The semantics of 'unless' conditionals: evidence from 'unless' and disjunctive inferences.

Publisher: Cambridge University Press Country of Publication: England NLM ID: 101095192 Publication Model: Print Cited Medium: Print ISSN: 1138-7416 (Print) Linking ISSN: 11387416 NLM ISO Abbreviation: Span J Psychol Subsets: MEDLINE

Publication: 2013- : Cambridge : Cambridge University Press
Original Publication: Madrid : Faculty of Psychology, Complutense University of Madrid, c1998-

Comprehension* ; Concept Formation* ; Logic* ; Problem Solving* ; Reading* ; Semantics*; Executive Function ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Memory, Short-Term ; Psycholinguistics

We report the results of an experiment investigating conditional inferences from conditional assertions such as 'Juan won't go to León unless Nuria goes to Madrid' and 'Either Nuria goes to Madrid or Juan won't go to León'. This experiment addresses Dancygier's claims about the semantics of 'unless' by examining inferential endorsements of 'not-A unless B' and 'Either B or not-A' in the canonical order, presenting the categorical premise after the conditional assertions, and in the inverse order, presenting the categorical premise before the conditional assertions. The results of the experiment confirm that the representation of 'unless' includes two possibilities, although as Dancygier holds one of the possibilities may not be complete. The implications of the results are discussed in the context of the strategic nature of conditional reasoning and recent convergent theories of linguistic processing.

Date Created: 20111109 Date Completed: 20111206 Latest Revision: 20191112

20221213

10.5209/rev_sjop.2011.v14.n2.5

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