Expectations and (in)sufficiency: Spanish como conditionals

Though the study of conditional sentences in terms of their meanings and fu nctions has expanded rapidly over the past twenty years, analyses have not often dealt with noncanonical conditional constructions, focusing instead o n canonical conditionals like those marked by if in English. This paper att empts to partially redress this bias by examining the meaning and function of a noncanonical conditional construction in Spanish: the como conditional . While prior analyses of this construction have characterized it as expres sing pragmatic counterexpectation, here it is shown on empirical grounds th at such an analysis is misguided A more accurate account of the meaning of como conditionals is then provided, based on the pragmatic notion of argume ntative insufficiency: a condition marked by como is one that would normall y be considered "insufficient" for the ensuing consequent but is asserted a s sufficient by the speaker. It is demonstrated that this analysis makes co rrect predictions about the formal and functional properties of como condit ionals. The implications of the analysis for the (possible) relationships b etween noncanonical conditionals and their canonical counterparts are discu ssed.