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The sentence in question: しばらく行くと、道路が急カーブになる所で、がけの下に川が見えてきた。

For full context: https://www.satorireader.com/articles/sanzu-no-kawa-episode-1-edition-m?sentenceID=SrOvSLFfSOyCJFzmEmFt

My attempt at translation: "When I drive a little while, in a place where the road becomes a steep curve, the river beneath the cliffs comes into sight."

In my textbook, I learnt that when と is used in a conditional phrase, what follows after is an "inevitable consequence/something that MUST happen after the condition in the phrase has been met". This does indeed somehow fit the context, because when I continue driving along the road, I will inevitably encounter all the places this road leads to. However, I still find that using a conditional phrase at all sounds odd here.

しばらく confers a temporal semantics, and it also implies that what is described afterwards also happens afterwards. So I'd rather expect something along the lines of "て-form + から" or at least a "時" to fit into the temporal context. Why is と used instead?

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Narktor
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    You have been calling every aspect of our language "odd", "weird", "not making sense", etc. –  Nov 25 '17 at 16:55
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    I said that with the knowledge I have _so far_, X doesn't make sense. This way I try to make it clear that I have a certain understanding of the constructions in question, but this understanding suggests a logic which doesn't make sense _to me_. I never called any aspect of "your" language weird, odd etc.. It was never meant in a "personal" way, but only in a descriptive way. – Narktor Nov 25 '17 at 17:10
  • As you wrote, it's "when と is used in a conditional phrase" that the main clause is an inevitable consequence. However, the example sentence is a temporal clause, not conditional because the main clause is a realized action. – user4092 Nov 25 '17 at 20:23
  • @Narktor: According to this forum's rule, I'm not allowed to answer your question. Is your question solved by reading the previous question? I don't think so, because if you understand by reading it, you didn't ask it. haha –  Nov 26 '17 at 12:04
  • Oops. I just found that I can write here! It is possible to write in "te-from" or "時”, but "と" also works perfectly fine here. It depends on the writer's preference, but I believe that many native speakers would choose と here, because it's more concise and to the point to native speaker's ears. –  Nov 26 '17 at 12:10
  • >In my textbook, I learnt that when と is used in a conditional phrase, what follows after is an "inevitable consequence/something that MUST happen after the condition in the phrase has been met". ........What your textbook said had the intention to explain the difference between "~~と” from "~~なら." So the explanation is quite confusing. So I will explain it in a different way here. In this context, you can think that と means "and." 　「しばらく行った。すると、」＝「しばらく行くと、」. Hope this helps! If you still do not understand, just let me know. –  Nov 26 '17 at 12:16
  • >This is probably a duplicate, but it really helps me understand things better if I'm posing the question myself. If this infringes any rules, though, I'll happily remove it..........................I just read a question which seems apparently a "duplicated" question. But Japanese members welcomed and answered as many as 4 answers. From this phenomenon, I learned that Japanese members like to read a question that is written with "modesty" and "humbleness" probably because it is based on the Japanese culture. Hope this helps! Use that technique even when you don't have such a way of thinking. –  Nov 26 '17 at 12:38

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