conditional (adj./n.) (cond)

A term used in GRAMMATICAL DESCRIPTION to refer to CLAUSES whose SEMANTIC role is the expression of hypotheses or conditions. In English, these are introduced by if, unless, and a few other CONJUNCTIONS (e.g. if John asks, tell him . . . ). The TRADITIONAL grammatical notion of ‘conditional TENSE’ (using would, should) is usually interpreted in terms of ASPECTUAL or MODAL VERB forms in analyses of English, though this is MORPHOLOGICALLY expressed in many languages (e.g. French). Sometimes the term is used to refer to the entire two-part construction, consisting of protasis and apodosis.