Measure semantics and qualitative semantics for epistemic modals

Wesley H. Holliday · Thomas Icard

65 citations0/0 files storedProceedings from Semantics and Linguistic Theory

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Syntax, Semantics, Linguistic Variation Epistemology, Ethics, and Metaphysics Logic, Reasoning, and Knowledge

Abstract

In this paper, we explore semantics for comparative epistemic modals that avoid the entailment problems shown by Yalcin (2006, 2009, 2010) to result from Kratzer’s (1991) semantics. In contrast to the alternative semantics presented by Yalcin and Lassiter (2010, 2011) based on finitely additive measures, we introduce semantics based on qualitatively additive measures, as well as semantics based on purely qualitative orderings, including orderings on propositions derived from orderings on worlds in the tradition of Kratzer (1991, 2012). All of these semantics avoid the entailment problems that result from Kratzer’s semantics. Our discussion focuses on methodological issues concerning the choice between different semantics.

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References

1983Extensional versus intuitive reasoning: The conjunction fallacy in probability judgment.1973A Treatise on Probability 1969Intransitivity of preferences.2007Vagueness and grammar: the semantics of relative and absolute gradable adjectives 1976THE SEMANTICS OF DEGREE 1991Foundations of Measurement:1964Measurement structures and linear inequalities 2004Total Adjectives vs. Partial Adjectives: Scale Structure and Higher-Order Modifiers

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2014Epistemic Comparison, Models of Uncertainty, and the Disjunction Puzzle 2018Alternatives and Truthmakers in Conditional Semantics 2016Deontic Modals and Probabilities: One Theory to Rule Them All?2020Graded Modality 2017Probability and implicatures: A unified account of the scalar effects of disjunction under modals 2016One'sModus Ponens: Modality, Coherence and Logic

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