What linguists emphasize about conditions and what logicians emphasize and what each should take from the other

Abstract

Abstract In the first part of the study, we proposed that logicians adopt from linguists their detailed distinction of conditions on a scale of varying degrees of satisfiability from factually true via potentially satisfiable to absolutely irreal. On this basis, we have proposed a suitable distinction for the logico-semantic investigation of conditionals of the following kinds: Factual, hypothetical (agnostic), counterfactual, and counterpossible. We consider the syntactic-semantic distinction between potentially and absolutely irreal conditions to be crucial. Therefore, we think that the conditional mode in the form of antepreterite is an appropriate syntactic signal for identifying the absolute irreality of the condition and, especially in scientific and artistic style, we consider it functional. On the other hand, the distinction between sufficient and necessary conditions could be inspiring for linguists. In classical logic, these are the basic kinds of conditions and are associated with the rules of deductive reasoning modus ponens and modus tollens, respectively. These rules are central to the application of logic. It turns out that these tools are not sufficiently established in Slovak linguistics, as there is no systematic distinction between sufficient and necessary conditions. The situation in czech dictionaries is similar. Finally, we have put forward a hypothesis why the conjunction unless is considered in Slovak linguistics as a double – in our opinion wrongly – of the conjunction only: There is a “forgotten” ellipsis behind it, which is not brought to the reader’s attention.