@cite{ogihara-steinert-threlkeld-2024} — Data #
@cite{ogihara-steinert-threlkeld-2024}
Theory-neutral empirical data on the veridicality asymmetry between temporal connectives before and after.
Key Empirical Generalizations #
- After is veridical: "He left after she arrived" entails "she arrived".
- Before is non-veridical: "He left before she arrived" is compatible with her not arriving (the "barely prevented" reading).
- Before is non-veridical even with perfective complements: "The bomb exploded before anyone defused it" does not entail anyone defused it.
Data Sources #
- Ogihara, T. & Steinert-Threlkeld, S. (2024), §2–3.
- Anscombe, E. (1964), §3 (original observation of the asymmetry).
- Beaver, D. & Condoravdi, C. (2003), §2 (three readings of before).
An empirical judgment about whether a temporal connective entails the truth of its complement clause.
- sentence : String
The example sentence
- connective : String
The temporal connective
- complementEntailed : Bool
Does the sentence entail that the complement event occurred?
- gloss : String
Brief gloss of the entailment pattern
Instances For
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"He left after she arrived" entails "she arrived".
Equations
- OgiharaST2024.after_veridical = { sentence := "He left after she arrived", connective := "after", complementEntailed := true, gloss := "after(leave, arrive) |= arrive" }
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"He left before she arrived" does NOT entail "she arrived". Compatible with: she did arrive (veridical reading), she didn't arrive (counterfactual reading, e.g. "before she could arrive"), or indeterminate (non-committal reading).
Equations
- OgiharaST2024.before_nonveridical = { sentence := "He left before she arrived", connective := "before", complementEntailed := false, gloss := "before(leave, arrive) |/= arrive" }
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"The bomb exploded before anyone defused it" — the complement event (defusing) did NOT occur. This is the counterfactual reading of before (@cite{beaver-condoravdi-2003}, "barely prevented").
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"She finished her coffee after he left" entails "he left".
Equations
- OgiharaST2024.after_veridical_2 = { sentence := "She finished her coffee after he left", connective := "after", complementEntailed := true, gloss := "after(finish, leave) |= leave" }
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"The Supreme Court decided the election before the votes were counted" — non-committal: compatible with votes eventually being counted or never counted (@cite{beaver-condoravdi-2003}, ex. 22).
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"Mozart died before he finished the Requiem" — counterfactual: Mozart never finished the Requiem (@cite{beaver-condoravdi-2003}, ex. 24).
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A judgment about a logical property of a temporal connective: does it hold, fail, or hold only under conditions?
- property : String
Property name
- connective : String
Connective
- holds : Bool
Does the property hold?
- example_ : String
Example sentence(s)
- gloss : String
Brief explanation
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Before is antisymmetric: "Cleo was in America before David was" and "David was in America before Cleo was" cannot both be true (with non-overlapping intervals). (@cite{beaver-condoravdi-2003}, exx. 3-4)
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After is NOT antisymmetric: overlapping intervals allow both directions. (@cite{beaver-condoravdi-2003}, exx. 5-7, diagram 7)
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Before is transitive: if A before B and B before C, then A before C. (@cite{beaver-condoravdi-2003}, exx. 12-14)
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After is NOT transitive: overlapping intervals allow after(A,B) ∧ after(B,C) ∧ ¬after(A,C). (@cite{beaver-condoravdi-2003}, exx. 8-11)
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Before licenses NPIs; after does not. (@cite{beaver-condoravdi-2003}, exx. 15-18)
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"David won the race before he entered it" — pragmatically odd because winning temporally presupposes entering: there is no historical alternative where one wins before entering. (@cite{beaver-condoravdi-2003}, ex. 32)
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"David entered the race after he won it" — same temporal impossibility viewed through after: entering after winning reverses the natural temporal order. (@cite{beaver-condoravdi-2003}, ex. 33)
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A counterexample to B&C's branching-time analysis.
In each case, the complement eventuality is temporally bounded to an
interval that ends at or before the A-time. B&C's alt(w,t) branches
only after t, so it cannot place the complement in an alternative
world at a time after the A-time.
The boundedBefore field captures the formal crux: the complement's
temporal bound ends at or before the A-time.
- sentence : String
The example sentence
- aTime : ℤ
The A-clause time (e.g., end of MLB season, end of 2020)
- complementUpperBound : ℤ
Upper bound of the complement's temporal window
The complement is temporally bounded before the A-time
Which B&C reading is involved?
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B&C's before requires earliestAlt to find a B-instantiation in
some alternative world. When B is temporally bounded to [lo, hi]
with hi ≤ tA, and alt(w,tA) only contains worlds that agree with
w up to tA, B cannot be instantiated after tA in any alternative.
This is the formal content of O&ST's §5.1 critique: B&C's forward- branching architecture cannot handle complements whose temporal bound falls before the A-time.
(20a) "Unfortunately, the 2021 MLB season will be over before Shohei Ohtani earns his 10th win of the season." (Uttered in the middle of September 2021.) The A-time is the end of the 2021 MLB season (October 3, 2021 = day 276). The complement (Ohtani's 10th win) can only occur during the season (before day 276). (O&@cite{ogihara-steinert-threlkeld-2024}, §5.1, ex. 20a)
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(20b) "2020 might come to an end before it snows for the first time this year." (Uttered on Christmas Day in 2020.) The expression this year refers back to 2020. Since the first snow of 2020 can only occur in 2020, the modal proposal that posits a fictitious snow event after the end of 2020 does not work. (O&@cite{ogihara-steinert-threlkeld-2024}, §5.1, ex. 20b)
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(20c) "July 1999 will come to an end before Nostradamus' prophecy about the end of the world comes true." (Uttered a few minutes before the end of July 1999. Assumes Michel de Nostradamus predicted that in July 1999, a great King of terror would come from the sky and destroy the world.) The prophecy can only come true if the world is destroyed in July 1999 — it cannot come true after the end of July 1999. (O&@cite{ogihara-steinert-threlkeld-2024}, §5.1, ex. 20c)
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A datum recording asymmetries in the availability of non-committal readings, which B&C's Event Continuation Condition should but cannot fully predict.
- sentence : String
The example sentence
- nonCommittalAvailable : Bool
Is the non-committal reading available?
- explanation : String
Why the availability is as it is
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"Mary will leave the party before Bill gets drunk." Non-committal reading is available: maybe Bill gets drunk, maybe not. B&C's Event Continuation Condition is satisfied (Bill getting drunk is a normal continuation). (O&@cite{ogihara-steinert-threlkeld-2024}, §5.2)
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The non-committal reading is sensitive to contextual plausibility: available when the complement is a normal continuation, unavailable when it is pragmatically impossible.
Cross-linguistic morphological evidence for the veridicality asymmetry.
- language : String
Language
- connective : String
The temporal connective (in the object language)
- gloss : String
English gloss
- observation : String
Key morphological observation
- supportsNonveridicality : Bool
Does this support the non-veridical analysis of before?
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Japanese mae ('before') requires non-past tense in its complement, even when describing past events. This independently supports the non-veridical analysis: the complement is presented as unrealized from the perspective of the main-clause event. (O&@cite{ogihara-steinert-threlkeld-2024}, §3)
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Japanese ato ('after') allows past tense in its complement, consistent with the veridical analysis: the complement event is presented as having occurred. (O&@cite{ogihara-steinert-threlkeld-2024}, §3)
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The Japanese tense asymmetry mirrors the veridicality asymmetry: mae (non-past complement) patterns with non-veridical before, ato (past complement) patterns with veridical after.
After is uniformly veridical across examples.
Before is uniformly non-veridical across all examples.
The asymmetry: after and before differ on complement entailment.
Before and after are opposites on all logical properties tested.
The Fragment entry for after matches the empirical datum: both record complement veridicality as true.
The Fragment entry for before matches the empirical datum: both record complement veridicality as false.
The veridicality asymmetry is reflected in the Fragment entries.
O&ST's theory derives after's veridicality from the double-existential quantificational structure: ∃e₁∃e₂[P(e₁) ∧ Q(e₂) ∧...] entails ∃e₂, Q(e₂).
This is not a stipulation in the Fragment — it follows from the semantics.
O&ST's theory derives before's non-veridicality from the universal quantification over the complement: ∃e₁[P(e₁) ∧ ∀e₂[Q(e₂) →...]] is vacuously true when Q has no witnesses.
Concretely: any P-event with an empty Q yields before(P, Q).
Scenario: "He left₁ after she arrived₀" with punctual events.
- leaving event at time 1
- arriving event at time 0 O&ST predicts: after(leave, arrive) holds (τ(arrive) ≺ τ(leave)).
Scenario: "He left₁ before she arrived₃" with punctual events.
- leaving event at time 1
- arriving event at time 3 O&ST predicts: before(leave, arrive) holds (τ(leave) ≺ τ(arrive)).
Scenario: "The bomb exploded₅ before anyone defused it" (nobody defused it). O&ST predicts: before(explode, defuse) holds vacuously (no defuse-events).
The punctual after-scenario projects correctly through eventDenotation: O&ST.after implies Anscombe.after on the projected interval sets.
The punctual before-scenario projects correctly through eventDenotation.
The logical properties of before and after noted by B&C follow directly from the quantificational structure. We verify each on concrete interval scenarios over ℤ, matching the B&C diagrams.
Before is antisymmetric on non-overlapping statives: if A before B, then ¬(B before A). (@cite{beaver-condoravdi-2003}, exx. 3-4)
Scenario: Cleo [1,5], David [8,12]. Cleo before David holds; David before Cleo does not.
The ∀-quantifier in Anscombe.before enforces this: if all of B follows some point in A, then no point in B precedes all of A.
After is NOT antisymmetric: overlapping intervals allow both after(A,B) and after(B,A). (@cite{beaver-condoravdi-2003}, exx. 5-7, diagram 7)
Scenario: Cleo [1,8], David [5,12]. Both Cleo-after-David and David-after-Cleo hold because ∃ requires only one witness.
Before is transitive: A before B ∧ B before C → A before C. (@cite{beaver-condoravdi-2003}, exx. 12-14)
Scenario: Delores [1,3], Ginger [6,8], Fred [11,13].
After is NOT transitive: overlapping intervals allow after(A,B) ∧ after(B,C) ∧ ¬after(A,C). (@cite{beaver-condoravdi-2003}, exx. 8-11)
Scenario: Fred [1,3], Ginger [2,5], Delores [4,7]. Fred after Ginger: t=3, t'=2. ✓ Ginger after Delores: t=5, t'=4. ✓ Fred after Delores: need t ∈ [1,3], t' ∈ [4,7], t' < t — impossible since max(Fred)=3 < 4=min(Delores). ✗
Before is antisymmetric in general: before(A,B) → ¬before(B,A).
From the ∀ in Anscombe's before: if ∃t ∈ A, ∀t' ∈ B, t < t', then for any s ∈ B we get t < s. But before(B,A) gives ∀ t ∈ A, s < t, so s < t and t < s — contradiction.
Note: no non-emptiness assumption needed.
Before is transitive in general: before(A,B) → before(B,C) → before(A,C).
From before(A,B): ∃t ∈ A, ∀t' ∈ B, t < t'.
From before(B,C): ∃s ∈ B, ∀s' ∈ C, s < s'.
Then t < s (from the first, since s ∈ B), and for any u ∈ C, s < u
(from the second). So t < u by transitivity of <. Witness: t ∈ A.
Note: no non-emptiness assumption needed — s ∈ timeTrace B is
provided by the second hypothesis.
The NPI datum matches the Fragment entry: before licenses NPIs.
The Japanese Fragment entry for mae agrees with the cross-linguistic datum: both record that mae supports the non-veridicality analysis.
The Japanese Fragment entry for ato agrees with the cross-linguistic datum: ato is veridical and does not support non-veridicality.
@cite{ogihara-steinert-threlkeld-2024} §3 observe that the progressive and anti-veridical before share the same modal-temporal structure:
- **Progressive** "Mozart was composing the Requiem (when he died)":
at the reference time, there is an ongoing event (composing) that in
some **inertia worlds** (@cite{landman-1992}) reaches completion.
- **Anti-veridical before** "Mozart died before he finished the Requiem":
at the A-time, there is an ongoing event (composing) that in some
**historical alternatives** reaches the before-clause eventuality
(finishing).
Both reduce to: ∃ event e ongoing at t such that in some accessible
world w', the continuation of e leads to a target outcome.
The formal parallel:
- `IMPF P w t` ↔ ∃ e, t ⊂ τ(e) ∧ P w e (event extends beyond t)
- `alt(w,t)` contains worlds where the counterpart of e develops
beyond t (event continuation condition, def 18b)
This structural identity is captured by the following bridge: given
an IMPF predication and an "inertia" alternative set, the reference time
sits inside the event's runtime in the actual world, while alternatives
contain worlds where the continuation reaches a target.
Imperfective paradox ↔ before non-veridicality: shared vacuous-∀ structure.
Both arise from a universal quantification that can be vacuously satisfied:
Before's non-veridicality:
∀ e₂, Q(e₂) → τ(e₁) ≺ τ(e₂)is vacuously true when no Q-event exists. The complement need not occur.Imperfective paradox: For accomplishments lacking CSIP,
IMPF P w tdoes not entailPRFV P w t— the event is ongoing at t but the telos (completion) may not be reached. The universal quantification over subintervals that CSIP would provide is absent.
Both are "resolved" modally in the same way:
- Progressive: in inertia worlds, the ongoing event reaches completion
- Anti-veridical before: in historical alternatives, the complement event occurs
The following theorems make this structural parallel precise.
CSIP predicates are "before-veridical": if P has the closed subinterval property, then IMPF(P)(w)(t) guarantees P-completion at t (PRFV). This is the aspectual analogue of after's veridicality — both arise from existential (not universal) quantificational structure.
Formally: CSIP(P) → IMPF(P)(w)(t) → PRFV(P)(w)(t). This is
impf_entails_prfv_of_csip from SubintervalProperty.lean.
Non-CSIP predicates may lack completion: the imperfective paradox shows that not all predicates support the IMPF→PRFV entailment. This is the aspectual analogue of before's non-veridicality — both arise from a universal quantification (over subintervals / over complement events) that can be vacuously satisfied.
Formally: ¬(∀ P, HasSubintervalProp P). This is
imperfective_paradox_possible from SubintervalProperty.lean.
Progressive–before modal resolution: When P lacks CSIP (accomplishment), IMPF(P)(w)(t) gives an ongoing event e that does not (yet) satisfy PRFV. The progressive "resolves" this by positing inertia worlds where the continuation of e reaches a target Q. Anti-veridical before does the same with historical alternatives.
This theorem captures the shared structure: given an IMPF predication
and a modal accessibility relation (alternatives) that maps ongoing
events to worlds where a target Q is reached, there exists an ongoing
event whose continuation satisfies Q in accessible worlds.
The parallel is precise: the progressive and anti-veridical before have identical formal structure. Progressive: IMPF(P)(w)(t) + inertia(e) → Q reachable. Before (anti-veridical): ongoing event at A-time + alt(w,I,e) → complement reachable. The only difference is the name of the accessibility relation (inertia vs historical alternatives).
This theorem shows that CSIP is the dividing line: predicates WITH CSIP don't need modal resolution (IMPF directly entails PRFV, like after directly entails its complement). Predicates WITHOUT CSIP require modal resolution (the progressive / anti-veridical before).
The paper's central formal contribution: revamped truth conditions for before that incorporate eventuality-relative alternatives (def 18) and a CAUSE relation. Three cases for ⟦A before B⟧ evaluated at ⟨w₀, I₀, e₀⟩:
**(i) Definitely true (veridical)**: A holds at ⟨w₀,I₀,e₀⟩ AND B already
holds at some later interval I₂ > I₀ in w₀. The complement already
occurred after A — straightforwardly true.
**(ii) Definitely false**: A holds at ⟨w₀,I₀,e₀⟩ AND B already holds at
some interval I₂ ≤ I₀ in w₀. The complement already occurred before/at
A — so A is NOT before B.
**(iii) Modal case (anti-veridical / non-committal)**: A holds at
⟨w₀,I₀,e₀⟩ and I₀ precedes the earliest I₁ such that ∃ eventuality e₁
ongoing at I₀ in w₀, ∃ world w₁ ∈ alt(w₀,I₀,e₁), ∃ e₂ counterpart of
e₁ in w₁, the continuation of e₂ CAUSES an eventuality e₃ with
⟨w₁,I₁,e₃⟩ ∈ ⟦B⟧.
The authors note these truth conditions are "very weak and need to be
strengthened by some contextual and pragmatic factors."
Two intervals abut: the first ends where the second begins (no gap).
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- OgiharaST2024.abuts I₀ I₁ = (I₀.finish = I₁.start)
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An eventuality e₁ "holds throughout" an interval that abuts I₀: e₁'s runtime extends from before I₀ through to (at least) I₀'s start.
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Denotation type for O&ST's truth conditions: sets of world–interval–eventuality triples.
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- OgiharaST2024.SitDenot W T E = Set (W × Core.Time.Interval T × E)
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Case (i): ⟦A before B⟧ = 1 when the complement B already holds at some interval after I₀ in the actual world w₀.
Equations
- OgiharaST2024.beforeCase_veridical A B w₀ I₀ e₀ = ((w₀, I₀, e₀) ∈ A ∧ ∃ (I₂ : Core.Time.Interval T), I₀.finish < I₂.start ∧ ∃ (e₄ : E), (w₀, I₂, e₄) ∈ B)
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Case (ii): ⟦A before B⟧ = 0 when the complement B already holds at some interval at or before I₀ in the actual world w₀.
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- OgiharaST2024.beforeCase_false A B w₀ I₀ e₀ = ((w₀, I₀, e₀) ∈ A ∧ ∃ (I₂ : Core.Time.Interval T), I₂.finish ≤ I₀.start ∧ ∃ (e₅ : E), (w₀, I₂, e₅) ∈ B)
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Case (iii): The modal case. ⟦A before B⟧ = 1 when A holds at ⟨w₀,I₀,e₀⟩ and I₀ precedes the earliest I₁ such that:
- there is an eventuality e₁ in w₀ whose runtime abuts I₀,
- there is an alternative world w₁ ∈ alt(w₀, I₀, e₁),
- in w₁, the counterpart e₂ of e₁ continues and CAUSES an eventuality e₃,
- ⟨w₁, I₁, e₃⟩ ∈ ⟦B⟧.
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O&ST's revamped before (def 19): the disjunction of the three cases. Evaluated at ⟨w₀, I₀, e₀⟩, "A before B" is true iff either:
- (i) B already occurred after I₀ (veridical), or
- (iii) The modal case via alt(w₀,I₀,e₁) + CAUSE holds, AND case (ii) does not hold (B did not already occur before I₀).
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Case (i) is veridical: when the complement has already occurred (after I₀), the complement is instantiated in the actual world.
Case (iii) is non-veridical: the complement need not be instantiated in w₀ — it may only exist in an alternative world w₁.
Scenario: w₀ = false (actual), w₁ = true (alternative). A = {(false, [0,0], ())} — main clause holds only in w₀. B = {(true, [2,2], ())} — complement holds only in w₁. The modal case holds because alt gives w₁, with trivial cause/counterpart. But B has no witness in w₀.
Cases (i) and (ii) are mutually exclusive when the complement occurs at a single interval: it cannot be both before and after I₀.
The Mozart scenario: "Mozart died before he finished the Requiem." This is the anti-veridical reading (case iii). Mozart's death (e₀) is at I₀. In some alternative world w₁, Mozart's composing (e₁, ongoing at I₀) has a counterpart e₂ whose continuation CAUSES a finishing event e₃ at I₁. B ("finishing the Requiem") holds at ⟨w₁, I₁, e₃⟩ but NOT in w₀.
Veridicality ↔ Presupposition Bridge #
@cite{beaver-condoravdi-2003} @cite{heim-1983} @cite{ogihara-steinert-threlkeld-2024}
Connects three layers of the temporal connective formalization:
- Fragment field:
TemporalExprEntry.complementVeridical : Bool - Theory proof: e.g.,
Anscombe.after A B → ∃ t, t ∈ timeTrace B - Presupposition theory: veridical connectives presuppose their complement
(modeled as
PrPropwith complement occurrence as presupposition)
For each temporal connective, the Fragment's complementVeridical field is
grounded in a theory-level proof, and matches the empirical data.
Veridical connectives #
For each connective with complementVeridical = true, the theory proves
that the connective entails the existence of a complement witness.
after is veridical: Fragment field matches theory proof.
Theory: Anscombe.after A B → ∃ t, t ∈ timeTrace B.
Fragment: after_.complementVeridical = true.
when is veridical: Fragment field matches theory proof.
until (durative) is veridical: Fragment field matches theory proof.
since is veridical: Fragment field matches theory proof.
by is veridical w.r.t. its main clause: Fragment field matches theory proof.
Non-veridical connectives #
before is non-veridical: Fragment field matches theory counterexample. The counterexample uses A = {point(0)}, B = ∅: "A before nothing" is vacuously true because ∀t'∈∅, 0 < t'.
Fragment matches data for after.
Fragment matches data for before.
Three-layer consistency for after: data, fragment, and theory all agree.
Three-layer consistency for before: data, fragment, and theory all agree.
The veridicality pattern is determined by quantifier force: ∃-based connectives are veridical; ∀-based (before) is non-veridical.
A temporal connective modeled as a presuppositional proposition. Veridical connectives presuppose their complement (like factives); non-veridical connectives carry no complement presupposition.
Equations
- OgiharaST2024.VeridicalityBridge.connPrProp complementInstantiated connHolds = { presup := fun (x : Unit) => complementInstantiated = true, assertion := fun (x : Unit) => connHolds = true }
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Negation preserves complement presupposition (projection through negation).
All three readings are compatible with complementVeridical = false.
The O&ST data covers all three B&C readings.