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Linglib.Semantics.Modality.Exclusion

Exclusion features and X/O-marking strategies #

[Iat00] [vFI23] [And51] [Sch04b] [Miz24]

Framework primitives for the Exclusion Feature analysis of past morphology ([Iat00]) and the X-marking / O-marking typology of counterfactuality ([vFI23]). Paper-specific typologies and empirical claims live in the corresponding Studies/ files:

Core claims #

Past morphology encodes exclusion ([Iat00]):

This maps onto the ContextTower's origin / innermost distinction — [Sch04b]'s Context of Thought θ (= tower.origin) vs Context of Utterance υ (= tower.innermost): ExclF dim tower holds iff the relevant coordinate of tower.innermost differs from that of tower.origin. At a root tower the two coincide, so no ExclF holds; a subjunctive shift produces the modal feature and a temporal shift the temporal one (subjShift_produces_modal_exclF, temporalShift_produces_temporal_exclF).

The X-marking / O-marking distinction ([vFI23]) is the typological label for whether a language uses counterfactual morphology (X-marking) or some other strategy (O-marking, e.g., the Japanese Historical Present of [Miz24]) to grammatically distinguish live from non-live possibilities.

ExclF: the exclusion feature #

The two dimensions along which past morphology can exclude.

[Iat00]'s key insight: past morphology has a single semantic contribution (exclusion) that applies to different dimensions. The temporal/modal ambiguity of "past" is not lexical ambiguity — it is the same feature targeting different coordinates.

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      def Semantics.Modality.Exclusion.ExclF {W : Type u_1} {E : Type u_2} {P : Type u_3} {T : Type u_4} (dim : ExclDimension) (tower : Context.ContextTower (Context.KContext W E P T)) :

      The Exclusion Feature: past morphology signals that the topic coordinate differs from the speaker coordinate on the given dimension.

      This is a predicate over context towers: ExclF dim tower holds iff the relevant coordinate of the innermost context (topic) differs from the origin context (speaker). At a root tower innermost and origin coincide, so neither dimension's feature holds.

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        Shifts produce ExclF #

        theorem Semantics.Modality.Exclusion.subjShift_produces_modal_exclF {W : Type u_1} {E : Type u_2} {P : Type u_3} {T : Type u_4} (c : Context.KContext W E P T) (w' : W) (t' : T) (h : w' c.world) :

        subjShift changes world → produces modal ExclF.

        When a subjunctive clause introduces a new world that differs from the origin, the resulting tower has modal ExclF. This is the tower-level formalization of [Iat00]'s claim that counterfactual morphology signals world exclusion.

        temporalShift changes time → produces temporal ExclF.

        When an embedding shifts the evaluation time away from the speech time, the resulting tower has temporal ExclF. This is ordinary temporal past.

        theorem Semantics.Modality.Exclusion.two_shifts_two_exclFs {W : Type u_1} {E : Type u_2} {P : Type u_3} {T : Type u_4} (c : Context.KContext W E P T) (w' : W) (t' t'' : T) (hw : w' c.world) (ht : t'' c.time) :

        Two shifts → both ExclFs: a subjunctive (world) shift followed by a temporal one yields modal and temporal exclusion together — the PastCF configuration of [Iat00] (two past layers).

        X-marking / O-marking typology ([vFI23]) #

        The two crosslinguistic strategies for grammatically distinguishing live from non-live possibilities ([vFI23]'s typological label).

        Used by [Miz24] to characterize how different languages express Anderson conditionals: English uses X-marking (counterfactual morphology), Japanese uses O-marking (Non-Past + Historical Present).

        • xMarking : MarkingStrategy

          X-marking: counterfactual morphology expands the domain from D to D⁺. English ([Miz24], ex. 1a): "If Jones had taken arsenic last night, he would show those symptoms which he is now showing."

        • oMarking : MarkingStrategy

          O-marking: the absence of X-marking. In Japanese Anderson conditionals, Non-Past morphology triggers a perspectival shift analogous to the Historical Present ([Sch04b]); the backward time shift expands the domain under branching time, avoiding triviality without counterfactual morphology. Japanese ([Miz24], ex. 4a): "Jones-si-ga ... nom-eba, ... mise-ru hazuda."

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            The complementary marking strategy. O-marking "is generally defined as the absence of X-marking" ([Miz24], §2), so the two strategies complement each other: in a minimal pair, the alternative realizes the other of the attested strategy.

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              X-marking exponents ([vFI23] §2, "The form") #

              The morphology realizing X-marking ([vFI23] §2): dedicated, or borrowed from past / imperfective / future / subjunctive; [Miz24] (§4.2) adds the Mandarin perfective.

              • dedicated : XMarkingHost

                Dedicated X-morphology with no other use (Hungarian -nA).

              • past : XMarkingHost

                Fake past ([Iat00]; English, Greek, Romance).

              • imperfective : XMarkingHost

                Fake imperfective (Greek, Romance).

              • future : XMarkingHost

                Future / woll (English would; the Greek and Romance consequent).

              • subjunctive : XMarkingHost

                Past subjunctive (German, Icelandic).

              • perfective : XMarkingHost

                Perfective ([Miz24], §4.2: Mandarin consequent-final le).

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                  A language's X-marking exponent: citation form and (possibly complex — Greek: past + imperfective) components. Option-valued xMarking entries live in Fragments/{Language}/Conditionals.lean; total uniformity ([vFI23] p. 1471) bets every language has one.

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