Conditional Conjunctions

Conditional conjunctions, as the name suggests, are used to clarify conditions in a sentence. They can be considered a form of explicitation as conditional conjunctions are not always necessary within a sentence, but do help to make it clearer. Take the following as an example.

E.g. Exercise every day and you will be fit E.g. If you exercise every day, you will be fit.

While the contents expressed in the above sentences are virtually identical, the first sentence requires a reader to apply a small degree of inference to come to the conclusion that he or she would have directly made reading the second one. It is also more strongly implied that the condition mentioned in the first part of the sentence constitutes the sole or primary condition for the outcome mentioned in the second part of the sentence. In other words, one is more likely to infer from the second sentence that exercising is the sole or primary way to become fit.

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Since there are various words and phrases that may serve the role of a conditional conjunction, we will only be looking at a selected list of them. For the study of conditional conjunctions, I used a conjunction list identical to Cai's, namely: although, if, as long as, even though, unless, what if, even if, only if. Here are some examples of conditional conjunctions being used in the corpus.

E.g. She emphasized that if she had a conviction record, the future of her daughters would be adversely affected and that therefore she decided to resume her application for leave to appeal against conviction in order that justice would be done.

E.g. She emphasized that receiving a conviction record would adversely affect the future of her daughters and that therefore she decided to resume her application for leave to appeal against conviction in order that justice would be done. (Possible alternative translation)

The first sentence above is the actual translation, while the second sentence is a possible alternative created by me. Even though both sentences are essentially the same content-wise, the use of "if" does stress the conditional relationship between "having a conviction record" and "the adverse effect on her daughters", more so than the suggested translation. In this sense, the

translator could be said to have opted for a more explicit sentence to outline this conditional relationship.

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Table 6 - Number of occurrences of conditional conjunctions being used in the corpus Conditional

(+) More occurrences in translation corpus (-) More occurrences in non-translational corpus

Based on the selected list, the total occurrences of conditional conjunctions found in the translated and non-translated corpus are 473 and 455 respectively, equivalent to a log-likelihood of 0.07, which is far lower than the required 3.84. When we break down the data for conditional conjunctions, we see that only the connective “even if” was able to achieve a statistically

significant difference in the translational corpus. In the case of the connective “if”, the tables

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were even turned around in terms of absolute numbers as there were more occurrences of “if” in the non-translational corpus instead.

Given these figures, there is little evidence to conclude that conditional conjunctions were used more frequently in the translation of judgments relative to non-translated judgments written in English.

Table 7 - More examples of conditional conjunctions used at the intra-sentential level 1 Also, although the applicant had already made full confession to the police in respect of all

the charges, the trial judge was wrong to consider that he should not be entitled to some extra discount even when the prosecution evidence against him was not that strong.

2 If the erroneous advice relied upon by the applicant relates to the nature or effect of the act of abandonment, the Notice of Abandonment will be regarded as a nullity.

3 As long as the defendant, acting with premeditation and deliberately, has taken advantage of the victim’s negligence and stolen property placed next to him or her, then there is no difference between such a theft offence and the offence of “pick-pocketing” in terms of gravity.

4 We agree that even without the assistance of the applicant, the police could still find out the address of “Mr Tong” though it might take a longer time.

5 “Members of the Review Body, including the Chairman and the Deputy Chairmen are not liable in law for any act done or not done by them in relation to the exercise or performance or the purported exercise or performance of the Review Body's duties, functions and powers unless it is proved that the act was done or omitted to be done dishonestly or in bad faith.”

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6 A lie could amount to corroboration only if the jury were satisfied that the lie constituted an attempt by the defendant to lie his way out of conviction not only on the assault charge but also on the rape charge.

7 Even if someone subsequently obtained these documents and produced them to the court, as he had not looked at or received them at the material times, they could not have affected the facts or circumstances as he knew or believed them at the material times.

8 The Deputy Judge was of the view that this case happened in a public place, and that even though there were not a large number of pedestrians at the material time, the commission of the offence in this well-known shopping area in Mongkok was an aggravating feature.