Can the word, "paradigm," be used to denote a feature of a programming language? Can I say that if statements are a programming paradigm? Can I say selection is a programming paradigm? What does paradigm shift mean?

Did you think about maybe looking up the meaning?.

The answers should be self-evident from that.

Yes, but I still don't know if it's appropriate in the context I mentioned.

Here's my specific confusion:

Are if statements, in general, a paradigm, or is a common use of if statements a paradigm?

Not really I think. A paradigm is a philosophy or a specific programming methodology, often supported by the language you write in. An if statement is too general since it's just a conditional jump. See the wikipedia entry on 'programming paradigm'.

Paradigm shift in programming would be if you had always programmed in assembler and then switched to a functional language like lisp.

Try looking up the meaning in relation to programming.

Got it, thanks.