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Imperatives in conditional conjunction

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Abstract

This paper provides evidence for an ambiguity of bare VPs in the English conditional conjunction construction. This ambiguity, undetected by previous researchers, provides a key to the development of a compositional semantic analysis of conditional conjunction with imperative first conjuncts. The analysis combines existing semantic theories of imperatives, the future tense, modal subordination, and speech act conjunction to yield the correct semantics without further stipulation.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Cognitive and Linguistic Sciences, Brown University, Box 1978, Providence, RI, 02912, USA

    Benjamin Russell

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  1. Benjamin Russell
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Correspondence to Benjamin Russell.

Additional information

This paper benefitted tremendously from the helpful comments of two anonymous reviewers and the audience at the 2005 Southern New England Workshop in Semantics, as well as from discussions with Kai von Fintel and Julie Sedivy, who served on the committee for an earlier paper from which the present paper developed. Most importantly, I thank Polly Jacobson for her insight and invaluable advice. Of course, all errors are my own.

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Russell, B. Imperatives in conditional conjunction. Nat Lang Semantics 15, 131–166 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11050-007-9012-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11050-007-9012-0

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