Modal interpretation of tense in subjunctive conditionals

Tense in Simple Conditionals

On the Semantic Composition of Subjunctive Conditionals

In this paper, I offer a unified semantic analysis of subjunctive conditionals that purports to account for their truth and felicity-conditions. The proposal is centered on the claim that the temporal morphology that occurs in subjunctive conditionals in several genetically unrelated languages plays an essential role in the composition of their meaning. I will argue for a time-dependent notion ...

Tense and Aspect in Swing Conditionals

It is often assumed that French (like Greek) requires imperfective aspect as a counterfactual (CF) marker in the antecedent of PSCs (cf. e.g. [Iatridou, 2000]). This should explain why we find in the antecedent of PSCs the plus que parfait, combining imperfective morphology with a layer of perfect, cf. (1). Tenses without imperfective morphology, i.a. the passé composé (that has both simple pas...

Modal Realism with Modal Tense

Modal realists should fashion their theory by postulating and taking seriously the modal equivalent of tense, or modal tense. This will give them a uniform way to respond to five different objections, one each by Skyrms, Quine, and Peacocke, and two by van Inwagen, and suggest a non-Lewisian path to modal realism. 0. Introduction The extensive parallel between temporal logic and modal logic has...

Comments on Juan Comesana: Knowledge and Subjunctive Conditionals

Juan Comesana considers some recent proposals regarding the relation between knowledge and subjunctive conditionals, including those by Dretske and Nozick recommending a " sensitivity " condition on knowledge, and by Sosa recommending a " safety " condition. Comesana raises problems for each of the positions he considers, and at the end of the paper he expresses pessimism about the prospects fo...