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COPYRIGHT 2004 Adam Mickiewicz University Press
ABSTRACT
This paper reports on an investigation of the pragmatic factors influencing the position of if-clauses in conditional sentences. More than (900) nine hundred instances, extracted from such sources as novels, textbooks, and spontaneous speech were examined for this purpose. Topic continuity, parrallelism, qualification, as well as a number of other factors were found to be determining principles of if-clause position.
1. Introduction
One of the confusing issues for a language learner is the fact that a single idea can be conveyed in a number of different ways. These different ways may sound very similar but, in most cases, are not interchangeable. That is, although there can be a variety of avenues that a speaker tan take, only one will do the task with utmost linguistic and social appropriateness. This fact is sometimes ignored in grammar books, and particularly ESL/EFL texts, which, in most cases, present a number of different forms that tan function as acceptable linguistic behavior in a certain situation, but without explaining the subtle differences that distinguish them from one another. Students feel confused, and numerous questions arise in their minds such as, "if I tan use X to convey this message why should I learn Y," or, "if I can express this notion by means of Y, what is the use of having X'?" etc. The TEFL experience of this author, as well as that of many others, indicates that students often wonder whether it makes any difference whether to front or delay conditional clauses as in (1a) and (1b).
1) a. If I were rich, I would buy a mansion.
b. I would buy a mansion if I were rich.
In most cases, students have to live with this confusion, for most EFL texts and grammar books do not help answer these questions. Indeed, the illustrative examples most of these sources use tend to be contextless, which leads students to believe, erroneously, that the choice between either fronting or delaying the conditional clause is rather arbitrary. Bolinger, cited in Prince (1978: 883) maintains: "There are situations where the speaker is constrained by a grammatical rule, and there are situations where he chooses according to his meaning ...; but there are no situations in the system where 'it makes no difference' which way to go ...".
Even those studies that have attempted to explore conditionals do hot provide a sound account of their positions. Haiman (1978) is a case in point. He claims that conditionals are topics; a clear oversimplification of the issue. He presents the following examples to support his stance, claiming that:
if-clauses are the topics of the sentences in which they occur:
a. If Max comes, we'll play poker.
b. If Max had come, we'd have played poker.
c. If ice is left in the sun, it melts.
d. Even if it rains, the game will continue.
e. If you are so smart, why aren't you rich?
f. If you are so smart, fix it yourself.
g. There's food in the fridge if you are hungry.
h. If I was a bad carpenter, I was a worse tailor.
i. She's over 40 if she's a day.
(Haiman 1978: 564)
Although this paper does not concern itself much with Haiman's generalizations, it can be observed that the examples he bases his generalizations on are contextless. If these examples are put into certain contexts, the function of the if-clause will definitely change.
This paper will attempt to highlight the salient determining factors that condition the position of if-clauses in conditional sentences, in light of context.
2. Methodology
In this study, more than nine hundred instances, extracted from a number of sources, such as novels, newspapers, textbooks were examined. A large number of these examples were extracted from the e-text editions of the novels: O'Pioneer and The Time Machine. The fact that these two novels are on-line made it easy to extract...
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