clauses of each conditional speakers of n atu l languages: construction is causal one w ith the antecedent (2) Nếu Paris thủ Pháp hai being the cause for the existence of the số chẵn [5, p.115] consequent In (3), the purchase of the two Bcause they find no relation betw een the thick w inter pullovers leads to a further cut of tw o clauses, alth o u g h the sentence is logically 72 dongs into the savings; and in (4), the fall appropriate, i.e., a conditional sentence can due to arm trem bling leads to an injury in the only be false if the an teced en t is tru e b u t the head or a broken leg consequent is false It can be said that causality partly results H ow the tw o clauses of a conditional from sequentiality, as the ord er of i f A then B sentence relate then? W e assum e that is so p o p u lar in V ietnam ese that it has conditionality functions in three different becom e a convention of "one thing following dom ains: co ntent (causal relation), epistem ic the other", of one thing leading to the other (inferential relation), and speech-act (speechH ow ever, the causal relation betw een the act relation) dom ains clauses of a conditional sentence in the range of the real w orld has a m ore significant 2.2 Causal relation m eaning The clauses of a conditional not m erely stand closely, they d ep en d closely on A ccording to V an d er A uw era, the one another The event or state of affair conditional clause A is sufficient condition for described in A, if realized, will be sufficient the m ain clause B in the content domain (or the 18 Nguyen Khanh Ha / V N U Journal o f Science, Social Sciences and Humanities 23, No.5E (2007) 15-22 for the realization of the event or state of affair described in B D ancygier [7] sees this account as the result of m any factors: (a) a conditional w ith a relation; (b) this relation holding in the range of the ''real w orld"; (c) the events or states of affairs in the conditional being expressed in a sequence; and (d) our acceptance of th at expression as background know ledge (The background know ledge is easily seen in the exam ples discussed above: o u r calculating skill helps us see the causal relation betw een the purchase of the pullovers and the further cut into the am ou n t of savings; also the relation betw een the fall due to arm trem bling and the injury in the head or the broken leg is very p o pular and seem s obvious in o u r background know ledge) On the other hand, causality in factual conditionals plays a special role resulted from the presence of the conditional conjunction It is this conjunction th at m akes it im possible for the tru th in any conditionals of this type to be asserted The only assertion present in the conditionals of this type is the causal relation M oreover, there are cases w h en a conditional is still categorized as a causal construction even th o u g h the event or state of affair described in the conditional clause som etim es does no t serve as the cause of the event or state of affair in the m ain clause In other w ords, it is negative causality: the im probability of the ev en t or state of affair in the antecedent serves as a barrier for the realization of the event or state of affair in the consequent so th at it can never take place C onsider the follow ing sentences: (5) Nếu ông, không làm phức thêm gia cảnh não n ề [8, p.237] (6) Chị buông mội chữ làm em chêĩ điếng, chị người khác em khơng ghìm nơĩ phẫn nộ [8, p.312] It seem s that the content of the tw o conditional clauses above is not appropriate in the real w orld, and they are not causally linked to the m ain clauses " Chị người khác" in sentence (6) cannot be considered the cause of "em khơng ghìm nơĩ phẫn nộ" It is the part introduced before, "chị bng chữ làm em chêì điếng”, th at serves as the cause H ow ever, w hen w e look at the sentence from another direction, that the hearer is not a different person has p revented the speaker from getting furious, thus this can be considered the reason w hy the consequence does not take place (or take place in the opposite m anner) Therefore, the event in the m ain clause can be considered a factor th at enables the event (or action) described in the consequent to be realized In this case, the relation betw een the tw o clauses m eets the required condition: the antecedent (the conditional clause) is sufficient condition for the consequent (the m ain clause) We can therefore say th at these are the cases w hen the conditional constructions not follow the original causal relation, or w hen the extra part of conditionals follows the original causal relation A question now arises: H ow different is the causality in causal conditionals from the causality in constructions w ith causal conjunctions? The difference lies firstly in the m an n er of expression In sentences w ith causal conjunctions, the causal relation is openly displayed th ro u g h the use of conjunctions such as vì, VI, vì, nên, nên, cho nên, thế, In conditionals, tạp the causal relation, w hich is not clearly presented, is only recognized through Nguyen Khanh Ha / V N U Journal of Science, Social Sciences and Humanities 23, No.5E (2007) 15-22 sem antic connection, m aking it a requirem ent for the hearers to refer to their ow n background know ledge to u n d erstan d this relation The tw o p arts in succession of statem ent (7) below clearly show that difference: (7) Tuy nhiên củng không đ ể lúa trồ sớm dễ gặp rét, lúc trỗ rét không cho suất cao hay bị bớt [9] The second difference lies in the o rd er of the clauses w ithin a statem ent In causal conditionals, the typical o rd er of the clauses is the cause (conditional clause) alw ays precedes the consequence (the m ain clause) Of course this o rd er can be reversed, b u t it is in no w ay typical of causal conditionals In sentences w ith causal conjunctions, this order d epen d s on the causal conjunctions used If the clauses are connected by VI, VI, VI, or the pair vì, the consequence precedes t h e cause; if the clauses are connected by nên, cho nên, thế, r the pair nên, the cause precedes the consequence H ow ever, the m ost significant difference is th at causal conjunctions present inform ation as the truth or asserted inform ation w hereas conditionals alw ays present inform ation as assum ption or unasserted inform ation 2.2 Inferential relation D uring our survey, w e noted som e conditionals w hose relation betw een the clauses seem s like causality b u t the relation is actually opposite to norm al one C onsider (8): (8) Nêu ơng có hành vi tò chơng đoi chê' độ chi tự mà [8, p.237] In the above sentence, the conditional clause is the consequence, the m ain clause is the cause leading to th at consequence This is one m ethod of reasoning: the cause is inferred from the consequence W e can in terp ret the 19 above statem ent in a clearer m anner like this: ỏng có hành vi tỏ chơng đoi chê'độ hành vi kêì q lòng tự cùa ơng, (or xuất phát từ lòng tự ông) The above relation is th u s inferential as it describes the speaker's line of reasoning, and therefore belongs to cognitive dom ain, not to the realm of the real w orld: the conditional clause introduces an assum ption and the m ain clause the conclusion on that assum ption This is the connection of cognitive states W hen w e look at Van de A uw era's Sufficiency H ypothesis, A is sufficient condition for B C onsider som e other exam ples of this type: (9) Nếu điều nói thật người ta nói với giả [3, p.127] (10) Nêu thật tình u tình u giơng khơng có đất [8, p.535] In its broad sense, causality can be seen as causal connection at a m ore abstract level: A as know ledge is u n d ersto o d as the cause or perm ission leading to B as the conclusion Take (9) as an exam ple, th at the speaker thinks w h at the hear says is the tru th serves as the cause of his conclusion that w hat others say is false Sim ilarly, the assum ption th at "thứ tình cảm tình yêu" enables the speaker to suggest another assum ption of the nature of th at love It can be seen th at inferential conditionals are very d o s e to the construction if A then B in the view of p ure form al logic, for exam ple "A is tru e then B is also true" H ow ever, the above tw o relations are different in that there exists only an im plied relation betw een the tw o assum ptions in a form al logic construction w hereas a m ore com plex relation exists betw een the tw o clauses of a n atu ral language conditional This m eans that 20 Nguyen Khanh Ha / V N U Journal o f Science, Social Sciences and Humanities 23, No.5E (2007) 15-22 the true values of both assum ptions in the in the speaker's spiritual w orld A lthough the p ure form al logic construction th ì assum ption m ade by the speaker in the not provide a sufficient condition for conditional clause has its contextually driven these assum ptions to becom e the clauses of a origin (i.e., its objectivity), the conclusion cognitive natural language conditional The inferred from th at assum ption m uch dep en d s inferential relation betw een the clauses of a on the sp eak er's opinion of the affair, and natural language conditional is a contextually thus show s subjectivity at a rath er high level dependent, com plex pragm atic connection W hereas the sp eak er's know ledge, real life The conditional clause often supplies experience and belief constitute the contextually derived inform ation, w hich the background for his reasoning, the hearer does speaker uses to arrive at his conclusion and not necessarily have the sam e background reasoning to arrive at th at conclusion In (11), know ledge This explains the reason for the the contextually derived inform ation is that speaker's using a conditional construction to Phi has got som e feeling for Linh Van; describe his reasoning so that the hearer can how ever, the speaker does n o t assert w hether u n d erstan d the nature of his conclusion The it is love or not Instead, the speaker suggests use of conditional constructions to arrive at an assum ption th at it is love, follow ed by a conclusions is a hearer-oriented conclusion that it is no t true love The com m unicative strategy to driv e the best out statem ents th at follow continue the line of of com m unication In o rd er for this strategy reasoning to rationalize the given conclusion to be effective, it takes m ore than ju st our (11) Phi cô' tránh không dám nhắc đến tên attention to the conditional itself W e also Linh Vân tâm trí Nếu CỊÚ thật need to consider contextual elem ents such as tình u tình u ây giơng the preceding and follow ing statem ents as khơng có đất trâng Nó sơng w ell as non-linguistic factors This is the ông nghiệm laboratoa m atter of distinction betw een natural đó, bàn tay phù phép nhà nghiên cứu language inferential conditionals and form al Nhưng bímg ra, định trồng mảnh đất logic inferential conditionals thực tại, chêl [8, p.535] The presence of idiom atic phrases such as O ne feature to d istinguish the inferential nghĩa là, tức là, n h th ê' có nghĩa to relation in cognitive conditionals and 'the connect the tw o clauses helps us recognize causal relation in content conditionals is that the epistem ic factor of an inferential the form er is m ore subjective th an the latter conditional The m eaning of these phrases As m entioned above, the causal relation in clearly show s the speaker's line of reasoning content conditionals is backed u p w ith the C onsider the follow ing exam ples: speaker and h earer's back g ro u n d know ledge (12) Có người VI tihĩmg cặp v ợ chồng - (built from experience and com m on người dưng khác họ - ghép lại với hai know ledge of causative connections in the trục bánh xe răng, sau thời gian không real w orld), and thus show s objectivity at a trượt ra, tức tự điều chinh để hòa hợp rather high level leading to its ready Nếu khoảng năm năm sau, "cặp bánh xe acceptance by the speaker and the hearer răng" ay khơng trượt ra, tức họ sơng Inferential relation, on the other hand, exists với lâu dài [3, p.282] Nguyen Khanh Ha / V N U journal o f Science, Social Sciences and Humanities 23, No.5E (2007) 15-22 (13) Bài giảng không thích bò chơi A nh ta bảo thê'tức sơng thực, nêu khơng thích nghe giảng tức giả dơĩ, vơ ích, phi nghệ thuật [3, p.22] (14) Nếu ngài kêĩ tội tơi, nghĩa ngài phơi bày phản bội dơí trá ngài trước nghiệv cùa người đô'máu chông độc tài, quân phiệt, bất công bạo tàn [8, p.490] 2.3 Speech-act relation Speech-act conditionals belong to tw o types The first type involves cases w here the w hole sentence is a speech-act In other w ords, they are speech-acts w ith conditional contents Exam ples are: (15) - Nếu tơi tập mà khơng ăn kiêng điều xảy ra? Thì eo bạn có nhò lại, người gọn hom trước cân nặng thế[ 10, p.115] (16) Nếu sang Canada, buôĩ sáng thây mặt râu ria gương, tơi tự hòi, tự trả lời tơi th ế nào? Chắc chắn phải đáp lại rằng: mày kẻ làm thuê, kẻ kiếm cơm xứ lạ [11, p l 18] (17) Nếu có tàu địch xuất hiện, bình tĩnh ngoi n để chúng tơi giải quyẽl Xạo xự chìm tàu Nếu có tao ngộ ihì bơi v ề hướng bờ gần [12, p.25] Exam ple (15) involves a questions relating to the causal relation betw een the assum ption expressed in the conditional clause and the consequence expressed in the m ain clause N aturally, the causal relation betw een the clauses in this sentence bears no difference to that in a declarative conditional except that the consequence, instead of being assum ed by the speaker, is p u t on h o ld in a question w aiting to be confirm ed by the hearer The relation in exam ple (16) is also sim ilar except 21 for the m onologue question In exam ple (17), the speaker introduces tw o assum ptions as the ground for appro p riate instructions in the tw o hypothetical situations The relation betw een the conditional clause and the m ain clause in this exam ple also follows causality The second type of speech-act conditionals involves cases w here only the m ain clause is a speech-act The conditional clause is not directly related to the content expressed in the m ain clause b u t to the speech act itself in the m ain clause These are then conditional speech-acts Exam ples are: (18) - A nh gì, anh N ơi, làm om giúp em tay? - Gì cơ? - Cái em bị mắc Đấy, anh giúp em, anh không vội [13, p.14] (19) Nếu cháu không bận, xin mời ngoi đ ể trình bày lại câu chuyện, để cháu góp thêm ý kiếp [3, p.12] (20) - Tôi muốn hỏi giáo sư chuyện riêng tư - Tơi sẵn lòng, anh tin cậy [11, p.207] In the above exam ples, the conditional clauses are not directly related to the contents of the m ain clauses, and the hypothetical content of each statem ent as a w hole does not show the continuily as w ell as causality of the states of affairs described Each conditional clause serves as a sufficient condition for the perform ance of the speech-act in the m ain clause: (18) involves a request on condition th at the hearer is not in a hurry, (19) is an invitation on condition that the hearer has time, (20) is an acceptance of the request on condition th at the hearer trusts the speaker Suppose the speakers in the above cases express their refusals to cooperate, saying sentences as "không được, anh vội lam ", or 22 Nguyen Khanh Ha / V N U Journal o f Science, Social Sciences and Humanities 23, No.5E (2007) 15-22 "không được, bận lam ", these refusals are often understo o d as the sp eak ers' refusal to perform the speech-acts or refusal to respond to the speech-acts, not necessarily denial of the contents of the conditional clauses on w hich the speech-acts d ep en d The hearers can even express denial of the conditional contents w hile still accept the speech-acts in a positive m anner; for exam ple, "an h vội lắm, n hư ng giúp em được" (18) or "cháu bận, n h n g cháu ngồi với chú" (19) This proves the relative indep en d en ce of the tw o clauses constituting conditionals of this type W hat function the conditional clauses (or conditional relations in other w ords) in this type of conditionals play then? In our point of view, they play an im p o rtan t role in deciding the effectiveness of the conversations, i.e., they offer the hearers som e options to respond to the speech-acts, and m ake the statem ents m ore polite or m ore appropriate Because conditional speech-acts im ply politeness an d ap p ro p riaten ess above all, conditional clauses cannot be spontaneous b u t tend to confine them selves to phrases like "nếu anh không bận", "nêu chị không vội", "nêu anh không phiền", "nêu chị m uôn", "nêu anh tin cậy" etc Above are types of basic sem antic relations betw een the clauses of V ietnam ese conditional sentences th at w e have found They are of m aterial im portance and are actually the m ost im p o rtan t criterion for our classification of V ietnam ese conditional sentences in a m ore detailed m anner References [1] T u g o tt E c Ed., et al., O n Conditionals, C am b rid g e U niversity Press, C a m b rid g e , 1986 [2] P alm er F.R., Mood and M odality, C am b rid g e U niversity Press, C am b rid g e, 1986 [3] N g u y ễ n Thị N gọc Tú, Chỉ anh em, NXB H a N ội, 1990 [4] F au co n n ier G., M ental Spaces: Aspects o f Meaning Construction in Natural Language, M ass., MIT Press, 2nd ed n 1994, C a m b rid g e U niversity Press, C am b rid g e, 1985 [5] S w eetser E., From Etymology to Pragmatics, C am b rid g e U niversity Press, C a m b rid g e , 1990 [6] D n g T hu H n g , Hành trình ngày thơ ấu, NXB Kim Đ ổng, 1985 [7] D an cy g ier B., Conditionals and Prediction, C am b rid g e U niversity Press, C a m b rid g e , 1998 [8] N g u y ễ n K hắc Phục, Thành p h ố đứng đâu gió, NXB Đ N ang, 1989 [9] Đ ặn g X uân K háng, Viộc s d ụ n g âm lịch tro n g chi đ o sả n xuâ't n ô n g n g h iệ p v ù n g đ ổ n g v en b iển N a m Đ ịnh, Hội thảo khoa học "Chương trình Bách Cốc N ghiên cứu làng xã 10 năm gần đây", H N ội, 19-20/8/2003, tr.6 [10] Lê T h u ý Tươi, Nỗi buồn cân nặng, NXB Phụ nữ, [11] [12] [13] [14] H N ội, 2001 D n g T h u H n g , Bên bờ ảo vọng, NXB Phụ N ữ, H Nội, 1988 N g u y ê n Thị M inh Ngọc, Bên củ, K ịch b ản ph im tru y ện , 1997 Lê L ựu, Lê N gọc M inh, Sóng đáy sơng, Kịch b n p h im tru y ện , 1997 H ổ Lê, Cú pháp tiếng Việt, (Q u y ể n - C ú p h p sờ), NXB K noa học Xà nội, H N ội, 1992 [15] H o n g T rọng P hiến, N g pháp tiếng Việt - Cảu NXB Đ ại học T ru n g học c h u y ê n n g h iệp , H N ội, 1980 [16] Lê Thị M in h H ằng, M ột đ ề n g h ị p h â n loại câu đ iề u k iện tiến g Việt, Tạp chí N gôn ngữ 2, 177 (2004)41  ... proves the relative indep en d en ce of the tw o clauses constituting conditionals of this type W hat function the conditional clauses (or conditional relations in other w ords) in this type of conditionals... ese Types of semantic relations between the clauses of Vietnamese conditional sentence Relations betw een the clauses of conditional statem ents play a crucial role in expressing conditionality... involves a questions relating to the causal relation betw een the assum ption expressed in the conditional clause and the consequence expressed in the m ain clause N aturally, the causal relation