Tools
Tools
Elder, Chi-He 
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3702-5397
(2015)
Classifying conditionals: The case of metalinguistic 'if you like'.
pp. 61-82.
Preview |
PDF (COPIL7-Elder)
- Published Version
Download (129kB) | Preview |
Abstract
It is agreed that metalinguistic ‘if you like’ puts some aspect of communication into metalinguistic focus, serving the pragmatic function of commenting upon the appropriateness of the words uttered, but there is little consensus as to whether metalinguistic ‘if you like’ introduces a conditional. By taking observations from the International Corpus of English, this paper aims to show that utterances using metalinguistic ‘if you like’ belong in the class of conditional expressions. This is achieved by proposing pragmatic criteria to guide the categorisation of conditional expressions, where conditionality is not inherently linked to truth-conditional content. Next, this paper argues that ‘if you like’ can be classed in the broad category of speechact conditionals, where it is not the truth of the if-clause that provides the situations of truth of the main clause, but rather where the if-clause refers to the situations where the main clause is felicitously used. Finally, by utilising the semantic contextualist framework of Default Semantics (Jaszczolt 2010), this paper shows that ‘if you like’ is comparable to other if-clauses which overtly invoke a metalinguistic sense in a full phrase. In sum, this paper takes the case of ‘if you like’ as a case study in re-conceptualising the class of conditionals and truth-conditional content.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | conditionals,pragmatics,if you like |
| Faculty \ School: | Faculty of Arts and Humanities > School of Politics, Philosophy, Language and Communication Studies (former - to 2024) |
| UEA Research Groups: | Faculty of Arts and Humanities > Research Groups > Language and Communication Studies |
| Related URLs: | |
| Depositing User: | Pure Connector |
| Date Deposited: | 09 Dec 2015 00:05 |
| Last Modified: | 02 Sep 2024 00:06 |
| URI: | https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/55736 |
| DOI: |
Downloads
Downloads per month over past year
Actions (login required)
 |
View Item |