University of Michigan

Fall 2012 Workshop in Philosophy and Linguistics


 
 
On Indexical Anchoring in Conditionals
Ana Arregui

Abstract

This paper investigates indexical anchoring in conditionals, comparing a variety of indexical categories across epistemic and counterfactual examples. We will show how the distinct indexical properties of both aspect (perfective vs. perfect/stative) and tense (present vs. past) can compositionally account for epistemic vs. counterfactual readings of conditionals by placing different restrictions on the quantificational domain of modals. We will also investigate the impact of more “traditional” indexicals, such as 'I', 'you', 'here' and 'now', in the context of epistemic and counterfactual conditionals, keeping in mind recent observations and proposals by Santorio 2012.