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The aim of this article is to examine the possible relations between form and meaning in some formal types of conditionals. To keep the investigation within manageable proportions, the author restricts himself to the three "canonical" forms of conditionals: the types illustrated by I will do it if you help me, I would do it if you helped me and I would have done it if you had helped me. The conclusionfrom the investigation is that these three forms correspond with quite an array ofdifferent interpretations -- thirty-nine in all -- even ifone limits oneself (äs the author does) to the possible-world readings oftwo types of "case-specifying" conditionals, viz. actualization conditionals like You will be punished if you do that and inferential conditionals like If the murder is proved, he will get a life sentence. The thirty-nine interpretations considered all belong to six sets of possible-world readings: the conditional clause ofsuch a case-specifying conditional may befactual, neutral, closed, open, hypothetical or counterfactual L Introduction Declerck & Reed (forthcoming) offer a rieh typology of conditional sentences on the basis of their semantic, pragmatic and functional characteristics. Cutting across this typology is another one, which is based on purely formal
Journal of Literary Semantics – de Gruyter
Published: Jan 1, 2000
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