Here are some further reflections on today's discussion. Consider again Kamp's old example and some variations on it:
(1) A child was born who will become ruler of the world.
(2) A child who will become ruler of the world was born.
(3) A child was born who would become ruler of the world.
(4) A child who would become ruler of the world was born.
Where P is past, and F is future, I take it that the preferred readings of (1) - (3) are as follows (these are not necessarily the only readings):
(1a) There is an x such that (P(x is a child and x is born) and F(x is ruler of the world))
(2a) There is an x such that (x is a child and P(x is born) and F(x is ruler of the world))
(3a) P(there is an x such that (x is a child and x is born and F(x is ruler of the world)))
Notice that the future tense operator occurs within the scope of a past tense operator in (3a). In Priorean tense logic, a future tense operator in the scope of a past tense operator takes us to some time that is future relative to a past time. In (1a) and (2a) P and F do not occur within the scope of another tense operator.
Two questions: first, how do you propose to analyze (4)? In the same way as (3)? Second, why do we tend to read (1) and the stylistic variation in (2) differently? Any ideas?
Thursday, July 20, 2006
Kamp/Vlach Sentences: Further Reflections
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2 comments:
Thank you, Alan. This is very helpful! So you think (3) and (4) tend to receive different readings, right? Another question I have is this. Do you think that the reading where the birth and the ruling take place before the time of speech is salient mostly in journalistic/literary contexts?
Thanks again, Alan! I think that is very interesting, even though I am not quite sure yet how the Priorean will be able to account for all of this.
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