{"title":"What is what if?","authors":"Wenshan Li, Jiang Liu","doi":"10.1515/zfs-2023-2004","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"Abstract With literature and empirical evidence, this article argues against the existing claim that what if-questions are idioms and proposes that they are the result of the syntactic and semantic combination of what and if-conditionals. With further evidence, it is argued that what can be a propositional anaphor which occurs in different contexts, rather than being restricted to what if-questions. A formal characterization of the syntactic and semantic properties of the propositional what is formulated in the framework of Dynamic Syntax, demonstrating how this word makes semantic and syntactic contributions to the interpretation of utterances in English as a mechanism of interaction between interlocutors.","PeriodicalId":43494,"journal":{"name":"Zeitschrift Fur Sprachwissenschaft","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.6000,"publicationDate":"2023-09-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Zeitschrift Fur Sprachwissenschaft","FirstCategoryId":"98","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1515/zfs-2023-2004","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"0","JCRName":"LANGUAGE & LINGUISTICS","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Abstract With literature and empirical evidence, this article argues against the existing claim that what if-questions are idioms and proposes that they are the result of the syntactic and semantic combination of what and if-conditionals. With further evidence, it is argued that what can be a propositional anaphor which occurs in different contexts, rather than being restricted to what if-questions. A formal characterization of the syntactic and semantic properties of the propositional what is formulated in the framework of Dynamic Syntax, demonstrating how this word makes semantic and syntactic contributions to the interpretation of utterances in English as a mechanism of interaction between interlocutors.
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The aim of the journal is to promote linguistic research by publishing high-quality contributions and thematic special issues from all fields and trends of modern linguistics. In addition to articles and reviews, the journal also features contributions to discussions on current controversies in the field as well as overview articles outlining the state-of-the art of relevant research paradigms. Topics: -General Linguistics -Language Typology -Language acquisition, language change and synchronic variation -Empirical linguistics: experimental and corpus-based research -Contributions to theory-building
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