The present volume has been prepared by the Language Typology Workshop of the Institute of Linguistic Research, Russian Academy of Sciences.

The book continues the earlier studies of the Workshop addressing grammatical categories of the verb linked to the semantic and syntactic structure of the sentence.

The choice of conditional sentences as the object of research was determined by the following considerations.

1. Conditional constructions, traditionally a focus of scientific interest, seem to be insufficiently described from the angle of universal typology (at least, the authors are not aware of any consistent description of conditional constructions in differently structured languages built on a single theoretical base). 2. The baseline approach, used in most modern conditional construction studies, is that conditional constructions in any natural language practically mirror the logical operation of implication and, consequently, any semantic definition of conditional constructions must proceed from the notion of material implication. We believe that this concept needs serious correction due to a basic difference existing between the approaches applied by logic and linguistics in their analysis of conditional utterances. 3. Until recently, the Language Typology Workshop of the Institute of Linguistic Research have studied exclusively mono-predicative constructions. Now they find it important to see how efficient their methods of language-typology studies can be when applied to bi-predicative constructions which are so typically represented by conditional constructions. The volume consists of two parts. Part 1 contains two chapters: Chapter 1 outlining the theoretical concept of the research, and Chapter 2 which presents a questionnaire on conditional constructions in differently structured languages. Part 2 contains two sections and 24 chapters on conditional sentences in structurally different languages. Section 1 addresses languages where the prototypical conditional construction is represented by a complex sentence: Bulgarian, Dari, Armenian, Hindu, Old Greek, Archaic Latin, French, German, English, Finnish, Estonian, Hungarian, Hausa, Klamath, Indonesian, Cambodian, Vietnamese, and Ancient Chinese. Section 2 deals with languages where the prototypical conditional construction is represented by sentences with converbal/infinitive phrases: Even, Evenki, Eskimo, Aleut, Yukaghir, and Japanese.

The contributors to the volume include: researchers from Saint Petersburg Institute of Linguistic Research (Agus Salim, T. G. Akimova, N. J. Bulatova, N. B. Vaxtin, E. V. Golovko, N. A. Kozintseva, E. E. Kordi, A. L. Malchukov, E. S. Maslova, I. V. Nedjalkov, I. A. Perelmouter, M. A. Smirnova, N. M. Spatar, V. A. Stegnij, V. S. Xrakovskij), Oriental Faculty of the Saint Petersburg State University (I. S. Bystrov, N. A. Dobronravin, T. N. Nikitina, A. K. Ogloblin, T. I. Oranskaja), Philological Faculty of the Saint Petersburg State University (M. K. Sabaneyeva), as well as linguists from other research institutions of Russia, Bulgaria, Estonia, Finland, and Hungary: B. J. Ostrovsky (Moscow State University), V. M. Alpatov and V. I. Podlesskaya (Moscow Institute of Oriental Studies), S. M. Kibardina (Vologda University), R. Nicolova (Sofia University), I. P. Külmoja (Tartu University), H. Tommola (Tampere University), L. Jászai and E. Tóth (Budapest Teacher Training Institute).

The book is supplied with an extensive bibliography.

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