On Conditionals

On Conditionals provides the first major cross-disciplinary account of conditional (if-then) constructions. Conditional sentences directly reflect the language user's ability to reason about alternatives, uncertainties, and unrealised contingencies. An understanding of the conceptual and behavioural organisation involved in the construction and interpretation of these kinds of sentences therefore provides fundamental insights into the inferential strategies and the cognitive and linguistic processes of human beings. The present volume brings together studies from several perspectives - philosophical, linguistic and psychological - and aims to emphasise the intrinsic connections between the issues to be addressed and to point to new directions for interdisciplinary work.

Part I. General Studies: 1. Overview Charles A. Gerguson, Judy Snitzer Reilly, Alice ter Meulen and Elizabeth Closs Traugott; 2. Conditionals and conditional information John Barwise; 3. Conditions and mental models P. N. Johnson-Laird; 4. Conditionals: a typology Bernard Comrie; Part II. Particular Studies: 5. On the interpretation of 'donkey'-sentences Tanya Reinhart; 6. Generic information, conditional contexts and constraints Alice ter Meulen; 7. Data semantics and the pragmatics of indicative conditionals Frank Verltman; 8. Remarks on the semantics and pragmatics of conditionals Ernest W. Adams; 9. The use of conditionals in inducements and deterrents Samuel Fillenbaum; 10. Conditionals and speech acts Johan van der Auwera; 11. Constraints on the form and meaning of the protasis John Haiman; 12. Conditionals, concessive conditionals and concessives: areas of contrast, overlap and neutralization Ekkehard König; 13. The realis-irrealis continuum in the classical Greek conditional Joseph H. Greenberg; 14. The historical development of SI-clauses in Romance Martin B. Harris; 15. First steps in acquiring conditionals Melissa Bowerman; 16. The acquisition of temporals and conditionals Judy Snitzer Reilly; 17. Conditionals are discourse-bound Noriko Akatsuka; 18. Conditionals in discourse: a text-based study from English Cecilia E. Ford and Sandra A. Thomspon; Indices.

On Conditionals provides the first major cross-disciplinary account of conditional (if-then) constructions. This book brings together studies from several perspectives - philosophical, linguistic and psychological - and aims to emphasise the intrinsic connections between the issues to be addressed and to point to new directions for interdisciplinary work.