Home Classical, Ancient Near Eastern & Egyptian Studies Unconditional readings and the simple conditional tense in Spanish: inferentials, future-oriented intentionals, future-in-the-past
Article
Licensed
Unlicensed Requires Authentication

Unconditional readings and the simple conditional tense in Spanish: inferentials, future-oriented intentionals, future-in-the-past

  • María Luisa Rivero EMAIL logo and Ana Arregui
Published/Copyright: July 20, 2018
Become an author with De Gruyter Brill

Abstract

This paper offers a compositional interpretation of Spanish simple conditional morphology (cantaría ‘would sing’) in independent sentences set within the semantic situations framework. It proposes that Spanish simple conditional morphology is composed of (a) a past component that encodes a topic situation, (b) a universal future operator with either an epistemic flavor or a temporal (i.e. historical) flavor /accessibility, and (c) a universal imperfective operator with a variety of flavors. Based on the interactions of these three components, the paper develops derivations for (1) past-oriented inferential readings that distinguish Spanish from French and Italian, (2) future-oriented conditionals involving past plans, which are apparently shared with French and Italian, and (3) future-in-the-past conditionals, where Spanish appears to resemble French and differs from Italian.

References

Aaron, Jessi E. 2006. Variation and change in Spanish future temporal expression. Ph.D. dissertation, University of New Mexico.Search in Google Scholar

Aaron, Jessi E. 2014. A certain future: epistemicity, prediction, and assertion in Iberian Spanish future expression. Studies in Hispanic and Lusophone Linguistics 7. 215–240.10.1515/shll-2014-1166Search in Google Scholar

Abusch, Dorit. 1997. Sequence of tense and temporal de re. Linguistics and Philosophy 20. 1–37.10.1023/A:1005331423820Search in Google Scholar

Abusch, Dorit. 1998. Generalizing tense semantics for future contexts. In Susan Rothstein ed., Events and Grammar, 13–33. Dordrecht: Kluwer.10.1007/978-94-011-3969-4_2Search in Google Scholar

Alarcos Llorach, E. 1994. Gramática de la lengua española. Madrid: RAE-Espasa-Calpe.Search in Google Scholar

Arregi, Karlos. 2000. How the Spanish verb works. Paper read at the 30th Linguistic Symposium on Romance Languages, University of Florida, Gainesville (February 2000).Search in Google Scholar

Arregui, Ana. 2009. On similarity in counterfactuals. Linguistics and Philosophy 33. 245–278.10.1007/s10988-009-9060-7Search in Google Scholar

Arregui, Ana, María Luisa Rivero & Andrés Salanova. 2014. Cross-linguistic variation in imperfectivity. Natural Language and Linguistic Theory 32. 307–362.10.1007/s11049-013-9226-4Search in Google Scholar

Azzopardi, Sophie. 2011. Le futur et le conditionnel: valeur en langue et effets de sens en discours. Analyse contrastive espagnol / français. Doctoral Dissertation. Université Paul Valéry, Montpellier III.Search in Google Scholar

Bello, Andrés. 1847–1860. Gramática de la Lengua Castellana destinada al uso de los americanos. Tenerife: Instituto Universitario de Lingüística Andrés Bello. 1981.Search in Google Scholar

Bennet, Michael & Barbara Partee. 1978. Towards the Logic of Tense and Aspect in English. Bloomington IN: Indiana University Linguistics Club.Search in Google Scholar

Blas Arrollo, José Luis. 2008. The variable expression of future tense in Peninsular Spanish: The present (and future) of inflectional forms in the Spanish spoken in a bilingual region. Language variation and change 20. 85–126.10.1017/S095439450800001XSearch in Google Scholar

Bravo, Ana. 2002. Qué será será? Propiedades temporales y semánticas del futuro de probabilidad. Cuadernos de Lingüística del Instituto Universitario Ortega y Gasset 9. 65–80.Search in Google Scholar

Broekhuis, Hans & Henk Verkuyl. 2014. Binary tense and modality. Natural Language and Linguistic Theory 32. 973–1009.10.1007/s11049-013-9213-9Search in Google Scholar

Cipria, Alicia & Craige Roberts. 2000. Spanish imperfecto and pretérito: Truth conditions and aktionsart effects in a situation semantics. Natural Language Semantics 8. 297–347.10.1023/A:1011202000582Search in Google Scholar

Condoravdi, Cleo. 2002. Temporal interpretation of modals: Modals for the present and for the past. In David Beaver, Stefan Kaufmann, Brady Clark & Luis Casillas eds., The Construction of Meaning, 59–88. Palo Alto, CA: CSLI Publications.Search in Google Scholar

Condoravdi, Cleo. 2003. Moods and modalities for will and would. Handout from the 14th Amsterdam Colloquium.Search in Google Scholar

Cunha, Luís Filipe. 2017. Algumas considerações em torno da expressão da posterioridade no passado, no contexto de completivas de verbo. Revista de Estudos da Linguagem 25. 1–48 Belo Horizonte.10.17851/2237-2083.26.2.719-767Search in Google Scholar

De Saussure, Louis & Patrick Morency. 2011. A cognitive-pragmatic view of the French epistemic future. Journal of French Language Studies 22. 207–223.10.1017/S0959269511000445Search in Google Scholar

Deal, Amy-Rose. 2011. Modals without scales. Language 87(3). 559–585.10.1353/lan.2011.0060Search in Google Scholar

Dendale, Patrick. 2001. Le futur conjectural versus devoir épistémique: Différences de valeur et restrictions d’emploi. Le Français Moderne 69(1). 1–20.Search in Google Scholar

Dendale, Patrick. 2010. ‘Il serait à Paris en ce moment. Serait-il à Paris en ce moment?’ A propos de deux emplois épistémiques du conditionnel. In Camino Alvarez Castro, Flor Maria Bango De La Campa & Maria Luisa Donaire eds., Liens linguistiques. Etudes sur la combinatoire et la hiérarchie des composants, 291–318. Berlin: Peter Lang.Search in Google Scholar

Dowty, David R. 1977. Towards a semantic analysis of verb aspect and the English imperfective progressive. Linguistics and Philosophy 1. 45–77.10.1002/9780470758335.ch11Search in Google Scholar

Dowty, David R. 1979. Word meaning and Montague grammar. Dordrecht: Reidel.10.1007/978-94-009-9473-7Search in Google Scholar

Enç, Murvet. 1996. Tense and modality. In Shalom Lappin ed., The Handbook of Contemporary Semantic Theory, 345–358. Oxford: Blackwell.10.1111/b.9780631207498.1997.00016.xSearch in Google Scholar

Escandell Vidal, M. Victoria. 2010. Futuro y evidencialidad. Anuario de Lingüística Hispánica 26. 9–34.Search in Google Scholar

Escandell Vidal, M. Victoria. 2014. Evidential futures: The case of Spanish. In Philippe De Brabanter et al. eds., Future Times and Future Tenses, 219–248. Oxford: Oxford University Press.10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199679157.003.0010Search in Google Scholar

Falaus, Ana Maria & Brenda Laca. 2014. Les formes de l’incertitude. Le futur de conjecture en espagnol et le présomptif futur en roumain. Revue de Linguistique Romane 78. 313–366.Search in Google Scholar

Foullioux, Carolina. 2006. Los valores del condicional en francés y su comparación con el español. Thélème. Revista Complutense de Estudios Franceses 21. 63–79.Search in Google Scholar

Gennari, Silvia. 2000. Semantics and pragmatics of future tenses in Spanish. 3rd Hispanic Linguistics Symposium. Cascadilla Press, Somerville, MA, pp. 264–281.Search in Google Scholar

Gessner, Emil. 1893. Das spanische Personalpronomen. Zeitschrift fur Romanische Philologie 17. 1–54.10.1515/zrph.1893.17.1-4.1Search in Google Scholar

Giannakidou, Anastasia and Alda Mari. 2018. A unified analysis of the future as epistemic modality. The view from Greek and Italian. Natural Language and Linguistic Theory 36, 85–129.10.1007/s11049-017-9366-zSearch in Google Scholar

Grice, Paul. 1975. Logic and conversation. In Peter Cole & Jerry L Morgan eds, Syntax and Semantics III: Speech Acts, 41–58. New York: Academic Press.10.1163/9789004368811_003Search in Google Scholar

Heim, Irene. 1994. Comments on Abusch’s Theory of Tense. In Hans Kamp ed., Ellipsis, Tense and Questions, 143–170. Amsterdam: Dyana, University of Amsterdam.Search in Google Scholar

Hornstein, Norbert. 1990. As Time Goes By. Cambridge MA: The MIT Press.10.7551/mitpress/1449.001.0001Search in Google Scholar

Jespersen, Otto. 1932. A modern English grammar on historical principles. London: George Allen and Unwin.Search in Google Scholar

Karttunen, Lauri. 1972. Possible and Must. In John Kimball ed., Syntax and Semantics, vol. 1. 1–20. NewYork: AcademicPress.10.1163/9789004372986_002Search in Google Scholar

Kaufmann, Stefan. 2005. Conditional truth and future reference. Journal of Semantics 22(3). 231–280.10.1093/jos/ffh025Search in Google Scholar

Klein, Wolfgang. 1994. Time in Language. London: Routledge.Search in Google Scholar

Kratzer, Angelika. 1977. What ‘must’ and ‘can’ must and can mean. Linguistics and Philosophy 1(3). 337–355.10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199234684.003.0001Search in Google Scholar

Kratzer, Angelika. 1981. The notional category of modality. In Barbara Partee & Paul Portner eds., Formal Semantics: The Essential Readings, New York: Blackwell.Search in Google Scholar

Kratzer, Angelika. 1989. An investigation of the lumps of thought. Linguistics and Philosophy 12. 607–653.10.1007/BF00627775Search in Google Scholar

Kratzer, Angelika. 1991. Modality. In A. Von Stechow & D. Wunderlich ed., Semantics: An International Handbook of Contemporary Research, Berlin: De Gruyter.Search in Google Scholar

Kratzer, Angelika. 1998. More structural analogies between pronouns and tenses. Semantics and LinguisticTheory 8. 92–109.10.3765/salt.v8i0.2808Search in Google Scholar

Kratzer, Angelika. 2011. Situations in natural language semantics. Stanford Encyclopedia of Linguistics, Stanford: CSLI publications.Search in Google Scholar

Kratzer, Angelika. 2012. Modals and Conditionals: New and Revised Perspectives. Oxford: Oxford University Press.10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199234684.001.0001Search in Google Scholar

Kush, Dave. 2015. Future reference and epistemic modality in Hindi. Journal of South Asian Linguistics 7. 3–36.Search in Google Scholar

Laca, Brenda. 2016. Variación y semántica de los tiempos verbales: el caso del futuro. Hal.archives-ouvertes.fr<hal-01372981>Search in Google Scholar

Landman, Fred. 1992. The progressive. Natural Language Semantics 1. 1–32.10.1007/BF02342615Search in Google Scholar

Lyons, John. 1977. Semantics. Cambridge: CUP.10.1017/CBO9780511620614Search in Google Scholar

Mari, Alda. 2016. French future: Exploring the future ratification hypothesis. Journal of French Language Studies 23(3). 353–378.10.1017/S0959269515000289Search in Google Scholar

Martínez-Atienza, María. 2012. Formas verbales en contraste en italiano y en español: Similitudes, diferencias y explicación. Revista electrónica de lingüística aplicada 11. 69–86.Search in Google Scholar

Matte Bon, Francisco. 2006. Maneras de hablar del futuro en español entre gramática y pragmática Futuro, ir a + infinitivo y presente de indicativo: Análisis, usos y valor profundo. Revista Electrónica de Didáctica / Español Lengua Extranjera 6.Search in Google Scholar

Matthewson, Lisa. 2012. On the (non-)future interpretation of modals. Sinn und Bedeutung 16. 431–446.Search in Google Scholar

Matthewson, Lisa. 2013. Gitksan modals. International Journal of American Linguistics 79. 349–394.10.1086/670751Search in Google Scholar

Mucha, Anne. 2016. Deriving the temporal properties of future markers from aspect. Sinn und Bedeutung 20. 533–550.Search in Google Scholar

Muñiz, María de las Nieves. 1984. Uso del condicional en italiano y español: Estudio contrastivo. In Joaquín Arce, Manuel Carrera, Félix Fernández Murga & María De Las Nieves Muñiz eds, Italiano y español. Estudios lingüísticos, 127–157. Sevilla: University of Sevilla.Search in Google Scholar

Ogihara, Toshiyuki. 1989. Temporal Reference in English and Japanese. Ph.D. dissertation, University of Texas.Search in Google Scholar

Oltra-Massuet, Isabel & Karlos Arregi. 2005. Stress-by-structure in Spanish. Linguistic Inquiry 36. 43–84.10.1162/0024389052993637Search in Google Scholar

Palmer, Robert Frank. 1987. Mood and Modality. Cambridge: CUP.Search in Google Scholar

Partee, Barbara H. 1973. Some structural analogies between tenses and pronouns in English. The Journal of Philosophy 70(18). 601–609.10.1002/9780470751305.ch3Search in Google Scholar

Portner, Paul. 1998. The progressive in modal semantics. Language 74. 760–786.10.2307/417002Search in Google Scholar

Portner, Paul. 2009. Modality. Oxford: Oxford University Press.10.1093/oso/9780199292424.001.0001Search in Google Scholar

Rivero, María Luisa. 1978. Un ejemplo de metodología de filosofía analítica en la semántica lingüística: La cortesía y los actos verbales. Revista española de lingüística 8. 77–103.Search in Google Scholar

Rivero, María Luisa. 2014. Spanish inferential and mirative futures and conditionals: An evidential gradable modal proposal. Lingua 151. 197–215.10.1016/j.lingua.2014.04.009Search in Google Scholar

Rivero, María Luisa & Ana Arregui. 2017. Futures without future: A cross-linguistic perspective. Paper read at the 27th Colloquium of Generative Grammar. Alcalá de Henares, Spain.Search in Google Scholar

Rivero, María Luisa & Milena M Sheppard. 2016. The Slovenian future auxiliary biti as a tenseless gradable evidential modal: Inferential and Concessive readings. In Frank Marušič & Rok Žaucer eds., Formal Studies in Slovenian Syntax, 253–281. Amsterdam: Benjamins.10.1075/la.236.11rivSearch in Google Scholar

Rivero, María Luisa & Vesela Simeonova. 2014. The inferential future in Bulgarian: An evidential modal proposal. Formal Approaches to Slavic Linguistics, vol. 23, 2014. Ann Arbor, MI: Michigan Slavic Publications.Search in Google Scholar

Rodríguez Rosique, Susana. 2015a. Spanish future in evaluative contexts: A case of mirativity?. eHumanista/IVITRA 8. 500–516.Search in Google Scholar

Rodríguez Rosique, Susana. 2015b. Distance, evidentiality and counterargumentation : Concessive future in Spanish. Journal of Pragmatics 85. 181–199.10.1016/j.pragma.2015.03.017Search in Google Scholar

Rullmann, Hotze, Lisa Matthewson & Henry Davis. 2008. Modals as distributive indefinites. Natural Language Semantics 16, 317–357.10.1007/s11050-008-9036-0Search in Google Scholar

Salkie, Raphael. 2010. Will: Tense or modal or both? English Language and Linguistics 14. 187–215.10.1017/S1360674310000055Search in Google Scholar

Searle, John. 1969. Speech acts. New York: Cambridge University Press.10.1017/CBO9781139173438Search in Google Scholar

Smith, Carlota S. 1991[1997]. The Parameter of Aspect. Dordrecht: Kluwer.10.1007/978-94-015-7911-7Search in Google Scholar

Squartini, Mario. 1999. Riferimento temporale, aspecto e modalità nella diacronia del condizionale italiano. Vox Romanica 58. 57–82.Search in Google Scholar

Squartini, Mario. 2001. The internal structure of evidentiality in Romance. Studies in Language 25. 297–334.10.1075/sl.25.2.05squSearch in Google Scholar

Squartini, Mario. 2004. La relazione semantica tra futuro e condizionale nelle lingue romanze. Revue Romane 39(1). 68–96.10.1111/j.1600-0811.2004.00004.xSearch in Google Scholar

Thomason, Richmond H. 1984. Combinations of tense and modality. In Dov Gabbay & Franz Guenthner eds., Handbook of Philosophical Logic vol II, 135–165. Dordrecht: Springer.10.1007/978-94-009-6259-0_3Search in Google Scholar

Vatrican, Axelle. 2014. Usos y valores modales del condicional en español. Archivum 64. 239–274.10.17811/arc.64.2014.239-274Search in Google Scholar

Von Fintel, Kai & Anthony Gillies. 2010. Must. stay…. Strong!. Natural Language Semantics 18. 351–383.10.1007/s11050-010-9058-2Search in Google Scholar

Von Fintel, Kai & Anthony Gillies. 2011. Might made right. In Andy Egan & Brian Weatherson eds., Epistemic modality, 108–130. Oxford: Oxford University Press.10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199591596.003.0004Search in Google Scholar

Von Stechow, Arnim. 2009. Tense in compositional semantics. In Wolfgang Klein & Li Ping eds., The expression of time, 129–166. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.10.1515/9783110199031.129Search in Google Scholar

Winans, Lauren D. 2016. Inferences of “will”. Unpublished Doctoral Dissertation. UCLA, Los Angeles, California.Search in Google Scholar

Published Online: 2018-07-20
Published in Print: 2018-08-28

© 2018 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

Downloaded on 7.3.2026 from https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1515/probus-2018-0005/html
Scroll to top button