On certain conditionals (PhD thesis)
Alexander Wimmer
November 2020
 

This thesis deals with some issues in the semantics of conditionals. Two of its three main parts are about counterfactuals (CFs). Chapter 2 treats German CF-wishes as implicitly conditionalized, following an idea by von Fintel & Iatridou 2017, and CF-marking on German 'wünschen' ('wish') as semantically vacuous. Chapter 3 reports an acceptability rating study on false antecedents in German present CFs, whose distinctive mood is the Konjunktiv 2 (K2). The empirical aim is to tease apart three different views one may entertain on the relation between the K2 and the indicative. Chapter 4, finally, is about two scalar particles, Mandarin 'jiu' and German 'schon'. Put into a conditional consequent, they each convey what Grosz 2012 calls minimal sufficiency. Building on 'jiu'-accounts by Lai 1999 and Liu 2017, this interpretive effect is ascribed to a presupposition of scalar lowness that both particles come with.
Format: [ pdf ]
Reference: lingbuzz/005573
(please use that when you cite this article)
Published in: Tübingen, Germany
keywords: conditionals, counterfactuals, attitude verbs, presuppositions, maximize presupposition, scalar particles, verbal mood, agreement, semantics
previous versions: v2 [November 2020]
v1 [November 2020]
Downloaded:663 times

 

[ edit this article | back to article list ]