Choose an application

• Reference Manager
• EndNote
• RefWorks (Direct export to RefWorks)

The conditional, if...then, is probably the most important term in natural language and forms the core of systems of logic and mental representation. It occurs in all human languages and allows people to express their knowledge of the causal or law-like structure of the world and of others' behaviour, e.g., if you turn the key the car starts, if John walks the dog he stops for a pint of beer; to make promises, e.g., if you cook tonight, I'll wash up all week; to regulate behaviour, e.g., if you are drinking beer, you must be over 18 years of age; to suggest what would have happened had things been different, e.g., if the match had been dry it would have lit, among many other possible uses. The way in which the conditional is modelled also determines the core of most logical systems. Unsurprisingly, it is also the most researched expression in the psychology of human reasoning. Cognition and Conditionals is the first volume for over 20 years (On Conditionals, 1986, CUP) that brings together recent developments in the cognitive science and psychology of conditional reasoning. Over the last 10 to 15 years, research on conditionals has come to dominate the psychology of reasoning providing a rich seam of results that have created new theoretical possibilities. This book shows how these developments have led researchers to view people's conditional reasoning behaviour more as succesful probabilistic reasoning rather than as errorful logical reasoning. It shows how the multifarious, and apparently competing, theoretical positions developed over the last 50 years in this area - mental logics, mental models, heuristic approaches, dual process theory, and probabilistic approaches-have responded to these insights. Its organisation reflects the view that an integrative approach is emerging that may need to exploit aspects of all these theoretical positions to explain the rich and complex phenomenon of reasoning with conditionals. It includes an introductory chapter relating the development of the psychology of reasoning to developments in the logic and semantics of the conditional. It also includes chapters by many of the leading figures in this field. Cognition and Conditionals will be a valuable resource for cognitive scientists, psychologists and philosophers interested how people actually reason with conditionals.

Cognitive psychology --- Logic --- Psycholinguistics --- Grammar, Comparative and general --- Logic. --- Thought and thinking. --- Thinking. --- Cognition. --- Linguistics. --- Conditionals. --- Thought and thinking --- Cognition --- Linguistics --- Conditionals --- Grammar, Comparative and general - Conditionals

Choose an application

• Reference Manager
• EndNote
• RefWorks (Direct export to RefWorks)

In this book, Michela Ippolito proposes a compositional semantics for subjunctive (or would) conditionals in English that accounts for their felicity conditions and the constraints on the satisfaction of their presuppositions by capitalizing on the occurrence of past tense morphology in both antecedent and consequent clauses. Very little of the extensive literature on subjunctive conditionals tries to account for the meaning of these sentences compositionally or to relate this meaning to their linguistic form; this book fills that gap, connecting the different lines of research on conditionals. Ippolito’s proposal will be of interest both to linguists and to philosophers concerned with conditionals and modality more generally.Ippolito reviews previous analyses of counterfactuals and subjunctive conditionals in the work of David Lewis, Robert Stalnaker, Angelika Kratzer, and others; considers the contrast between future simple past subjunctive conditionals and future past perfect subjunctive conditionals; presents a proposal for subjunctive conditionals that addresses puzzles left unsolved by previous proposals; reviews a number of presupposition triggers showing that they fit the pattern predicted by her proposal; and discusses an asymmetry between the past and the future among subjunctive conditionals, arguing that the best account of our linguistic intuitions must include an indeterministic view of the world.

Grammar --- Grammar, Comparative and general --- Modality (Linguistics) --- Semantics. --- Formal semantics --- Semasiology --- Semiology (Semantics) --- Comparative linguistics --- Information theory --- Language and languages --- Lexicology --- Meaning (Psychology) --- Linguistics --- Conjunctive mood --- Subjunctive mood --- Conditionals (Grammar) --- Hypothetical clauses (Grammar) --- Protasis (Grammar) --- Conditionals. --- Subjunctive. --- Mood --- Conditional clauses --- Conditional constructions --- Conditional sentences --- Hypothetical clauses --- Protasis --- Sentences --- Semantics --- Conditionals --- Subjunctive --- Philology --- Grammar, Comparative and general - Conditionals --- Grammar, Comparative and general - Subjunctive

Choose an application

• Reference Manager
• EndNote
• RefWorks (Direct export to RefWorks)

Conditional constructions have long fascinated linguists, grammarians and philosophers. In this pioneering new study, Barbara Dancygier and Eve Sweetser offer a new descriptive framework for the study of conditionality, broadening the range of richly described conditional constructions. They explore theoretical issues such as the mental-space-building processes underlying conditional thinking and the form-meaning relationship involved in expressing conditionality. Using a broad range of attested English conditional constructions, the book examines inter-constructional relationships. Within the framework of Mental Spaces Theory, shared parameters of meaning are shown to be relevant to conditional constructions generally, as well as related temporal and causal constructions. This significant contribution to the field will be welcomed by a wide range of researchers in theoretical and cognitive linguistics.

801.56 --- 801.56 Syntaxis. Semantiek --- Syntaxis. Semantiek --- Conditionals. --- Cognitive grammar --- Grammar, Comparative and general --- Semantics --- Formal semantics --- Semasiology --- Semiology (Semantics) --- Comparative linguistics --- Information theory --- Language and languages --- Lexicology --- Meaning (Psychology) --- Conditionals (Grammar) --- Hypothetical clauses (Grammar) --- Protasis (Grammar) --- Cognitive linguistics --- Psycholinguistics --- Conditionals --- Conditional clauses --- Conditional constructions --- Conditional sentences --- Hypothetical clauses --- Protasis --- Mood --- Sentences --- Lexicology. Semantics --- Grammar --- Cognitive grammar. --- Semantics. --- Arts and Humanities --- Language & Linguistics --- Linguistics --- Philology --- Grammar, Comparative and general - Conditionals.