Modal interpretation of tense in subjunctive conditionals
Abstract
The paper gives an account of the meaning of subjunctive conditionals according to which the past tense receives a modal interpretation. The view allows the worlds of the antecedent to include the world of the context of utterance, and thus it avoids a problem pointed out by Mackay (2015) for previous modal views of the past tense in subjunctive conditionals. I argue that it also explains a variety of facts about the relationship among subjunctive morphology, counterfactuality, and presupposition.
EARLY ACCESS
EARLY ACCESS
Keywords
conditionals; counterfactuals; tense; subjunctive; past
Full Text:
PDFDOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3765/sp.12.2
License URL: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0
ISSN: 1937-8912
Journal doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.3765/sp