Abstract

The paper describes the uses of over-compound tenses in the dialects of central and northern Sardinia, discussing data elicited from native speakers. Over-compound tenses are used especially in counterfactual clauses referring to a past time. The author tries to demonstrate that these structures can be also used in generic expressions of unreality in optative and desiderative clauses. The data show that over-compound tenses are also present in some dialects of the north of Logudoro. The success of this morphological structure could be strictly connected to the tendency of Sardinian to analytical strategies.