Open AccessCounterfactuals and Conditional Questions under Discussion
Author(s) -
Michela Ippolito
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
proceedings from semantics and linguistic theory
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2163-5951
pISSN - 2163-5943
DOI - 10.3765/salt.v0i0.2659
Subject(s) - counterfactual conditional , counterfactual thinking , context (archaeology) , similarity (geometry) , possible world , set (abstract data type) , computer science , measure (data warehouse) , order (exchange) , epistemology , mathematical economics , artificial intelligence , mathematics , data mining , philosophy , economics , finance , image (mathematics) , programming language , paleontology , biology
In this paper I investigate the issue of the context-dependence of counterfactual conditionals and how the context constrains similarity in selecting the right set of worlds necessary in order to arrive at their correct truth-conditions. I will review previous proposals and conclude that the puzzle of how we measure similarity and thus resolve the context-dependence of counterfactuals remains unsolved. I will then consider an alternative based on the idea of discourse structure and the concept of a question under discussion.