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On the grammatical status of insubordinate if-clauses

  • Gunther Kaltenböck
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Outside the Clause
This chapter is in the book Outside the Clause

Abstract

Insubordinate clauses are a problem for grammatical analysis as they are subordinate in terms of their form but used like independent main clauses. This chapter investigates the grammatical status of insubordinate if-clauses in English on the basis of spoken data from the British Component of the International Corpus of English. The analysis shows that insubordinate if-clauses have highly specialised functions and fall into two main categories, viz. performatives and elaboratives. The former include directives, optatives, and exclamatives, while the latter express some elaboration of a previous utterance and as such are pragmatically linked to the preceding cotext. Directives represent the most frequent category and are shown to correspond with specific formal features which set them apart from ordinary conditional clauses: three dominant syntactic patterns (If you + [Verb: present], If you + [Modal: past], If you’d like to) and terminal prosodic contour. It is concluded that directive insubordinate if-clauses are not mere performance phenomena but represent a grammatical category in their own right in a Construction Grammar sense. It is further concluded that insubordinate if-clauses are part of a larger category of theticals (Heine et al. 2013), which also includes parenthetical if-clauses and conversational if-clauses (Dancygier 1998).

Abstract

Insubordinate clauses are a problem for grammatical analysis as they are subordinate in terms of their form but used like independent main clauses. This chapter investigates the grammatical status of insubordinate if-clauses in English on the basis of spoken data from the British Component of the International Corpus of English. The analysis shows that insubordinate if-clauses have highly specialised functions and fall into two main categories, viz. performatives and elaboratives. The former include directives, optatives, and exclamatives, while the latter express some elaboration of a previous utterance and as such are pragmatically linked to the preceding cotext. Directives represent the most frequent category and are shown to correspond with specific formal features which set them apart from ordinary conditional clauses: three dominant syntactic patterns (If you + [Verb: present], If you + [Modal: past], If you’d like to) and terminal prosodic contour. It is concluded that directive insubordinate if-clauses are not mere performance phenomena but represent a grammatical category in their own right in a Construction Grammar sense. It is further concluded that insubordinate if-clauses are part of a larger category of theticals (Heine et al. 2013), which also includes parenthetical if-clauses and conversational if-clauses (Dancygier 1998).

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Extra-clausal constituents 1
  4. Part 1. The multifunctionality of ECCs
  5. Pragmatic markers as constructions. The case of anyway 29
  6. The (the) fact is (that) construction in English and Dutch 59
  7. Planning what to say 97
  8. Part 2. The diachronic development of ECCs
  9. Mirativity and rhetorical structure 125
  10. From clause to adverb 157
  11. Towards a unified constructional characterisation of the nonfinite periphery 177
  12. Left-dislocated strings in Modern English epistolary prose 203
  13. Part 3. ECCs in bilingual settings
  14. Extra-clausal constituents and language contact 243
  15. The role of extra-clausal constituents in bilingual speech 273
  16. Part 4. ECCs: a grammar of their own?
  17. The syntax of confirmationals 305
  18. On the grammatical status of insubordinate if-clauses 341
  19. Intensifying adverbs ‘outside the clause’ 379
  20. Aspects of discourse marker sequencing 417
  21. Index 447
https://doi.org/10.1075/slcs.178.12kal

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Extra-clausal constituents 1
  4. Part 1. The multifunctionality of ECCs
  5. Pragmatic markers as constructions. The case of anyway 29
  6. The (the) fact is (that) construction in English and Dutch 59
  7. Planning what to say 97
  8. Part 2. The diachronic development of ECCs
  9. Mirativity and rhetorical structure 125
  10. From clause to adverb 157
  11. Towards a unified constructional characterisation of the nonfinite periphery 177
  12. Left-dislocated strings in Modern English epistolary prose 203
  13. Part 3. ECCs in bilingual settings
  14. Extra-clausal constituents and language contact 243
  15. The role of extra-clausal constituents in bilingual speech 273
  16. Part 4. ECCs: a grammar of their own?
  17. The syntax of confirmationals 305
  18. On the grammatical status of insubordinate if-clauses 341
  19. Intensifying adverbs ‘outside the clause’ 379
  20. Aspects of discourse marker sequencing 417
  21. Index 447
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