Speaker: Lucas Champollion (NYU)
Date and time: Tuesday, April 15th 2025, 16:00-17:30
Please note the unusual day and time slot!
Venue: ILLC Seminar Room F1.15, Science Park 107 and online.
Title: A variably strict truthmaker semantics for modals and conditionals
Abstract. This talk presents a novel approach to modals and conditionals by integrating two independently well-known frameworks: variably strict semantics and truthmaker semantics. I demonstrate how this combination preserves the insights of the original variably strict framework for modals and conditionals due to Angelika Kratzer while combining it with the advantages of truthmaker semantics known from Kit Fine’s work. This combination overcomes problems concerning the interaction of conditionals and disjunctions. It furthermore provides a natural home for implementing the popular idea that modalized statements are grounded in modal anchors (entities in the world), as argued by Hacquard, Moltmann, and recently Kratzer. This talk is based on joint work with Timothée Bernard (Université Paris Cité).