Between Conditions and Hypotheses: Empirism and Culture

Abstract

The subordinate conjunction if is treated by the traditional grammar as a connective that creates a conditional or hypothetical relation between the sentences. A fact would be a condition or a hypothesis that would have to be become true so that another could be carried be realized. Considered under the perspective of Textual Linguistics, this conjunction is considered as a logical-semantic connective, since, differently from the discursive-argumentative operators, which take are based on the interaction between discourse protagonists, their relations would occur in a properly linguistic point of view. This text presents some reflections on these forms of conception and argues for the existence of at least two if(s), both of a discursive character (one more evidently than the other): the first one would have as a basis the system of reference of the objective world; the second one would have as background the cultural heritage of a social group, which can be evidenced by the fact that only the last one supports an ironic counter-enunciation.