Concessive vaikka-clauses in Finnish: from virtual to factual Typical examples of complex concessive sentences in Finnish contain two clauses linked by vaikka 'although', each part having the verb in the preterite indicative, i.e. denoting an already realized process: (1) Marja tuli, vaikka oli väsynyt. 'Marja came although she was tired.' The concessive relation itself is defined as one in which two events are related, the speaker committing to the truth value of both of them, but implying at the same time that their coexistence is in contrast with expectations (ISK, § 1139; Kauppinen 2006). In this paper, our aim is to show that factuality is not an original feature of these concessive clauses. We suggest that vaikka-utterances first served to denote virtual processes and that the factual interpretation is only a secondary innovation (cf. Guillaume 1929). To develop this hypothesis, we will shed light on the role played by the verb mood and the subject person in the evolution of vaikka as introducer of concessive clauses. Our study is based on dialectal data gathered from audio archives and literary sources. vaikka is a poly-categorical unit which is used not only as conjunction but also as focus particle (ISK, § 841): (2) Tehköön, mitä tekee! Vaikka tähän jättäköön (...)! 'Let him do what he pleases! Even if he should leave me here (...)!' The particle vaikka introduces sequences whose content is displayed as virtual, that is as an idea and not as a fact. vaikka serves to highlight one theoretical possibility among several alternatives (note that etymologically vaikka is related to the disjunctive conjunction vai 'or?'). (Cf. Leech 1987.) In the Eastern dialects of Finnish, the virtual meaning is made explicit by the jussive mood, expressing permission with no implication on the factuality of the process. The jussive sequences introduced by vaikka code, for example, extreme possibilities to which the speaker is ready to consent. When the non-opposition to the realization of an event is considered with regard to another process, the interpropositional relation established is concessive: the validity of the assertive proposition does not depend on the possible realization of the process expressed in the vaikka-clause (see Peltola 2011): (3) Vaikka tähän matkani päättyköön, sain sittenkin mitä elämäni kaiken toivoin! 'Even if my journey should end here, I after all got what all my life I had wished for!' Jussive clauses allow both non-factual (ex. 3) and factual (ex. 4) reading, depending on the context: (4) Ei ole ihmistä toista ihanampaa, vaikka olkoonkin ruskeasilmä, mustatukka, (...)! 'There is no one more wonderful, though she is brown-eyed, dark-haired, (...)!' Nevertheless, the use of the jussive mood is limited to third person. vaikka-clauses involving a speech act participant subject are formed with the conditional, the irrealis mood par excellence: (5) Ja mitä se kehenkään kuuluu, missä minä virun, vaikka viruisin sikopahnassa? 'And how does it concern anyone where I lie, even if I lay in the pigsty?' In standard Finnish, the jussive has given up its place in the vaikka-clauses to the indicative, allowing to mark the factuality of the process (ex. 1), while non-factuality continues to be marked by the conditional. In modern Finnish, the clauses introduced by vaikka are thus explicitly marked for the truth value, contrary to jussive clauses, which are in the origin of the concessive meaning. References GUILLAUME Gustave 1929: Temps et verbe : théorie des aspects, des modes et des temps. Paris: Édouard Champion. ISK = HAKULINEN Auli, VILKUNA Maria, KORHONEN Riitta, KOIVISTO Vesa, HEINONEN Tarja Riitta & ALHO Irja (Eds.) 2004: Iso suomen kielioppi. Helsinki: SKS. KAUPPINEN Anneli 2006: Polyseeminen vaikka ja neuvottelun retoriikka. Virittäjä 110: 162-189. LEECH Geoffrey N. 1987 [1971]: Meaning and the English Verb. London / New York: Longman. PELTOLA Rea 2011: Cohésion modale et subordination. Le conditionnel et le jussif finnois au miroir de la valeur sémantique et discursive du subjonctif français. PhD dissertation. Helsinki: University of Helsinki. .