If it had been conducted with a larger database…: A comparison of If-constructions in Chinese L2 learners' theses and published research articles

Abstract

If-constructions, with functional versatility, are of great importance to academic writing. While considerable literature has been published on If-constructions in research articles and naturally occurring discourse, relatively limited attention has been paid to how If-constructions are used in L2 learners' academic writing. To address this gap, a comparative study on the use of If-constructions is reported in this paper with regard to the overall distribution and meaning negotiation in corpora of Chinese L2 learners' theses and published research articles in applied linguistics. We draw upon Warchał's (2010) typology of conditional clauses and Martin and White's (2005) notion on writer-reader meaning negotiation and examine propositional and pragmatic meanings, monoglossic and heteroglossic If-constructions used in the corpora. We also discuss the major reasons for the differences and similarities in the overall distribution and meaning negotiation. From this case study, we conclude that If-constructions are one of the key options from the academic writers' rhetorical toolkit, allowing them to make propositional and pragmatic meanings and to negotiate a dialogic space in academic discourse.