抄録
The if you be construction, exemplified by sentences like If you be quiet, I'll take you to the zoo, has never gone through an in-depth grammatical analysis. The present paper investigates its syntax and semantics closely and argues that it counts as an independent speech act construction which conventionally conveys a request in exchange for a reward. It also explores the relation between the form and function of the construction and reveals that most of its syntactic properties are reducible to its communicative function and that its formal markedness is in proportion to its functional specialization.
