Coordinating Ifs. (21st May 2021)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Khoo, Justin
• Is Part Of: Journal of semantics. Volume 38:Number 2(2021)
• Page Start: 341
• Page End: 361
• Publication Date: 2021-05-21
• Subjects: Semantics -- Periodicals; Semantik; Semantics; Periodicals; 401.43
• DOI: 10.1093/jos/ffab006
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0167-5133

Abstract

Abstract: Accounting for the behavior of conjoined and disjoined if -clauses is not easy for standard theories of conditionals that treat if as either an operator or restrictor. In this paper, I discuss four observations about coordinated if -clauses, and motivate a semantics for conditionals that reorients the compositional structure of the restrictor theory. On my proposal, if -clauses provide restrictions on modal domains, but they do so by way of a higher type intermediary—a set of propositions—that is collapsed by the modal. I argue that combining this view with an independently plausible type-shifting operation applied to or and and predicts the range of data we find for conditionals with coordinated if -clauses.