290 Concluding Remarks: Pathways of Change
its apodosis clause (the then- clause). Quirk et al. ( 1985 : 1089) refer to such if-
clauses as “indirect conditions ” since they are “dependent on the implicit speech
act of the utterance” (1095). Thus, an example such as (1a) might be assumed to
be missing the elements in square brackets shown in (1b), namely, both the apo-
dosis expressing a speech act and the complement of like :
(1) a. he had sort of reached this place of kind of inner tranquility, if you like , (2014
PBS [COCA])
b. he had sort of reached this place of inner tranquility, [I will call it that ] if you
like [for me to call it that]
c. he had sort of reached this place of inner tranquility, Ø if you like Ø
We might expect that historically both of these required elements would be pre-
sent – that the original structure is a fully formed biclausal structure, as shown
in (1b) – and that the pragmatic parenthetical would arise through ellipsis of
both the complement and the apodosis clause, as shown in (1c). Support for
this view is provided by theories concerning the historical source of insubor-
dinated clauses, or the main- clause use of a formally subordinate clause, as in
If you could give me a couple of 39c stamps please (Evans 2007 : 380), which,
in their syntactic independence, bear a resemblance to these pragmatic paren-
theticals. As discussed in Section 4.4.1 , insubordinated clauses are assumed to
derive historically from a subordinate clause with an overt main clause (e.g.,
If you could give me a couple of 39c stamps please, I’d be most grateful ), with
ellipsis of the main clause and reanalysis of the formerly subordinate clause as
the main clause.
Section 4.4 has examined the origins of the pragmatic marker if only , which
can express a speaker’s wish (‘I wish that were the case’), but more often
the speaker’s belief that the situation does not or could not obtain (‘if only
that were the case, but it isn’t’). Full if only ... then biclausal structures are
common in Early Modern English. In such cases the then - clause generally
expresses a potential positive outcome, had the events described in the if only
clause obtained, as in (2a). The existence of independent if only exclamatory
clauses can be traced back to the mid nineteenth century, and they continue to
exist today, as in (2b).
(2) a. If only his knees were stronger, he says, he’d still hold a job. (2014 St. Louis
Post Dispatch [COCA]).
b. If only she could take back her hurtful words. (2015 Alexander, Among the
fair magnolias [COCA])
In (2b), the apodosis is understood as a very general positive statement such as
“then that would be very nice/ I would be very happy, etc.” Finally, the clause
following if only can be omitted if it can be supplied from context, and we get
the fi rst freestanding if only s beginning in the mid twentieth century.