Gergely Bottyán:
Truth conditions vs. use conditions: Some aspects of the semantics of conditional if-sentences
Abstract:
This paper investigates whether conditional if-sentences can be handled in classical truth-conditional semantics. Its structure is as follows. First, the status of constructions in Chomsky’s research program is discussed and the object of the present investigation is identified. Second, the truth-conditional approach to semantics and the material implication operation are briefly described. Third, it is argued that although there are some conditional if-sentences that are used very similarly to conditional propositions, the use conditions of the majority of such sentences are not identical to those of their logical counterparts.
