February 07, 2004

Even if I'm right, what does it matter?

An example in Iatridou's paper suggested the following case to me:

(1) If it doesn't rain, we'll die of thirst. Even if it rains, what will we eat?

Here the second sentence seems to call for an answer of the form:

(2) We will eat coconuts if it rains.

So far, so good--"If it rains, what will we eat?" would elicit the same answers, just as "Even if it rains, we will eat coconuts" seems to have the same truth-conditions (if different presuppositions" than "If it rains, we will eat coconuts."

My account of "even if" suggested that "even if p, q" always involved a contrast with some presupposed "if r, q." In (1), there's definitely a contrasted antecedent--"If it doesn't rain." But the question isn't asked on the condition that it doesn't rain. If it doesn't rain, we die of thirst, and the question is moot.

I'm not sure what to do about this--but I'm not sure what to do about conditional questions in general--maybe they yield an answer.

I will note that "even if" clauses can be utterance modifiers for questions:

(3) Even if you think your friends are at the Gateway, do you know how to get there?

This does not call for an answer of the form, "If I think my friends are at the Gateway...." The question only has point if you think your friends are at the Gateway. I guess the implied contrast might be "If you have no idea where your friends are, you won't be able to meet them."

[Iatridou's own example was the second sentence of (1) without the comma, calling for an answer of the form "We will eat coconuts even if it rains." As she points out, "*Even if it rains what will we eat?" is ungrammatical, though "What will we eat even if it rains" seems acceptable though an odd question to ask [as does "Even if it rains we will eat what?"]. This is in service of a syntactical point that is well beyond my competence.]

Posted by Matt Weiner at February 7, 2004 05:37 PM
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