A Study Of Subjectivity In English IF-conditionals

English If-conditionals is a complex linguistic phenomenon existing in syntactic structures, semantic relations and pragmatic context. Traditional linguists discussed this issue from the perspectives of logics, pragmatics and semantics long before. So far, most researches on If-conditionals are limited to the analysis of their logic construction but neglecting the cognitive motivation of subjectivity behind.Subjectivity concerns the expression of self and the representation of a speaker's perspective or point of view in discourse-what has been called a speaker's imprint. Subjectification refers to either the structures or strategies that languages evolve in the linguistic realization of subjectivity or to the relevant process of linguistic evaluation themselves. Adopting Edward Finegan's and R.W. Langacker's Subjectivity Theory as the theoretical framework, the author analyzes the subjective motivation why the speaker chooses to use If-conditionals.Because subjectivity and objectivity are closely interrelated, the author firstly analyzes the relationship between subjectivity and objectivity in If-conditionals. Secondly, adopting Edward Finegan's classification of subjectivity, that is, speaker's perspective, affect and modality, the author proves that subjectivity surely exists in different types of If-conditionals. Thirdly, based on the discussion of Edward Finegan's and Langacker's Subjectivity Theory, the author establishes a model to analyze the subjectification of If-conditionals. By using this model and its variants, the mechanism of subjectification is worked out to reflect subjectivity in the different types of If-conditionals. Besides, this model may be a good attempt to testify that subjectification is a general process which is changing from objectivity to subjectivity. The higher the subjective consciousness is, the more subjectification there is in the construction. At last, according to the results of analyzing different types of If-conditionals, the author proposes an arrangement:Speech act If-conditionals > Epistemic If-conditionals> Content If-conditionals...