Open main menu
Home
Random
Recent changes
Special pages
Community portal
Preferences
About Wikipedia
Disclaimers
Incubator escapee wiki
Search
User menu
Talk
Dark mode
Contributions
Create account
Log in
Editing
Counterfactual conditional
(section)
Warning:
You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you
log in
or
create an account
, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.
Anti-spam check. Do
not
fill this in!
=== Terminology === <!-- Given the vast but often subtle differences in terminology, this section has to be edited with a lot of care. Before clicking "publish changes", please consider whether the resulting text will help a reader understand how these terms are used. If the resulting text reads like a "is a hotdog a sandwich debate?" with all the character cues removed, please don't click "publish changes". In particular, please be sure to (1) clearly distinguish factual claims from definitions of terms (2) remember that different sources may use a single term in different ways (3) situate each term or usage of a term by giving a framework-neutral explanation of how it is used.--> The term ''counterfactual conditional'' is widely used as an umbrella term for the kinds of sentences shown above. However, not all conditionals of this sort express contrary-to-fact meanings. For instance, the classic example known as the "Anderson Case" has the characteristic grammatical form of a counterfactual conditional, but does not convey that its antecedent is false or unlikely.<ref name = "vonfintel98" >{{cite encyclopedia |last1=von Fintel |first1=Kai |editor-last1=Sauerland |editor-first1=Uli |editor-last2=Percus |editor-first2=Oren |encyclopedia=The Interpretive Tract |title=The Presupposition of Subjunctive Conditionals |year=1998 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |pages=29–44|url=http://web.mit.edu/fintel/fintel-1998-subjunctive.pdf}}</ref><ref name="Conditionals">{{cite encyclopedia |last1=Egré |first1=Paul | last2=Cozic |first2=Mikaël |editor-last1=Aloni |editor-first1=Maria|editor1-link=Maria Aloni |editor-last2=Dekker |editor-first2=Paul |encyclopedia=Cambridge Handbook of Formal Semantics |title=Conditionals |year=2016 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-1-107-02839-5 |pages=515}}</ref> * '''Anderson Case''': If Jones had taken arsenic, he would have shown just exactly those symptoms which he does in fact show.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Anderson |first1=Alan |date=1951 |title=A Note on Subjunctive and Counterfactual Conditionals |journal=Analysis |volume=12 |issue = 2|pages=35–38|doi=10.1093/analys/12.2.35 }}</ref> Such conditionals are also widely referred to as ''subjunctive conditionals'', though this term is likewise acknowledged as a misnomer even by those who use it.<ref>See for instance [https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/e68d/612d7a93c98956e7314e0d131d90244c31f2.pdf Ippolito (2002)]: "Because ''subjunctive'' and ''indicative'' are the terms used in the philosophical literature on conditionals and because we will refer to that literature in the course of this paper, I have decided to keep these terms in the present discussion... however, it would be wrong to believe that mood choice is a necessary component of the semantic contrast between indicative and subjunctive conditionals." Also, [http://web.mit.edu/fintel/fintel-2011-hsk-conditionals.pdf von Fintel (2011)] "The terminology is of course linguistically inept ([since] the morphological marking is one of tense and aspect, not of indicative vs. subjunctive mood), but it is so deeply entrenched that it would be foolish not to use it."</ref> Many languages do not have a morphological [[subjunctive]] (e.g. [[Danish grammar|Danish]] and [[Dutch grammar|Dutch]]) and many that do have it do not use it for this sort of conditional (e.g. [[French grammar|French]], [[Swahili grammar|Swahili]], all [[Indo-Aryan languages]] that have a subjunctive). Moreover, languages that do use the subjunctive for such conditionals only do so if they have a specific past subjunctive form. Thus, subjunctive marking is neither necessary nor sufficient for membership in this class of conditionals.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Iatridou |first1=Sabine |date=2000 |title=The grammatical ingredients of counterfactuality |journal= Linguistic Inquiry |volume=31 |issue = 2|pages=231–270|doi=10.1162/002438900554352 |s2cid=57570935 |url=http://lingphil.mit.edu/papers/iatridou/counterfactuality.pdf}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1= Kaufmann |first1= Stefan |s2cid= 60598513 |date=2005 |title=Conditional predictions |journal= Linguistics and Philosophy |volume=28 |issue = 2|doi= 10.1007/s10988-005-3731-9 |at=183-184}}</ref><ref name="Conditionals"/> The terms ''counterfactual'' and ''subjunctive'' have sometimes been repurposed for more specific uses. For instance, the term "counterfactual" is sometimes applied to conditionals that express a contrary-to-fact meaning, regardless of their grammatical structure.<ref name = "lewis73" >{{cite book |last=Lewis |first=David |date=1973 |title= Counterfactuals |location=Cambridge, MA |publisher=Harvard University Press|isbn= 9780631224952}}</ref><ref name = "vonfintel98" /> Along similar lines, the term "subjunctive" is sometimes used to refer to conditionals that bear fake past or irrealis marking, regardless of the meaning they convey.<ref name = "lewis73" /><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Khoo |first1=Justin |date=2015 |title=On Indicative and Subjunctive Conditionals |url=https://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/p/pod/dod-idx/on-indicative-and-subjunctive-conditionals.pdf?c=phimp;idno=3521354.0015.032;format=pdf |journal=Philosophers' Imprint |volume=15 |issue=32}}</ref> Recently the term ''X-Marked'' has been proposed as a replacement, evoking the ''ex''tra marking that these conditionals bear. Those adopting this terminology refer to indicative conditionals as ''O-Marked'' conditionals, reflecting their {{not a typo|''o''rdinary}} marking.<ref>von Fintel, Kai; Iatridou, Sabine. [http://web.mit.edu/fintel/fintel-iatridou-2019-x-slides.pdf Prolegomena to a theory of X-marking ] Unpublished lecture slides.</ref><ref>von Fintel, Kai; Iatridou, Sabine. [https://web.mit.edu/fintel/ks-x-phlip-slides.pdf X-marked desires or: What wanting and wishing crosslinguistically can tell us about the ingredients of counterfactuality ] Unpublished lecture slides.</ref><ref name="Linguistic Society of America"/> The ''antecedent'' of a conditional is sometimes referred to as its ''"if"-clause'' or ''protasis''. The ''consequent'' of a conditional is sometimes referred to as a ''"then"''-clause or as an apodosis.
Edit summary
(Briefly describe your changes)
By publishing changes, you agree to the
Terms of Use
, and you irrevocably agree to release your contribution under the
CC BY-SA 4.0 License
and the
GFDL
. You agree that a hyperlink or URL is sufficient attribution under the Creative Commons license.
Cancel
Editing help
(opens in new window)