The semantics and pragmatics of unless

Abstract

In this article the authors examine six different analyses of the meaning of unless that have been argued in the literature, and present a new analysis in which a careful distinction is made between the semantic meaning and the pragmatic interpretations of unless. Contrary to the common belief that unless cannot be used in irrealis conditionals, it is shown that unless can actually be used in two different senses there, one in which it alternates with except if, but not if . . . not (e.g. He wouldn't have done it {unless I had / except if I had / *if I hadn't} asked him to, and I didn't) and one in which it alternates with if . . . not but not with except if (e.g. You did do well, but you wouldn't have succeeded {unless I had / if I hadn't / *except if I had} helped you). It is shown, ®nally, how the various interpretations of unless can be reconciled with a common semantic meaning and how the different constraints on the use of unless, except if and if . . . not can be accounted for. 1 This article was written within a project sponsored both by the Fonds voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek ± Vlaanderen and by the Onderzoeksfonds of the University of Leuven (KUL). We wish to thank the two anonymous referees for the useful comments they have made on the ®rst draft of this article. Of course they are in no way responsible for any erroneous claims. 2 Note that (1c) is not equivalent to (1b). I have a walk after supper if and only if the weather is ®ne implicates that I always have a walk after supper if the weather is ®ne, i.e. that ®ne weather is a suf®cient condition for my having a walk after supper. The sentence I have a walk after supper only if the weather is ®ne does not implicate this. Formulation (1b) is therefore weaker than formulation (1c). 3 Further on in his article Geis (1973: 246) says that`unless, except in the event that, and, for those who can say it, except if are alternative lexical realizations of the same underlying structure'. However, we will argue below that these phrases are not semantically equivalent to under all circumstances except or in any event other than. (The problem is the presence of all/any in the latter paraphrases.)English Language and Linguistics 4.2: 205±241. # Cambridge University Press 2000. Some preliminariesWhen talking about conditionals we will be using some terms and notational conventions that need introducing. To begin with, we will use`situation' as a cover term for anything that can be expressed in a sentence (i.e. actions, events, processes, states ± cf. Lyons, 1977). The verb`actualize' will be used as a cover term for the predicates that are typically associated with one of these categories. Thus, rather than saying that an activity is performed, an event happens, a process develops or a state holds, we will simply say that the situation in question actualizes. Second, thinking of the logical representation`If P, (then) Q', we will refer to the head clause of the conditional (whether it is itself subordinate or not) as thè Q-clause' and to the conditional clause...

Unless conditionals: New evidence from priming

“…First, we provide new evidence on the interpretation and mental representation underlying unless conditionals. The pattern of results supports the arguments (e.g., Dancygier, 1998;Declerck & Reed, 2000) that call into question the claim that the meaning of "unless" may be paraphrased by "if, not" conditionals in all cases. As expected, the results show that "not-A and B" was primed by "unless" when compared to "if, not", whereas there were no differences between the priming effects of the two conditionals on the reading time of "A and not-B".…”

“…The conditional "if" states that "A" is a condition for the nonoccurring "B" scenario, but is not essentially exceptive, whereas "unless" indicates an exception to the vahdity of "B" or the circumstances under which B might not occur. This proposal argues against the identification of "unless" with "if not" and supports the hnguists' claim that "unless" has an exceptive meaning more similar to that of disjunctions (Dancygier, 1998;Declerck & Reed, 2000;Geis, 1973).…”

“…Nonetheless, in the linguistic literature there has been some discussion about the exact meaning of "unless". For instance, at least the following analyses have been proposed for "A unless B" or "unless B, A"; "if not-B, A" (Brée, 1985); "only if B, not-A" (Fillenbaum, 1986); "under all circumstances except/in any event other than B, A" (Geis, 1973) (Dancygier, 1998); "A in a case other than B" (Declerck & Reed, 2000). The choice between these possible interpretations for "unless" depends on various factors, among which are the semantic and pragmatic factors (Declerck & Reed, 2000).…”

On the (non-)expletive uses of the preverbal negative ne/en in the history of (Low) German and Dutch

“…Following Geis (1973) and Declerck and Reed (2000), I take the core meaning of an exceptive clause 'Q unless P' to be 'Q (only) does not hold if P is true.' Geis (1973) was the first to state that exceptive clauses are different from negative conditionals (if not).…”

In Defense of the Modal Account of the Progressive

“…According to Wulf, who is following an analysis of unless given by Declerck and Reed, , the core meaning of (18) is something along the lines of Shannon is making a pumpkin pie in a case other than one in which her neighbor pulls her away (again) to play bridge and Shannon is making a pumpkin pie except if her neighbor pulls her away (again) to play bridge . If it turns out that the neighbor did pull Shannon away, then it is false that Shannon is making a pumpkin pie .…”