ABSTRACT
If-clauses can be used to express requests in a way that denotes politeness through indirectness. In Spanish, requests may be expressed through hypothetical statements, such as Si me pudieras dejar el paquete en la puerta, estaría agradecida (If you could leave the package at the door, I would be grateful). In order to express the hypotheticality associated with polite requests, these constructions necessitate the use of imperfect subjunctive and conditional forms. However, in US Spanish, these verb forms are subject to a process of simplification and are often replaced with indicative forms. When indicative forms are preferred, speakers find other ways to express politeness. One alternative to hypothetical statements is the use of bare if-clauses, such as Si me puedes dejar el paquete en la puerta, por favor (If you can [could] leave the package at the door, please).
In this investigation, speakers from one noncontact variety and two contact varieties of Spanish were prompted to formulate requests. As contact with English increased, the use of bare if-clauses also increased. These results suggest that bare if-clauses are used as a politeness strategy in US Spanish to reference hypotheticality without the use of verb forms undergoing simplification.
