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Sequential disasters can also reinforce each other. Heat, droughts and flooding are often connected: hot air picks up more moisture; dry out soil enough and water will run off it like concrete. (From The Economist)

I'm not sure I understand the highlighted part correctly.

  1. If you dry out soil... then water will...
  2. If hot air drys out... then...

In which way would you understand this sentence?

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I’d say that your two suggested paraphrases are equivalent. That kind of you construct is essentially agentless, or anyway agent-agnostic. Consider

If you square a negative number, the result is positive.

It can be understood to describe what happens when one (you) performs some calculation. But it also has the sense of

The square of a negative number is positive.

It’s a bit like the meaning of pronominal verbs in, say, French or Spanish:

Le français se parle ici

literally translates as “French speaks itself here.” But its actual meaning is “French is spoken here,” or “Here there are French speakers.”

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  • Interpretation (1) is the normal paraphrase, but it feels a little weird. It's like saying "you" have super powers. So isn't it that (2) makes more sense?
    – ForOU
    Aug 28 at 14:19
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    @ForOU - when we use 'you' in that way, we are not referring to any person, and we can discuss things that no real person is able to do.
    – Michael Harvey
    Aug 28 at 14:24
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    You may be trying to treat English as though it were a completely internally consistent system. No natural language is. Consider, “If you wait long enough, the Sun will expand so much that it will nearly swallow the Earth.” Its meaning is scientifically valid, even though its literal wording would suggest that the speaker attributes to the listener a few billion years’ worth of patience.
    – Paul Tanenbaum
    Aug 28 at 14:25
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"dry out soil enough and water will run off it like concrete" means "If you dry out soil enough then water will run off it like concrete", yes.

I suppose you can phrase it generically like X&Y, but the Y and probably also the X need some features to fit into this "if x then y" interpretation. Usually, the phrase in place of Y will include a word like "will" or "going to". I wouldn't know how to stipulate the exact conditions where this phrase can be interpreted this way though, sorry.

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I've realized that you're focusing on who is accomplishing the task, I didn't really understand that before. The "You" in "If you dry out..." can be seen as an abstract "you", not actually referring to a real person doing something. "If you went to the center of jupiter, you would find that the gravity is bone-crushingly powerful" -- this isn't saying anything about an actual human who can actually travel to the center of jupiter, it's meant more to be a statement about the center of jupiter. The "you" is abstract/hypothetical - it doesn't have to be remotely possible for a person.`

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  • Thank you, TKol. But isn't that like saying "you" have super powers: nobody can actually dry out enough soil.
    – ForOU
    Aug 28 at 14:17
  • No, it's a dare like Go fight City Hall! An imperative.
    – Yosef Baskin
    Aug 28 at 14:22
  • @ForOU I'm not commenting on the practical nature of accomplishing the task, just the natural English interpretation of the text.
    – TKoL
    Aug 28 at 14:34
  • @ForOU I've realized that you're focusing on who is accomplishing the task, I didn't really understand that before. The "You" in "If you dry out..." can be seen as an abstract "you", not actually referring to a real person doing something. "If you went to the center of jupiter, you would find that the gravity is bone-crushingly powerful" -- this isn't saying anything about an actual human who can actually travel to the center of jupiter, it's meant more to be a statement about the center of jupiter. The "you" is abstract/hypothetical - it doesn't have to be remotely possible for a person.
    – TKoL
    Aug 28 at 14:44
  • As it’s currently written, your answer is unclear. Please edit to add additional details that will help others understand how this addresses the question asked. You can find more information on how to write good answers in the help center.
    – Community Bot
    Aug 28 at 16:52

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