Conditionals as Definite Descriptions ( A Referential Analysis ) 1 Philippe Schlenker
نویسنده
چکیده
In Counterfactuals, David Lewis noticed that definite descriptions and conditionals display the same kind of non-monotonic behavior. We take his observation literally and suggest that if-clauses are, quite simply, definite descriptions of possible worlds (related ideas are developed in Bittner 2001). We depart from Lewis's analysis, however, in claiming that if-clauses, like Strawsonian definite descriptions, refer. We develop our analysis by drawing both on Stalnaker's Selection Function theory of conditionals and on von Heusinger's Choice Function theory of definiteness, and by generalizing their analyses to plural Choice/Selection Functions. Finally, we explore some consequences of this referential approach: being definites, if-clauses can be topicalized; the word then can be analyzed as a pronoun that doubles the referential term; the syntactician’s Binding Theory constrains possible anaphoric relations between the if-clause and the word then; and general systems of referential classification can be applied to situate the denotation of the descriptive term, yielding a distinction between indicative, subjunctive and ‘double subjunctive’ conditionals.
منابع مشابه
Topics as Speech Acts: An Analysis of Conditionals
In this paper we show that syntactic similarities and differences between normal indicative conditionals (henceforth: ICs) and biscuit conditionals (henceforth: BCs) with fronted antecedents correspond to syntactic similarities and differences between two kinds of topic marking constructions: aboutness topic marking via German Left Dislocation (henceforth: GLD), on the one hand, and the marking...
متن کاملOn Definite Descriptions , Condition C and Epithets
Following a general line explored by Bolinger, Reinhart, Levinson and Schein, we seek to derive Condition C of the Binding Theory from a Gricean maxim of minimization (Minimize Restrictors!), which specifies that a definite description the A B is deviant if A could be dropped without affecting (i) the denotation of the description, and (ii) its various pragmatic effects. Thus the small (America...
متن کاملNotes on presupposition and order of composition 1
The standard judgment (which I share) is that (1a) asserts rather than presupposes that France has a king. In contrast, (1b) presupposes that France has a king. Assuming that the and in (1) is the simple bivalent logical connective, the key difference appears to be the linear order of the conjuncts: in (1b), the information that France has a king arrives too late to help satisfy the presupposit...
متن کاملEarly Interpretation by Implicature in Definite Referential Descriptions
This paper discusses the processes by which dialogue participants incrementally compute the conveyed meaning of referential descriptions. I show that some of the phenomena observed in the psycholinguistics literature can be accounted for by theories of conversational implicature that exploit ingredients from computational models of Referring Expression Generation. The result is a system that co...
متن کامل