Communication noise in Slovenian-Chinese conditional discourse

This paper examines how to express conditionality in Slovene and Chinese. Although there is a well-formed system for formulating conditional-causal relationships in both languages, cross-lin­guistic communication often results in divergences in understanding. In Slovene, combinations of conditional subordinate clauses with the conjunction če (if) are used in the indicative and conditi­onal mood, whereby the type of condition is further specified by particles. Interestingly, Chinese grammar considers as “conditional” only those sentences where Slovene employs particles, while Slovene conditional clauses with a simple če in the indicative or conditional mood are classified in Chinese as “suppositional sentences”. The findings of this brief comparative study indicate that mutual misunderstanding primarily arises when the listener evaluates whether the speaker assumes real possibilities or speaks about present or future hypothetically possible situations. In such cases, a broader context that establishes shared starting points for discourse is needed, though it is still not sufficient for a flawless information flow and elimination of communication noise.