The Functions and the Ordering of Conditional `If Clauses' in English---A Genre AnalysisPrevious research studies are in agreement that the canonical order for English if conditionals is sentence-initial rather than final. However, earlier findings regarding the distribution of the ordering between initial and final if-conditionals represent only those patterns specific to the limited number of genres examined. This corpus linguistic study is based on a research approach which includes a larger sampling pool and a selection of representative genres as well as detailed statistical and content analyses. It examines the variations in the distributional patterns between initial and final if-clauses within each individual genre and across different genres. The findings of this study suggest that if-conditionals have significantly different distributional pattern across genres. In contrast to the consensus view in current literature that initial if-clause rather than final is the dominant clause order, in 3 of the genres examined in this study (Letters to the Editor, Recipes and Sports News) final if-clauses occur more frequently than initial. In addition, in 3 other genres (News Reportage, Science Fiction and Romance Fiction) these two clause types are equally distributed. This study thus identifies genre as a significant factor influencing sentential if-conditional placement.The study also argues that in addition to the expression of topic and focus discourse relations, the ordering of the conditional and consequence clauses is often used to convey specific pragmatic effects and to perform functions related to genre-specific needs, including social politeness and showing power deixis, hedging or strengthening a proposition. / Department of English
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:BSU/oai:cardinalscholar.bsu.edu:handle/178989 |
| Date | January 2008 |
| Creators | Nall, Shu Pin |
| Contributors | Riddle, Elizabeth M. |
| Source Sets | Ball State University |
| Detected Language | English |
| Format | xii, 163 leaves : ill. ; 28 cm. |
| Source | Virtual Press |
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