179. Deeper Meanings of “If”

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Saying that “if” introduces a condition is not a precise enough description of its meaning

THE COMPLEXITY OF “IF”

Most people who have studied English grammar know that if is a tricky word. It has the two familiar but very different uses in conditional statements and indirect questions, and there is also a special use in comparisons (see 247. Exotic Grammar Structures 6, #2). It is, as a result, a good example of words that I have elsewhere called Multi-Use.

The complications continue even if we just concentrate on the conditional use. We find it involves some quite complicated verb tense rules (see 118. Problems with Conditional “if”), and that if has to be distinguished from other “conditional” conjunctions like on condition that, provided that and assuming that. Even its own meaning is a challenge to describe. As with other conjunctions, it is best expressed as a relation between two parts of the same sentence (see 174. Eight Things to Know about Conjunctions). Most coursebooks say little more about this relation than that the if part names “a condition” for the event or state expressed by the other part.

The problem with this is that the word “condition” is vague: it means different things in different sentences – just as words attempting to sum up the meaning of other conjunctions do (see, for example, the discussion of but in 20. Problem Connectors, #3). Even the alternative term “hypothetical cause”, which I use in the above-mentioned post on if, has similar vagueness.

I feel that this problem has to be addressed because proper understanding might assist the learning of the different types of conditional sentence that feature in most standard English courses. It might also help to prevent grammatical errors. I do not know for sure whether all of the different meanings of conditional if are possessed by the equivalent word in all languages, but I would be surprised if they were. And if they are not, errors become likely.

Below are my ideas on subclasses of “conditions” that I believe can be expressed by if in English. A key factor is the likelihood of the condition being met. This is not particularly linked to the tense of conditional verbs.

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LIKELY CONDITIONS

No conditions are certain to be met – the uncertainty of their occurrence is indeed fundamental: if they were certain to occur they would not be conditions at all and would have to be linked to their outcomes by conjunctions like when or since rather than if. However, some conditions are more certain to be met than others.

The kind of condition that seems the most likely to be met is particularly common in chains of logical reasoning. Consider these:

(a) If x equals 3, y equals 6.

(b) If the accused was elsewhere, she did not commit the crime.

In some contexts, conditions like this are a consequence of preceding logical deduction, and hence are very likely to be true. Indeed, I would go so far as to say that in these circumstances the speaker is certain of their truth and is using if instead of since merely in order to hedge – avoid sounding dangerously categorical (see 96. Avoiding Untruths 2).

Thus, if here means “if it is true that”, and is easily replaced by assuming (that), or even since or other conjunction like it (see 306. Ways of Giving a Reason, #1).

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OPEN CONDITIONS

This kind of condition may be illustrated as follows:

(c) If the liquid turns red, the test will be positive.

(d) If payment is early, a discount will be given.

(e) If the weather was/had been bad, profits fell.

(f) If water is heated to 100C, it boils.

These all contain a condition whose fulfilment cannot be considered particularly likely or unlikely: the underlined events will sometimes happen, sometimes not (see 266. Indicating Alternatives, #3).

There are a number of interesting observations that can be made. Firstly, notice the variability of the time references. Past, present and future times are all possible. If the if verb is past, the other verb will normally lack would, though this word can be used with the meaning of “used to” (see 118. Problems with Conditional “if”, #6). For advice on choosing between past simple was in (e) and past perfect had been, see 171. Aspects of the Past Perfect Tense.

Secondly, the sentences illustrate a difference between general and specific open conditions. The condition in (c) could be either: perhaps describing the behaviour of the liquid at all times when the procedure in question is performed, perhaps describing it in a single performance at a single time. The condition in (d) too could be referring generally to payment at any time, or specifically to particular payment at a particular time. The condition in (e), on the other hand, is only general: it refers to numerous past events rather than just one. Sentence (f) also has a general condition, referring to all water at all times.

The generality of an open condition may be a basis for deciding whether when can paraphrase if. There seems to be a simple rule: general conditions allow a choice between when and if, but specific ones do not. Thus, when could replace if in all of the above sentences without much meaning change, but (c) and (d) could then only be understood as generalizations. An explanation of this rule is hard to formulate but seems to involve a change in the meaning of when in general statements, towards a smaller certainty of occurrence.

A third observation concerning the above sentences is that in (c) the test will be positive is a deduction – a thought, not an event, resulting from the fulfilment of the condition – just as it is in (a) and (b). Open conditions with this kind of consequence are quite often associated with investigations, especially laboratory tests.

Fourthly, some of the four conditions can begin with provided (that) or similar – providing (that), on condition (that), as long as (see 230. Multi-Word Conjunctions, #2) – instead of if. This seems particularly true of (d), but possible in (c) too. My grammar books say provided expresses a meaning of if that does not exist in all conditional sentences, namely “only if”, or the suggestion that no other condition is possible for the mentioned consequence (see 251. The Grammar of “Only”, #1). However, I think more is often involved than this.

I would suggest that a more important meaning of if when it is replaceable by provided that before an open condition is the suggestion of a promise. This is certainly present in (d), and could be understood in (c) too. Promises involve futures considered to be desirable (see 147. Types of Future Meaning, #2). In sentence (d), the desirable future is a discount; in (c) the possibly desirable one is will be positive.

By contrast, if an undesirable future is being mentioned, if does not seem replaceable by provided that. In sentence (e), the outcome profits fell would normally be considered undesirable. If the sentence were changed so as to speak about the future rather than the past, provided that still could not be used. 

In (f) the outcome it boils can be understood as neither desirable nor undesirable. Provided that is again possible here. I would suggest that this kind of neutral sentence is the only place where if has nothing more than the basic “if and only if” meaning of provided that. Perhaps if is preferred to provided that when this meaning does not need to be emphasised.

Finally, it is to be noted that promising is not the only special effect that can achieved by using an open condition with a future outcome. Others include offering, threatening, warning and suggesting. However, none of them seems to allow any synonym of if. A typical warning sentence might be:

(g) The device can overheat if (it is) left running too long.

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UNLIKELY AND UNFULFILLED CONDITIONS

Conditions can express unlikely futures with were to partnered by would in the main verb, like this:

(h) If aliens were to visit Earth, great changes would occur.

Saying this in the more common future-referring way, with visit…will occur, would make a future alien visit sound much more likely (though still not “likely”). A sometimes-found less emphatic alternative to were to is the simple past tense of the verb (visited above).

Conditions labelled “unfulfilled” rather than “unlikely” express events or situations that are untrue or unreal either at the present moment (“Type 2” conditions in many English coursebooks) or in the past (“Type 3”). I do not wish here to repeat the details about them that can be easily found in coursebooks. Consider, though, this modification of sentence (b):

(i) If the accused had been elsewhere, she would not have committed the crime.

Unlike (b), this says the accused was not elsewhere: the condition is untrue and is hence “unfulfilled”.

The point I wish to make here is that the meaning of if in unfulfilled conditions is very hard to specify with more than the words “unfulfilled condition”. If seems not to be replaceable by any synonym; none of those that apply elsewhere – assuming, since, when, provided – is an alternative.

178. How to Write a Heading

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Headings in a text have some important physical and grammatical features

HEADINGS IN PROFESSIONAL WRITING

Headings introduce subsections of a text. They are thus different from titles and newspaper headlines, which introduce entire texts – and very different from subtitles, the name for on-screen translations of film and TV dialogue. For something about newspaper headlines within these pages, see 158. Abbreviated Sentences.

The value of headings is, of course, that they help clarify the organization of long texts. This is useful for professional writers because they often have to deal with long texts like business reports and academic dissertations. One kind of professional text where headings are not normally used, however, is essays: these mostly use “signpost language” instead (see 122. Signpost Words in Multi-Sentence Lists).

Headings are similar in some ways to bullet points (which also are uncommon in essays – see 74. Sentence Lists 3). They tend to have special formatting to enhance their visibility, they often belong to a group (though they do not have to), and these groups are usually introduced with the same kind of language as bullet points. However, there are also some major differences, such as a greater restriction of their linguistic form, and a close association with the text directly after them. This post seeks to provide as full a description as possible of the nature of headings.

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NON-LINGUISTIC HEADING CHARACTERISTICS

Perhaps the most fundamental visual feature of headings is their separation from the text above and below them. Sometimes that is considered enough, but more often the lettering is modified in some way too. Options include one or more of capitalisation, italicisation, bold type, central alignment, underlining and some form of numbering.

Visual modifications of this kind become essential when a text contains subheadings as well as headings. Subheadings – again not to be confused with subtitles – introduce subdivisions of text covered by a heading. If they have the same visual characteristics as the heading that they come under, readers might think they are new headings beginning a new section rather than continuations of an existing one. To distinguish them, they alone might be visually modified, or both they and their heading might have different visual modifications, for example one being in capital letters and the other in bold lower case.

In many cases, a particular heading or subheading will be part of a widely-separated list of headings or subheadings. When this happens, it is vital to ensure that all members of the same list have the same formatting. Notice, for example, how the heading of the next section in this post resembles the one above, but differs from the subheadings after it.

Numbering only makes sense when a (sub)heading is one of a group, but even then it is not compulsory. If both headings and subheadings have it, the numbers must look different. They might be a mixture of different number types – the possibilities include ordinary numbers (1,2,3…), large Roman numerals (I,II,III…), small Roman numerals (i,ii,iii…), capital letters (A,B,C…), and small letters (a,b,c…). One possibility to avoid, however, is number words written out in full (One, Two, etc.). Alternatively, subheadings might use the same number type that their heading has, but add a full stop and a second number, e.g. 2.3. Or they may combine two different systems, e.g. 2(c).

In most cases, a “number” is separated from the subsequent words by either a full stop or a bracket.

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LINGUISTIC HEADING CHARACTERISTICS

1. Grammatical Form

Headings cannot usually be sentences. Most lack a verb and are just nouns or noun-like phrases. Often, a verb meaning can be expressed with an “action” noun, e.g. The Destruction of Forests instead of Forests were destroyed (see 131. Uses of “Action” Nouns, #5 and #6). BE by itself, as in Languages are a problem to learn, cannot just be replaced by a colon. Usually you have to drop BE and start with the subsequent noun (The Problem of Learning Languages). If there is a following adjective rather than noun, e.g. difficult instead of a problem, it must generally be changed into a noun (The Difficulty of…). For ways of making such nouns, see 255. Nouns Made from Adjectives.

Headings that do contain a verb are often questions. In formal writing, they will usually be indirect (e.g. How Hurricanes are Formed) – again not a complete sentence. For a full description, see 57. Indirect Questions in Formal Writing and 105. Questions with a “to” Verb. In many cases, the question word will be replaced by a noun, sometimes causing the verb to disappear too, e.g. Formation of Hurricanes (see 185. Noun Synonyms of Question Words). Outside formal writing, direct questions are possible, especially so as to sound friendly (see 166. Appropriacy in Professional English).

Another way of having a verb in a heading is by putting it among describing words after the central noun (so-called “postmodification”). This is usually done with “relative” words like who, which, that, where and why, as in Reasons WHY Children Fail (see 252. Descriptive Wording after Nouns, #3), or with the conjunction that, as in The Possibility THAT Aliens Exist (see 153. Conjunction Uses of “that”).

The noun-like nature of headings means a decision must be made about the articles a(n), the and “zero”. The rules seem to be mostly the same as in ordinary sentences, though perhaps the is more frequently dropped before plural and uncountable nouns. For example, Reasons for… may well be more common than The Reasons for…. A possible explanation is “hedging” – keeping things vague in the interests of factual accuracy (see 96. Making Statements More Uncertain 2). Plural and uncountable nouns with the emphasise that all of a specific group is being referred to, while an absent the leaves it unclear whether every possibility is meant.

The rareness of headings in sentence form is shared by titles. However, the two are not exactly the same. Some titles, instead of being noun-like, have a preposition at the start, especially on or concerning. A famous title with the former is Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species. This usage is perhaps influenced by the tendency of titles in Latin, a now generally-abandoned language of academic communication in Europe, to use the Latin equivalent de. It is less common in contemporary English, and has a slightly old-fashioned feel.

Another form that titles but not headings sometimes have is that of direct rather than indirect questions. My intuition, though, is that indirect questions are more common even in titles than direct ones. One further observation about headings and titles is that on average headings are probably shorter in length. This is because some of the meaning of headings can often be obtained from what is written before them – something that titles by definition rule out.

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2. Lettering

As mentioned above, some headings might be written entirely in capital letters. More often, however, lower case letters are used, except at the start of some of the words. The places where a starting capital is needed usually have the following characteristics (also possessed by book and journal titles – see 197. English in Bibliographies).

The first word in a heading normally starts with a capital, just as in ordinary sentences. Other heading words that do so are likely to be nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs. The main kinds of words that do not normally begin with a capital in headings include the articles (a, the) and words like them, prepositions, pronouns (who, which, that, it, they etc.), auxiliary verbs (will, should, must, BE, DO, HAVE etc.), not, other uses of BE, and conjunctions (especially and, but, or, when and that). In fact, words with no starting capital tend to be the same ones that are usually left out in notes (see 158. Abbreviated Sentences).

For more advice on capital letters, see 62. Choices with Capital Letters.

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3. Preceding Words

It is usually a good idea to write an introductory sentence before the first of a list of headings. It should be a complete sentence with a full stop at the end, rather than a partial/complete one ending with a colon. In other words, it should resemble the kind of sentence that is common before an ordinary paragraph list (see 122. Signpost Words in Multi-Sentence Lists), not that before bullet points. This is because headings are not bullet points, but are themselves introductory, and in combination with the sentences after them they are very like items in a multi-sentence list.

The wording of a sentence introducing headings will be similar to that of other list-introducing sentences. Mention will be made of the general idea binding all of the headings together – what I have elsewhere called a “list name” – and there will also be an indication that a list is about to follow. In the following, words combining to express a list name are underlined, while those suggesting a subsequent list are in capitals:

(a) Schools are currently experiencing A NUMBER/VARIETY OF problems.

(b) Schools are currently experiencing THE FOLLOWING problems.

(c) The problems of schools today are AS FOLLOWS.

(d) There are VARIOUS problems afflicting schools today.

Some of these imply that the list name has not been mentioned earlier, others that it has. Sentence (a) has the first effect: the existence of the problems to be listed has as much focus as the indication of a subsequent list. This effect is probably a result of at least some of the list name being at the end. One could add as follows there after a comma without changing the focus.

Sentence (b), despite its substantial similarity to (a), has the opposite suggestion, thanks entirely to the words the following. This is thus the kind of sentence that should be used if the reader has already been told about the existence of the problems in question. If a sentence like (a) is used in such a context instead, the writer risks being accused of “bad” repetition (see 24. Good and Bad Repetition).

Sentence (c) also suggests a previous mention of the list name. The linguistic clue this time is the status of the entire list name as a noun phrase at the start (see 37. Subordination).

Sentence (d) could be understood either way. There are could be an assertion of existence, but it could also merely be list-signalling (see 161. Special Uses of “There” Sentences). Perhaps this flexibility explains the frequency of this kind of sentence before a list of headings.