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<p><i>Might</i>-counterfactuals (e.g., <i>if John had been at the party, Mary might have been happier</i>) have been observed, primarily by philosophers, to have a range of interpretations that are apparently absent in the corresponding <i>would</i>-counterfactuals. This paper probes into the structures and meanings of <i>might</i>-counterfactuals from the perspective of Japanese, a language that can encode relative scope relations between tenses and modals more transparently than English does. The investigation begins with a survey of the discussion in the philosophical literature. There are three major logical forms proposed for <i>might</i>-counterfactuals, which I call One-Modal, Wide-Scope, and Narrow-Scope, distinguished by the way they define the relation between the possibility modal and the conditional connective. Using them as prototypes for my account, I propose a way to construct linguistic counterparts of these different analyses of <i>might</i>-counterfactuals, and formulate predictions concerning how they are instantiated by different sentential forms of <i>might</i>-counterfactuals in Japanese. I propose a set of empirical diagnostics to test these predictions and apply them to Japanese <i>might</i>-counterfactuals. I finally discuss potential implications of my investigation for English <i>might</i>-counterfactuals and for the theory of conditionals in natural language.</p>

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The structures and meanings of might-counterfactuals: a view from Japanese

  • 期刊论文

  • 发表日期：

    2025年6月14日

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  • Teruyuki Mizuno

摘要

Might-counterfactuals (e.g., if John had been at the party, Mary might have been happier) have been observed, primarily by philosophers, to have a range of interpretations that are apparently absent in the corresponding would-counterfactuals. This paper probes into the structures and meanings of might-counterfactuals from the perspective of Japanese, a language that can encode relative scope relations between tenses and modals more transparently than English does. The investigation begins with a survey of the discussion in the philosophical literature. There are three major logical forms proposed for might-counterfactuals, which I call One-Modal, Wide-Scope, and Narrow-Scope, distinguished by the way they define the relation between the possibility modal and the conditional connective. Using them as prototypes for my account, I propose a way to construct linguistic counterparts of these different analyses of might-counterfactuals, and formulate predictions concerning how they are instantiated by different sentential forms of might-counterfactuals in Japanese. I propose a set of empirical diagnostics to test these predictions and apply them to Japanese might-counterfactuals. I finally discuss potential implications of my investigation for English might-counterfactuals and for the theory of conditionals in natural language.