235or about “the extralinguistic knowledge required for a correct interpretation”
(1096). They conclude that “[f]or all ... types the uncertainty of the condition
provides a tentativeness which adds politeness to utterances” (1097). We see
these same epistemic and politeness functions in if I may/ might say so.
Similarly, Fraser ( 1996 : 183– 184) speaks of “pseudo- conditionals” (such
as If I may interrupt , unless I misunderstood you ) which do not have condi-
tional meaning but serve as commentary pragmatic markers “which signal the
speaker’s desire to reduce the face loss associated with the basic message.” As
Fraser notes, “Despite their appearance, these are not conditional sentences.”
8.2.2.1 Comparison to “Relevance” Conditionals. If I may/ might say
so also compares with what have been termed “relevance” ( Declerck and Reed
2001), “non- causal or Austinian” ( Horn 2000 ), “speech- act” (Sweetser 1990 ),
or “pragmatic” (Wierzbicka 1997) conditionals. Such conditionals were fi rst
noted by J. L. Austin ( 1979 [1956]) with his famous example, If you want
biscuits, there are some on the sideboard. Contemporary corpus examples are
given in (8):
(8) a. If you go to Madrid , it should be mostly dry and cool. (2012 Washington
Post [COCA])
b. If you like seafood , there’s a nice little place a couple of blocks away. (2012
New England Review [COCA])
Here we see again that ‘if P, then Q’ does not hold (nor does ‘not P, then not
Q’). The weather’s being “mostly dry and cool” is not conditional upon your
going to Madrid, nor is the existence of the “nice little place” conditional upon
your liking seafood. As in the case of if I may say so , then is not typically pos-
sible. It has been noted that such if - clauses may stand independently and are
less syntactically integrated than the prototypical conditional clause (Declerck
and Reed 2001: 365).
This type of if- clause is understood as offering the “grounds for the relevance
of the statement q ” (Horn 2000 : 317) (‘I’m saying this because ...’). Again,
like indirect conditionals, “the if - clause appears to conditionally modify not
the contents of the main clause, but the speech act which the main clause car-
ries out” (Dancygier and Sweetser 2005 :113). The relevance conditional can
be paraphrased “ I want you to know that ...” (Wierzbicka 1997: 21), or “(let
us consider that) I inform/ ask (i.e. perform the speech act represented in the
apodosis) you that ” (Sweetser 1990 : 119, 120). Pragmatically they serve pur-
poses of politeness : “they all possess features characteristic of polite expres-
sions – tentativeness, leaving options to the hearer, declaring willingness on
the part of the speaker” (Dancygier 1998: 90, 91, 92; see also Dancygier and
Sweetser 2005 : 112).
8.2 If I May/Might Say So