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Consider the sentence:

While this assumption, on its own, is relatively innocuous, if implausible, in practice, it is supplemented by assumptions...

The 'if' here really means something more like 'but perhaps also'.

Another sentence:

He appeared very happy, if not exuberant, at her arrival.

'if not' here means something like 'and perhaps even', as if the latter statement should be a more extreme version of the former. But it also feels like an exclusive disjunction. That is, it is one or maybe the other, but not both. On the other hand, 'if' by itself feels like both statements could be true.

I can conjure up many examples where both 'if' and 'if not' violate my above descriptions and many more which just seem malformed and awkward but fit them, e.g., 'He seems happy, if not a little confused'. or 'The proof appeared correct, if sloppily constructed,'... Adding further confusion, if I make a small change to the previous example: 'The proof appeared correct, if a little sloppy, .., it feels correctly formed although the semantics or grammar have not changed substantially (although I could be wrong as I am thoroughly confused now).

So my questions are: are there any concise descriptions of how to use 'if' and 'if not'? Does this grammar usage have a name? When are they interchangeable and when not?

Thanks

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  • I think you may have got the meaning of "if" in this construction wrong. I understand the meaning as "albeit", or "even if". But I agree that "if not" means "and perhaps even" - or more precisely, "almost", in most contexts. So (as you would expect given the presence/absence of "not"), they're effectively opposites, not at all "interchangeable".
    – FumbleFingers
    Feb 20, 2012 at 23:09
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    ...you're just confusing the usage by introducing "semi-negating" elements like the word "little". In essence, "if" introduces a "contrasting" element, and "if not" introduces a "similar, but not quite justifiable in the context" element.
    – FumbleFingers
    Feb 20, 2012 at 23:13

2 Answers 2

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I think, in this construction, if is essentially equivalent to although. One can substitute although for if, salva veritate, in the examples given, and in all the examples I can think of.

I might add that this particular if construction is an "aside", often set off by dashes or parentheses in writing, or otherwise almost always by commas. All of these punctuation marks indicate that the tone and volume are low, with flat intonation through the phrase, which is a mark of a part of an utterance that's not meant to be parsed as the main predication.

"Aside" is a stage direction for lines to be delivered not to the other players but to the audience.

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  • +1 Agreed "although" is probably more readily grasped for someone not quite sure how it works. My "albeit" might not always fit, and it's a bit stilted/formal/archaic. But I still think OP has got things a bit mixed up, because to me the effect of adding "not" is pretty much to give an "opposite" meaning.
    – FumbleFingers
    Feb 21, 2012 at 0:50
  • @FumbleFingers, I agree with your last point. I read OP's second sentence to mean he was not exuberant, not that he was "perhaps even exuberant. If you move the clause to the front it becomes more obvious.
    – Sam
    Feb 21, 2012 at 2:09
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    @Sam: Yeah. The problem with "if not" in such constructions is it can be a disparaging "but not actually" just as easily as "or maybe even". The interpretation is mainly context-dependent, but of course if it were spoken the two different meanings would be delivered with very different intonations. We, of course, see only words on a screen here at ELU, so we can choose for ourselves how to read it. In both cases he's not actually exuberant. OP:upbeat - he's nearly exuberant. You:downbeat - he's only very happy.
    – FumbleFingers
    Feb 21, 2012 at 3:25
  • @JohnLawler Would be call these types of clauses "reduced", and if so, would it be appropriate to call the uses of "if", "although", etc. as conjunctions?
    – AJK432
    Sep 9, 2019 at 15:26
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A co-worker just encountered this same issue with these sentences:

"I feel good if not very mobile."

The interpretation really depends on which word the negation is attached to. I assumed [if] [not very mobile]. My co-worker assumed [if not] [very mobile] as in "I feel good if not great". In the first, [if] means 'although' or 'albeit' because [not] is negating [very mobile]. In the second, [if not] go together and mean as above 'and perhaps even' or 'almost'.

A test might be to insert the word 'quite' after [if not]. If the sentence makes no sense, [if] likely means 'although'and the negation goes with the following words. If it does make sense [if not] probably means 'and perhaps even'.

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