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I know that もし translates to "if", but I dont know exactly when or how it
should be used. I was reading Yoko Hasegawa's Japanese: a linguistic
introduction. In the chapter on conditional clauses, some sentences begins
with もし, others dont. Example: もし電気がついて（いれば・いたら・いる なら）、彼は家にいるだろう。versus 会員（で
あれば・だったら・なら・だ と）、割引があります。(the original text is in romaji, I transcribed to
hiragana for better understanding)

Since たら, なら, ば or と already express the idea of conditional, what is もし doing
here? Does it have any additional function beyond those in the 4 conditional
particles? If it does, what is this function, and if it doesnt, why is it
included?
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2018-10-08T00:15:09.500
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conditionals
What is the function of もし？
One notable difference is that it disambiguates たら. This is because たら can be
used to mean "if", and it can also be used to mean "then". However, if you
combine もし and たら, then it becomes clear that it has the meaning of "if".
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2018-10-08T00:19:53.950
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```

    「もうし」の音変化》相手に呼びかけるときに言う語。「もし、そちらの方」出典：デジタル大辞泉（小学館）
    
```

As [the above](https://dictionary.goo.ne.jp/jn/219076/meaning/m0u/), もし itself
is a word like "excuse me". However, it ideomatically functions as an
indicator that tells that a conditional clause follows next, which helps you
comprehend what otherwise wouldn't be revealed until the last conjugation.

The same thing can be said about あまり、別に、何も (adverb) for partial negation, 決して
for permanent negation or なぜならば or なぜかと言うと for reasoning clauses, the last one
of which is also the same in the point that it doesn't have extra semantic
value besides what's combined with.

This type of words are called 呼応の副詞 (Guiding Adverb).
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answer