Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Contributors
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- PART I GENERAL STUDIES
- PART II PARTICULAR STUDIES
- 5 ON THE INTERPRETATION OF ‘DONKEY’-SENTENCES
- 6 GENERIC INFORMATION, CONDITIONAL CONTEXTS AND CONSTRAINTS
- 7 DATA SEMANTICS AND THE PRAGMATICS OF INDICATIVE CONDITIONALS
- 8 REMARKS ON THE SEMANTICS AND PRAGMATICS OF CONDITIONALS
- 9 THE USE OF CONDITIONALS IN INDUCEMENTS AND DETERRENTS
- 10 CONDITIONALS AND SPEECH ACTS
- 11 CONSTRAINTS ON THE FORM AND MEANING OF THE PROTASIS
- 12 CONDITIONALS, CONCESSIVE CONDITIONALS AND CONCESSIVES: AREAS OF CONTRAST, OVERLAP AND NEUTRALIZATION
- 13 THE REALIS–IRREALIS CONTINUUM IN THE CLASSICAL GREEK CONDITIONAL
- 14 THE HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT OF si-CLAUSES IN ROMANCE
- 15 FIRST STEPS IN ACQUIRING CONDITIONALS
- 16 THE ACQUISITION OF TEMPORALS AND CONDITIONALS
- 17 CONDITIONALS ARE DISCOURSE-BOUND
- 18 CONDITIONALS IN DISCOURSE: A TEXT-BASED STUDY FROM ENGLISH
- Index of names
- Index of languages
- Index of subjects
7 - DATA SEMANTICS AND THE PRAGMATICS OF INDICATIVE CONDITIONALS
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 04 August 2010
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Contributors
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- PART I GENERAL STUDIES
- PART II PARTICULAR STUDIES
- 5 ON THE INTERPRETATION OF ‘DONKEY’-SENTENCES
- 6 GENERIC INFORMATION, CONDITIONAL CONTEXTS AND CONSTRAINTS
- 7 DATA SEMANTICS AND THE PRAGMATICS OF INDICATIVE CONDITIONALS
- 8 REMARKS ON THE SEMANTICS AND PRAGMATICS OF CONDITIONALS
- 9 THE USE OF CONDITIONALS IN INDUCEMENTS AND DETERRENTS
- 10 CONDITIONALS AND SPEECH ACTS
- 11 CONSTRAINTS ON THE FORM AND MEANING OF THE PROTASIS
- 12 CONDITIONALS, CONCESSIVE CONDITIONALS AND CONCESSIVES: AREAS OF CONTRAST, OVERLAP AND NEUTRALIZATION
- 13 THE REALIS–IRREALIS CONTINUUM IN THE CLASSICAL GREEK CONDITIONAL
- 14 THE HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT OF si-CLAUSES IN ROMANCE
- 15 FIRST STEPS IN ACQUIRING CONDITIONALS
- 16 THE ACQUISITION OF TEMPORALS AND CONDITIONALS
- 17 CONDITIONALS ARE DISCOURSE-BOUND
- 18 CONDITIONALS IN DISCOURSE: A TEXT-BASED STUDY FROM ENGLISH
- Index of names
- Index of languages
- Index of subjects
Summary
Editors' note. This chapter proposes a clear criterion for a demarcation between the semantics and pragmatics of indicative conditionals, based on a dynamic logic known as data semantics and a relative notion of truth (for which it is criticized by Adams). Gricean maxims are given a central explanatory role in accounting for conditionals. As a model for information processing, data semantics shows similarities to Situation Semantics (see the chapters by Barwise and ter Meulen). Discussion of the interaction between modals and conditionals is also to be found in Greenberg's contribution.
INTRODUCTION
Some arguments are logically valid but pragmatically incorrect. Others are pragmatically correct but logically invalid. Grice's Logic and conversation (1975) taught us to draw these distinctions, but unfortunately most of us draw them differently. What one calls a logically valid argument form with a few pragmatically incorrect instances is for another a logically invalid argument form with many pragmatically correct instances. For example, if you believe that indicative conditionals behave like material or strict implications, you will be ready to point out that the intuitively absurd argument.
(1) If Jones wins the election, Smith will retire to private life
If Smith dies before the election, Jones will win it
∴ If Smith dies before the election, he will retire to private life
is just a pragmatically incorrect instance of the logically valid Hypothetical Syllogism:
(2) If B then C
If A then B
∴ If A then C
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- On Conditionals , pp. 147 - 168Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1986
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