CONDITIONAL SENTENCES

INTRODUCTION

In a survey of the most serious teaching problems encountered by ESL teachers in Los
Angeles areas, Covitt (1976) found that conditional sentences ranked 5th.

More complex syntactically than many other structures.

Semantics of all the various types of conditional clauses are subtle and hard to
understand even for native speakers.
Good comprehensive descriptions are not readily available.
ESL/EFL students need a good grasp of the English tense-aspect system as well as
the modal auxiliaries and negation before they can cope with the full range of
conditional sentences in English.
ESL/EFL textbooks and reference grammars typically provide highly oversimplified
information.
o For example, numerous texts introduce and practice only 3 conditional
structures:
1. Future conditional: If I have the money, I will take a vacation.
2. Present conditional: If I have the money, I would take a vacation.
3. Past conditional: If I had had the money, I would have taken a vacation.
ESL/EFL students, who have learned to associate past tense with past time, often
find it hard to believe that sentences like the second refer to present and not past
time.
o If you boil water, it vaporizes.
o If Bobby goes swimming, he catches a cold.

FORM OF CONDITIONALS
A SYNTACTIC ANALYSIS OF CONDITIONAL SENTENCES

A conditional sentence is a complex sentence that consists of a main clause and a

subordinate clause; the latter typically begins with the adverbial subordinator if.

Quirk and Greenbaum (1973:323) Conditional sentences express the dependence of

one set of circumstances (i.e., the result clause) on the (i.e., the if clause). In most cases,
two clause orderings are possible.
1. If I go, George will go.
George will go if I go.
2. If Dracula returns, we will scream.
We will scream if Dracula returns.

In either order, the if clause sets up the condition, and the main clause gives the result
or outcome. We will therefore treat the if clause as an adverbial clause of condition.
 George will go if I go.

In order to account for the if clause in initial position, we generate the adverbial clause
under the sentence modifier (sm):

If I go, George will go.

Other than the two orderings of the clauses, the same mapping rules apply. However, one
new option is possible. When the if clause occurs in initial position, it is possible to
optionally add then before the main clause. Let us assume we wanted to account for:

If I go, then George will go.

We would start with the same base rules used for the second tree diagram and the
mapping rules would be as follows:

Output: If I pres go, George will go.

Copy s/t: If I pres [+ I + sg] go, George will go.
Then addition: If I pres [+ I + sg] go, then George will go.

Morphological rules: If I go, then George will go.

Note that then insertion is optional rule that tends to be applied only if the conditional
clause is generated in initial position.

OTHER SYNTACTIC DETAILS

SUBJECT/OPERATOR INVERSION IN CONDITIONALS

In hypothetical conditionals with initial if clauses containing certain auxiliary verbs such
as had or should, it is possible to delete the initial if; however, when such a deletion takes
a place, subject/operator inversion must follow:

o If I had known that, I wouldnt have said anything.

o Had I known that, I wouldnt have said anything.

o If the guests should arrive early, no one will be here to greet them.
o Should the guests arrive early, no one will be here to greet them.
CONDITIONAL CLAUSE PRO-FORMS

Halliday and Hasan (1976) Certain pro-forms can be used to replace the entire
conditional clause following if: so is used if the clause is affirmative; not is used if the
clause is negative.
If so, volunteer.
Would you like to make a class presentation? If not, you dont have to.

THE MEANING OF CONDITIONAL SENTENCES:

A SEMANTIC OVERVIEW

English conditional sentences express three different kinds of semantic relationships:

factual conditional relationships, future (or predictive) conditional relationships, and
imaginative conditional relationships

FACTUAL CONDITIONAL SENTENCES

Factual conditionals include four types: generic, habitual, implicit inference, and
explicit inference.

GENERIC FACTUAL CONDITIONALS

Generic factual conditionals express relationships that are true and unchanging.

o If oil is mixed with water, it floats.

o If you boil water, it vaporizes.

HABITUAL FACTUAL CONDITIONALS

Habitual factual conditionals resemble generic factuals in that they also express a
relationship that is not bounded in time; however, the relationship is based on
habit instead of physical law. Habitual facts express either past or present
relationships that are typically or habitually true.

Present: If I wash the dishes, Sally dries them.

Past: If Nancy said, Jump! Bob jumped.

Note that for both generic and habitual conditionals it is possible to substitute
when or whenever for if and still express more or less the same idea.
o When(ever) you boil water, it vaporizes.
o When(ever) I wash the dishes, sally dries them.
 IMPLICIT INFERENCE CONDITIONALS

Factual conditionals that express an implicit inference are different from

generic or habitual factuals in that they express inferences about specific time-
bound relationships. As such, they make use of a much wider range of tense and
aspect markers, and they also occur with certain modal auxiliaries.
Schachter (1971:70) provides some examples of what we refer to as implicit
interference conditionals:
o If smog can be licked in L.A., it can be licked anywhere.
o If the radicals havent made the government more responsive, they
have wasted their time.
o If there was a happy man in the world that night, it was John Tunney.

EXPLICIT INFERENCE FACTUAL CONDITIONALS

The only case where there is no parallelism of tense, aspect, or modal in

both clauses. This is because the conditional is used as the basis for making
an explicit inference; the result clause thus contains an inferential modal-
typically must or should.
o If someones at the door, it must be Peter.
o If anyone has the answer, it should be Rod.

FUTURE (OR PREDICTIVE) CONDITIONAL SENTENCES

STRONG CONDITION AND RESULT

If it rains, Ill stay home.

The normal pattern of this sentence is simple present tense in if clause and
some explicit indication of future time (e.g., will or be going to) in the result
clause.

o If you finish your vegetables, Im going to (gonna) buy you an ice cream
cone.
o If Steve comes to class, he will get the answers to the quiz.

Will, be going to = Certain (strong result)

Should = probable
May = possible (strong than might)
Might = possible (weaker than may)
(Progressively weakened result from will to might)

There is also a way to weaken the condition expressed in the if clause of a future
conditional sentence by using the modal should or the verb happen or both of them
together.

should
If it happens to rain, Ill stay home.
Should happen to

IMAGINATIVE CONDITIONAL SENTENCES

The most problematic (perhaps) of the three main types in our description.

2 subtypes: hypothetical and counterfactuals

Hypothetical conditionals express what the speaker perceives to be unlikely yet possible
events or states in the if clause.
If Joe had the time, he would go to Mexico. (present hypothetical)
 Counterfactual conditionals express impossible events or states in the the if clause.
If my grandfather were alive today, he would experience a very different world.
(Present counterfactual)

In hypothetical conditionals the negative quality of the if clause can be even further
weakened so that the possibility of the result occurring becomes stronger:

Should have
If Joe happened to have the time, he would go to Mexico.
Should happen to

Such weakening does not happen in a counterfactual conditional since the if clause is
strongly negated and the condition remains impossible:

Should be
If my grandfather alive today, he would experience a very
Should happen to be different world.

The problem with imaginative conditionals arises in the tense used. The past tense refers
to the present time, and the past perfect tense refers to past time. Furthermore, we have
a vestige of the Old English subjunctive mood in the use of were with singular first and
third person subjects where was is the expected form:

o If my grandfather were here now, he would be angry.

o If I were the president, I would make some changes.

SUMMARY OF CONDITIONAL SENTENCE TYPES

SOME OTHER MEANING DISTINCTIONS:

CONDITIONAL AND RELATED CONNECTORS

Only If and Unless

o I will stay home if it rains.

o I will stay home only if it rains.

o Dont apply for the job if you dont have an M.A.

o Dont apply for the job unless you have an M.A.

Possible interpretations:
Sentence #1 : The speaker didnt have an executive jet and that he didnt arrive on time.
Sentence # 2: Can mean only that he did have such a jet and thus did arrive on time.

Even in less complicated contexts, there always seems to be a difference between unless
and ifnot:
o If I cant go, Ill call you. (I think Ill be able to go, so I probably wont call you.)
o Unless I can go, Ill call you. (I dont think Ill be able to go, so Ill probably wont call you.)

Thus we conclude that ESL/EFL teachers should refrain from teaching unless as the equivalent
of ifnot. In fact the only reasonable paraphrase relationship involving the above four
subordinators exists between only if with an affirmative result and unless with a negative one:

o Apply for the job only if you have an M.A.

o Dont apply for the job unless you have an M.A.

EVEN THOUGH & EVEN IF

o You should visit Vienna even though it is expensive.
o You should visit Vienna even if it is expensive.

1st Sentence: The speaker knows that Vienna is expensive but advises that the addressee visit
it despite the cost.

2nd Sentence: The speaker doesnt know definitely whether or not Vienna is expensive there is
a possibility that Vienna is expensive but in any event, the advice is to visit the city.

Thus, even though expresses a concession. It is an emphatic form of although. Even if is

conditional in this case an explicit inference conditional and it is an emphatic counterpart
to if.
 Even if can also function emphatically in hypothetical conditionals:
o I wouldnt marry you if you were the last person on earth!
o I wouldnt marry you even if you were the last person on earth!

Note: Even if clause can readily occur initially but that, in the absence of extremely marked
exclamatory intonation, the if clause is strange if it occurs initially in this type of exclamatory
conditional:
o ?If you were the last person on earth, I wouldnt marry you!
o Even if you were the last person on earth, I wouldnt marry you!

WHETHER or NOT

Thus far we have examined sentences in which the adverbial subordinator

indicates that the condition is unmarked, exclusive, emphatic, negative, or
exclusive and negative:
o I will stay home if it rains. (unmarked)
o I will stay home only if it rains. (exclusive)
o I will stay home even if it rains. (emphatic)
o I will stay home if it doesnt rain. (negative)
o I will stay home unless it rains. (exclusive negative)

*** I will stay home whether or not it rains.

*** I will stay home whether it rains or not.
*** I will stay home whether Professor Dickinson agrees to give the graduate students a lecture
on plasma physics or not.

RELATED VERBS

HOPE & WISH

The verb hope is similar to future conditionals in that the same clauses that follow hope can
also function either as the if clause or the result of a future conditional. For example:

John finishes his work.

I hope (that)
John will come.

If John finishes his work, he will come.

The verb wish is similar to counterfactual conditionals in that the same clauses
that follow wish can also function either as the if clause or the result clause of a
counterfactual conditional:

John had finished his work.

I wish (that)
John could have come.

If John had finished his work, he could have come.

***The subjective forms that can occur in imaginative if clauses also occur after
wish:
o I wish I were a millionaire.
o If I were a millionaire . . .

*** There is also the more formal and slightly archaic expression would that, which
can be used in exclamatory imaginative conditionals to express wishes:
o Would that I had a Rolls Royce!
(I wish I had a Rolls Royce!)
o Would that I could fly!
(I wish I could fly!)
THE FREQUENCY AND THE USE OF CONDITIONAL SENTENCES
THE MOST FREQUENT CONDITIONAL STRUCTURES
Hill (1960) claimed that English conditional sentences may contain 324 distinct tense-
modal sequences.

Hwang (1979) analyzed a corpus of English speech (63, 746 words) and writing (357,
249 words) representing diverse discourse types and concluded that in addition to
general rules of consistency in tense sequencing, only two statements can be made about
ungrammatical forms in conditional sentences: (1) logical uses of might do not occur in if
clause; (2) subjunctive were and were to do not occur in result clauses:

o If it might rain, we would need our umbrellas.

o If the weather got too hot, I were not feeling well.

would
Structure H: If + -past, could have + -en
Might

USES OF CONDITIONALS
Ford and Thompson (1986)

1. Proposing Options for Future Scenarios

2. Introducing Contrasts

3. Providing Examples Following Generalizations

4. Making Inferences Based on Previously Mentioned Assumptions

OTHER USES OF CONDITIONALS IN ORAL DISCOURSE

1. Giving Polite Directives

2. Speaking Humurously
 USES OF SENTENCE FINAL IF CLAUSES
Only 23 percent of the if clause in Ford and Thompsons (1986) written corpus were in
final position. They found that the following observations accounted for most of their
sentence-final if clauses: