Originally posted by Kalleh:
Julia Keller, the Cultural Critic in the Chicago Tribune, discussed Vice President Cheney's use of "if you will" today. She calls it a "verbal nicety...a quaint, effete, fuddy-duddy of a phrase." Further, she says, it "sounds excessively refined and a trifle sissified. 'If you will' sounds as if it ought to be uttered with a French accent."
Geoffrey
Pullum, one of my favorite linguists, has weighed in on the phrase, too. Pullum says that the phrase is a way of "hedging," (though is Cheney a hedger?). However, it may then be Cheney's antiquated way of hedging, as Cheney is 65 and a bit antiquated himself.
Pullum says, indeed, "if you will" may be an antiquated variation of "like," as in "I drank so much last night that I was, like, puking my guts out." (Can you imagine "if you will" there?
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