Showing papers on "Antecedent (grammar) published in 1986"

Do Conditionals Have Truth Conditions

Abstract: In the first part of this paper (§§ 2 and 4) I rule out the possibility of truth conditions for the indicative conditional 'If A, B' which are a truth function of A and B. In the second part (§ 6) I rule out the possibility that such a conditional has truth conditions which are not a truth function of A and B; I rule out accounts which appeal, for example, to a stronger-than-truth-functional "connection" between antecedent and consequent, which may or may not be framed in terms of a relation between possible worlds, in stating what has to be the case for 'If A, B' to be true. I conclude, therefore, that the mistake philosophers have made, in trying to understand the conditional, is to assume that its function is to make a statement about how the world is (or how other possible worlds are related to it), true or false, as the case may be. Along the way (§§ 3 and 5) I develop a positive account of what it is to believe, or to be more or less confident, that if A, B, in terms oi which an adequate logic oi conditionals can be developed. The argument against truth conditions is independent oi this positive account oi the conditional, as I show that any truth-conditional account has counterintuitive consequences, as well as clashing with my positive thesis. But the positive account prevents the paper from merely having created a paradox, or a vacuum. The paper is inspired by Ernest Adams' book, The Logic 01 Corulitionals? My positive thesis is a less technical variant

On anaphor binding in Russian

Abstract: It has been demonstrated that the reciprocal pronoun in Russian is a strict anaphor: it must have an antecedent in its governing category. The only respect in which the reciprocal is problematic for the formulation of Binding Theory assumed here is the absence of the i/i effect. The absence of the i/i effect is shared by the Russian reflexive pronouns, suggesting that the governing category is defined differently in Russian than in English. In particular, English imposes the requirement that the SUBJECT of a governing category not violate the ‘i-within-i’ well-formedness condition given in (29b), while Russian does not.

E-type Pronouns and ϵ-terms

Abstract: I want to try to show that there are pronouns with quantifier antecedents that function in a quite different way. Such pronouns typically stand in a different grammatical relation to their antecedents, and, in contrast with bound pronouns, must be assigned a reference, so that their most immediate sentential contexts can always be assigned a truth value. The relevant grammatical relation appears to be Klima's relation of 'in construction with'. When the pronoun is in construction with its antecedent, as in (4) ['Some man loves his mother'] and (5) ['No man is happy when he is in love'] the result is a bound pronoun. But when it is not, as in

Children's Awareness of Television's Prosocial Fare Parental Discipline as an Antecedent

Abstract: This study examines the parental disciplinary practices under which children's awareness of prosocial TV portrayals are likely to be maximized and minimized. Two types of enduring parental styles of discipline—induction and sensitization—were extracted from the literature on children's moral development and applied to social learning from television. Data were gathered from a field survey that employed mother-child pairs. Results indicate that children of parents who are primarily inductive had a greater awareness of television's prosocial fare and demonstrated a greater propensity for prosocial solutions to conflict than did children whose parents were primarily sensitizing. These findings are significant in regard to the increasing body of research on the social intervention of the relationship between children and television.

The Judge as Linguist: Linguistic Principles as a Rule of Law.

Abstract: The role of court judges as linguists is discussed. Linguistic issues arise in courts when lawyers attempt to convince a court that a statute, insurance policy, or contract should be interpreted as favoring their own client's interests, with respect to resolving a dispute that depends on the proper construal of a particular document. An examination of what judges say about linguistics and about their role as linguists casts some light on the judicial process. It is maintained that linguistic principles do not operate as the courts claim they do. Moreover, disputes exist even among judges in the same court about both the proper characterization of linguistic rules and their relevance to the decisionmaking process. The "last antecedent rule" is discussed in its application to a California case, "Anderson v. State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Co. (1969)." The linguistic processing strategies used with the "last antecedent rule" are also described, and rules governing the interpretation of "the" and "and" are reviewed. It is concluded that the use of linguistic principles can provide legitimacy to the legal system, creating the illusion of science as the basis for decision making. (DJD) ************************************************************Ww********* Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. *********************************************************************** 0 The Tudge as Linguist: Linguistic Principles as Rule of Law