Conditional Perfection: An Alternative View

• 영문명: Conditional Perfection: An Alternative View
• 발행기관: 한국영미어문학회
• 저자명: Jae-gyun Song
• 간행물 정보: 『영미어문학』영미어문학(TAEGU REVIEW) 제68호, 211~225쪽, 전체 15쪽
• 주제분류: 어문학 > 영어와문학
• 파일형태: PDF
• 발행일자: 2003.10.01

영문 초록

This paper proposes an alternative view of conditional perfection, i.e. the inference from if p, q to if not p, not q, which is free from the flaws of two major analyses. I show that conditional perfection is an inference which stems from the lexical properties of if. If is semantically related to a yes/no-question, and therefore, induces a set of polarity alternatives, if p, q and if not p, q. The implicature of conditional perfection derives from Horn scale , which is constructed from the set of polarity alternatives. Considering the core meaning of if p, q is p's sufficiency for q, i.e. q is true if p is true, the truth of q is an open possibility when p is false. By the way, if if not p, q were also true when if p, q is uttered, then the speaker would be expected to say the more informative whether p or not, q. Since she didn't, the audience infers that it is not the case that whether p or not, q, which consequently leads to the perfection implicature if not p, not q.

목차

I. Introduction

II. Two-Competing Analyses

III. Proposal

IV. Conclusion

References