Free Choice Counterfactual Donkeys
- 17 July 2006
- journal article
- Published by Oxford University Press (OUP) in Journal of Semantics
- Vol. 23 (4), 383-402
- https://doi.org/10.1093/jos/ffl004
Abstract
We propose a straightforward analysis of counterfactual donkey sentences, by combining the Lewis/Stalnaker analysis of counterfactuals with standard dynamic semantics. The main idea is to define a similarity relation between world-assignment pairs such that two such pairs are unconnected if their assignments differ. We show that with the help of this ordering relation we can also account for a number of related problems involving disjunctions and the use of any in counterfactuals and permission sentences.Keywords
This publication has 1 reference indexed in Scilit:
- Pragmatic Meaning and Non-monotonic Reasoning: The Case of Exhaustive InterpretationLinguistics and Philosophy, 2006