Actuality Inferences: Causality, Aspect, and Modality

This book investigates the phenomenon of actuality inferences, in which claims of ability are interpreted as descriptions of actual events. Prerna Nadathur proposes a new approach linking actuality inferences to causal dependence relations, through a comparative, crosslinguistic semantic analysis of three predicate classes. Similarities in the inferential profiles of these predicates are tied to their shared causal background structure, while differences arise from differences in asserted content and associated aspectual class contrasts. The central argument is that a complex causal structure for ability interacts with the compositional requirements of aspect to derive the observed actuality-ability ambiguity.

Format: Hardback
Length: 320 pages
Publication date: 30 March 2023
Publisher: Oxford University Press

This book delves into the fascinating phenomenon of actuality inferences, wherein claims of ability are interpreted as descriptions of actual events in specific temporal contexts, rather than potentialities or possibilities. While actuality inferences undoubtedly emerge from the interplay between modality and aspect, they have long defied compositional explication in traditional treatments of these semantic categories. Prerna Nadathur takes a fresh approach in this work, linking actuality inferences to a novel component in the semantics of ability: causal dependence relations. The account is developed through a comparative, crosslinguistic semantic analysis of three predicate classes that permit similar inferences: implicative verbs in Finnish and English, enough/too predicates in French and English, and (modal) ability predicates in French, Hindi, and English.

Similarities in the inferential profiles of these predicates are linked to their shared causal background structure, while their differences, including variations in sensitivity to grammatical aspect, stem from differences in asserted content and associated aspectual class contrasts. The central argument of the book is that a complex causal structure for ability interacts with the compositional requirements of aspect to yield the observed actuality-ability ambiguity.

The volume demonstrates that causal structure and causal relationships shape patterns of linguistic inference beyond the overtly causal domain, contributing to a growing body of research that employs formal, computational causal models as analytic tools for lexical and compositional semantics.

Weight: 736g
Dimension: 250 x 180 x 23 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780192849885