The Information Status of English If-clauses in Natural Discourse

Abstract

This paper aims to understand the discourse function of conditionals by analyzing the information structure of conditional sentences in natural discourse under the framework of the so-called GIVEN-NEW taxonomy as presented in Prince (1992). In doing so, we argue against Haiman's (1978) claim and present sufficient evidence to show that conditionals are not simply topics (GIVEN information). The analysis of information status of English if-clauses in natural discourse shows that conditionals should be viewed as carrying the NEW or INFERRABLE information as well as the GIVEN information (in the sense defined in Prince (1992)). We observe that there exist various kinds of INFERRABLE information established between the if-clause and some entity evoked in the preceding context due to a logical reasoning or through the bridge of conversational implicature. Along with these findings, we turn our attention to whether the information status of the conditional clause is related to the speaker's choice of clause order in English conditionals. We observe that the speaker's choice of clause order in English conditionals is closely related to the information status of the conditional antecedent in a local discourse context. The choice of clause order in conditionals is determined by what kind of inferential role they have in a local discourse structure. In particular, the speaker is motivated to shift the if-clause to the final position when something in the main clause makes an inferential link with the preceding context as carrying the discourse-old or INFERRABLE information. We further note that this motivation stems from a more general discourse principle of making the transition of discourse flow smooth by putting something GIVEN or INFERRABLE prior to introducing something NEW.