Being pragmatic about anankastic conditionals (joint work with Jingyi Chen)

So-called ‘anankastic conditionals’, like (1), have vexed standard accounts of modals and conditionals, by presenting an apparent non compositionality problem. Indeed, (1) seems to express that going to Harlem requires taking the A train, rather than the mere desire to do so, a reading standard accounts can’t derive. This has led to proposals for a special semantics for want (Condoravdi & Lauer 2016) or a special semantics for conditionals involving goal-oriented modality (von Fintel & Iatridou 2005).

(1) If you want to go to Harlem, you have to take the A train.

In this talk, I will show that the apparent non-compositionality problem of anankastic conditionals is more general, and can be replicated with attitude verbs other than want, and across modal flavors: all can trigger what we call “harmonizing readings”. We offer a pragmatic account that generalizes across modal flavors and attitudes. Specifically, we argue that harmonizing arises when the meaning of the antecedent gives rise to a defeasible modal inference that matches in flavor with the consequent modal. This account predicts when harmonizing is possible, and when it isn’t, without relying on any flavor specific idiosyncrasies.

Location: Royce Hall 362