The Presupposition of Subjunctive Conditionals.pdf

《The Presupposition of Subjunctive Conditionals.pdf》由会员上传分享，免费在线阅读，更多相关内容在学术论文-天天文库。

1、ThePresuppositionofSubjunctiveConditionalsKaivonFintelM.I.T.0.IntroductionWhyaresomeconditionalssubjunctive?Itisoftenassumedthatatleastonecrucialdifferenceisthatsubjunctiveconditionalspresupposethattheirantecedentisfalse,thattheyarecounterfactual(Lakoff1970).Thetraditionaltheo

2、ryhasapparentlybeenrefuted.Perhapstheclearestcounter-exampleisonegivenbyAlanAnderson(1951:37):IfJoneshadtakenarsenic,hewouldhaveshownjustexactlythosesymptomswhichhedoesinfactshow.Atypicalplacetousesuchasubjunctiveconditionalwouldbeinthecourseofanargumentthattriestobolsterthehy

3、pothesisthatJonesdidinfacttakearsenic.Butthenitwouldofcoursebeself-defeatingtopresupposethatthehypothesisisfalse.Thus,somethingelsemustbegoingon.1.PreliminariesLetÕsfirstassumethefollowingÒstrictÓsemanticsforÒbareÓconditionals,thoseinwhichtheif-clauserestrictsanimplicitquantif

4、ieroverworlds:(1)SchematicTruth-ConditionsforBareConditionalsAbareconditionalifp,qhasthelogicalform"D(ifp)(q).Ifdefined,itistrueinaworldwiffallworldsw'inD(w)suchthatp(w')aresuchthatq(w'):pÇD(w)Íq.HereDisafunctionthatassignstoany(evaluation)worldwasetofaccessibleworlds.Thissema

5、nticsdepartsinsomewaysfromthemorestandardStalnaker-Lewisanalysisandisjustifiedinarecentpaperofmine(vonFintel1997).Whatit*ThankstoPaulPortnerforveryhelpfulcommentsonapreviousdraft.ThankstoIreneHeimforlettingmeseealettertoherfromStanleyPetersaboutthesematters.ThankstoSabineIatri

6、dou,whopersuadedmetosharethepreviousdraftmorewidelyandthusforcedmetofaceuptoitsshortcomings.ThankstoUliSauerlandforeditorialcommentsandacoupleoflastminutecorrections.February1997(minimallyrevisedJune1997)forthcominginMITWorkingPapersinLinguistics25,eds.OrinPercusandUliSauerlan

7、dbasicallysaysisthatifp,qistrueinaworldwiffallp-worldsw'inthecurrentlyrelevantcontextuallydetermineddomainofquantificationD(w)areq-worlds.1WealsoassumeaÒcompatibilitypresuppositionÓ:(C)CompatibilityPresuppositionAconditionalifp,qisonlydefinedforaworldwifthecontextualdomainofqu

8、antificationD(w)includesp-worlds:pÇD(w)¹Æ.Arguablyanyquantifi