A Multi-dimensional Study Of The Rhetorical Conditional Clause

The conditional clause is a complex and subtle language phenomenon in terms of syntactic structure, semantic relations and pragmatic context, and they are among the most difficult to the English learners. Quirk et al (1985) categorizes conditional clauses into factual conditional clause, counterfactual conditional clause, rhetorical conditional clause, alternative conditional clause and universal conditional clause. Researchers have expressed their interest in different kinds of conditional clauses in their studies, but less investigation has been made on the rhetorical conditional clauses. This thesis is an attempt made toward this investigation.The rhetorical conditional clause, also termed as implicational conditional by Zhang Zhenbang (1997), is a very special member in the conditional category. It gives the appearance of expressing an open condition, that is, the question of the fulfillment or nonfulfilment of the condition is left unsolved, but actually it makes a strong assertion. There are two types of rhetorical conditional clause, one in which the assertion is derived from the conditional clause and the other in which it is derived form the matrix clause. First, if the proposition in the matrix clause is patently absurd, the proposition in the conditional clause is shown to be false. Secondly, if the proposition in the conditional clause is patently true, the proposition in the matrix clause is shown to be true. This type is used with measure expressions with the implication of at least the measure stated in the conditional clause. The present study will focus on the first type.The objectives of this study are twofold: (1) to decode the rhetorical conditional clause by exploring it semantic and pragmatic features; and (2) to identify the membership of the rhetorical conditional clause in the conditional category.The present thesis explores the features of rhetorical conditional clauses using the notions of functional grammar, semantics, cognitive grammar and pragmatics. On the basis of the analysis of the semantic and pragmatic features of the rhetorical conditional clause, the following conclusions have been researched:With regard to the membership of rhetorical conditional clauses, the study finds that, just like the cognitive category of BIRD, linguistic category like conditional clauses also have central members and peripheral members. With direct condition as the prime representative of the prototype of condition category, the rhetorical condition is the peripheral member in the category. The rhetorical conditional clause is the decategorization variant of the category of conditional clauses. With regard to the decoding of rhetorical conditional clauses, the study reveals that the rhetorical conditional clause, which is employed to express speakers' attitude or inclination, can be viewed as a kind of metaphorical modality and its decoding is closely correlated with such theories as implication, iconicity, relevance and pragmatic grammaticalization.