English 'if-clauses'
A corpus-based genre analysis of their incidence, ordering and pragmatic effects
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/japl.v7i2.211Keywords:
Conditionals, Ordering, Corpus, Genre, Gender, Media communication, Business communication, If-clauseAbstract
Utilizing binomial and chi-square testing on a pool of representative genres, we identify and discuss variations in the distributional patterns between initial and final if-clauses within and across genres. The frequency of if-clauses in each genre as well as contextual factors that might influence the frequency and appropriateness of the placement of if-clauses are also taken into consideration. In contrast to the consensus view, we found a rhetorically motivated preference for final if-clauses in three of the genres examined, while in three others these two clause types are equally distributed. There is substantial variation along lines of communicative purpose, since some written genres pattern more closely with spoken genres rather than other written ones. Written genres (especially the press genres) tend to have higher frequencies of final if-clauses than spoken genres – but also have significantly greater variation in the frequency of their relative use. Mediums of communication may not be as important as communicative intent. In some genres, female users tend to use statistically significantly more final if-clauses than male speakers. In business correspondence, sellers tend to use statistically significantly more final if-clauses than buyers.
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Rowley-Jolivet, E. and Carter-Thomas, S. (2008) When practice belies ‘theory’: Form, function and frequency of if-clauses in specialised discourse. ASp, la revue du GERAS 53: 39–61.
Schiffrin, D. (1992) Conditionals as topics in discourse. Linguistics 30 (1): 165–197.
Traugott, E. C., Ter Meulen, A., Reilly, J. S. and Ferguson, C. A. (1986) On Conditionals. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511753466
Bhatia, V. K. (1993) Analyzing Genre: Language Use in Professional Settings. London: Longman.
Biber, D. (1988) Variation across Speech and Writing. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Biber, D. and Hared, M. (1992) Dimensions of register variation in Somali. Language Variation and Change 4 (1): 41–75.
Bing, J. M. and Bergvall, V. L. (1996) The question of questions: Beyond binary thinking. In V. Bergvall, J. Bing and A. Freed (eds) Rethinking Language and Gender Research: Theory and Practice, 1–30. London: Longman.
Brown, P. and Levinson, S. C. (1978) Universals in language usage: Politeness phenomena. In E. Goody (ed.) Questions and Politeness, 56–289. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Brown, P. and Levinson, S. C. (1987) Politeness: Some universals in language usage. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Carter-Thomas, S. and Rowley-Jolivet, E. (2008) If-clauses in medical discourse: From theory to disciplinary practice. Journal of English for Academic Purposes 7 (3): 191–205.
Dancygier, B. and Sweetser, E. (2005) Mental Spaces in Grammar: Conditional Constructions. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511486760
Devitt, A. J. (1989) Genre as textual variable: some historical evidence from Scots and American English. American Speech 64 (4): 291–33.
Diessel, H. (2005) Competing motivations for the ordering of main and adverbial clauses. Linguistics 43 (3): 449–470.
Ferguson, G. (2001) If you pop over there: A corpus-based study of conditionals in medical discourse. English for Specific Purposes 20 (1): 61–82.
Ford, C. E. (1993) Grammar in Interaction: Adverbial Clauses in American English Conversations. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/ CBO9780511554278
Ford, C. E. and Thompson, S. A. (1986) Conditionals in discourse: A text-based study from English. In E. C. Traugott, A. ter Meulen, J. Snitzer Reilly and C. A. Ferguson (eds) On Conditionals, 353–373. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. http://dx.doi. org/10.1017/CBO9780511753466.019
Fulcher, G. (1991) Conditionals revisited. ELT Journal 45 (2): 164–168.
Haiman, J. (1978) Conditionals are topics. Language 54 (3): 564-589. http://dx.doi.org/ 10.2307/412787
Hwang, M (1979) A Semantic and Syntactic Analysis of ‘If’ Conditionals. Unpublished MA thesis in TESL, University of California, Los Angeles.
Jackson, D. (2002) Rhythm’s cousin, cadence. In D. Jackson and J. Sweeney (eds) The Journalist’s Craft: A Guide to Writing Better Stories, 183–206. New York: Allworth Communications.
Lakoff, R. (1975) Language and Women’s Place. New York: Oxford University Press.
Lavid, J. (1998) Discourse functions of conditionals in multilingual instructions: A corpus study on ordering variants. Papers and Studies in Contrastive Linguistics 34: 285–301.
Lee, C.-B. (2001) The information status of English if-clauses in natural discourse. Ohak Yonku/Language Research 37 (3): 483–505.
Linde, C. (1976) Constraints on the ordering of if-clauses. Proceeding of the 2nd Annual Meeting of the Berkeley Linguistics Society, 280–285. Berkeley: Berkeley Linguistics Society.
Louwerse, M. M., Crossley, S. A. and Jeuniaux, P. (2008) What if? Conditionals in educational registers. Linguistics and Education 19 (1): 56–69.
Maule, D. (1988). ‘Sorry, but if he comes, I go’: Teaching conditionals. ELT Journal 42 (2): 117–123.
McHugh, M. C. and Hambaugh, J. (2005) She said, he said: Gender, language, and power. In J. C. Chrisler and D. R. McCreary (eds) Handbook of Gender Research in Psychology, 379–410. New York: Springer.
Mulholland, J. (1999) E-mail: Uses, issues and problems in an institutional setting. In F. Bargiela-Chiappini and C. Nickerson (eds) Writing Business: Genres, Media, and Discourses, 57–84. London: Longman.
Prince, E. (1992) The ZPG letter: Subjects, definiteness, and information-status. In S. Thompson and W. Mann (eds) Discourse Description: Diverse Analyses of a Fund Raising Text, 295–325. Philadelphia: John Benjamins.
Ramsay, V. (1987) The functional distribution of preposed and postposed ‘if ’ and ‘when’ clauses in written narrative. In R. S. Tomlin (ed.) Coherence and Grounding in Discourse, 383–408. Philadelphia: John Benjamins.
Römer, U. (2005) ‘This seems somewhat counterintuitive, though…’: Negative evaluation in linguistic book reviews by male and female authors. In E. Tognini-Bonelli and G. Del Lungo Camiciotti (eds) Strategies in Academic Discourse, 97–116. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Rowley-Jolivet, E. (2007). A genre study of if in medical discourse. In K. Flottum (ed.) Language and Discipline Perspectives on Academic Discourse, 189–214. Cambridge: Scholars Press.
Rowley-Jolivet, E. and Carter-Thomas, S. (2008) When practice belies ‘theory’: Form, function and frequency of if-clauses in specialised discourse. ASp, la revue du GERAS 53: 39–61.
Schiffrin, D. (1992) Conditionals as topics in discourse. Linguistics 30 (1): 165–197.
Traugott, E. C., Ter Meulen, A., Reilly, J. S. and Ferguson, C. A. (1986) On Conditionals. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511753466
Published
2011-11-08
Issue
Section
Articles
License
Equinox Publishing Ltd.
How to Cite
Nall, S. P., & Nall, T. (2011). English ’if-clauses’: A corpus-based genre analysis of their incidence, ordering and pragmatic effects. Journal of Applied Linguistics and Professional Practice, 7(2), 211-233. https://doi.org/10.1558/japl.v7i2.211
