Il diasistema italoromanzo dei periodi ipotetici

This paper deals with the question of the value of different verb forms in conditional sentences of Italo-Romance varieties, considered as a diasystem (albeit very abstract), taking into account the dialects of Italy, old Italian and the inner architecture of contemporary Italian. From the modal perspective the Italo-Romance varieties distinguish higher probability vs lower probability constructions: in the first case the different tenses of the indicative are used to refer to past, present and future events, while in the second case the imperfect / pluperfect subjunctive and/or the simple / compound conditional are used (a)symmetrically to refer to non-past / past events respectively. Moreover, neostandard contemporary Italian uses the imperfect indicative to mark (past-present-future) counterfactuality, whereas in old Italian and in most of the dialects of Italy the same verb form was used mainly to refer to lower probability past events.