1. MIC
- Author
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Kurthy, Miklos, Del Prete, Fabio, and Barlassina, Luca
- Subjects
formal semantics ,Philosophy of Mind ,modal semantics ,Cognitive Psychology ,Linguistics ,Philosophy of Language ,Social and Behavioral Sciences ,FOS: Philosophy, ethics and religion ,ought implies can ,FOS: Psychology ,Philosophy ,Semantics and Pragmatics ,experimental philosophy ,FOS: Languages and literature ,Psychology ,modality ,Arts and Humanities - Abstract
In our paper, we put forward a formal semantic theory of the interaction between deontic and circumstantial modal verbs. We refer to our model as MIC (or “Must Implies Can”). To cut a long story short, according to MIC, sentences of the form “S must φ, but (s)he cannot” express a logical contradiction. We shall refer to such complex sentences as M-sentences. The general method of our studies is the following. Each participant is asked to a read a story that involves: (a) the imposition of an obligation on an agent and (b) a subsequent event that makes the performance of the obligatory action impossible. Then, the participant is asked to evaluate the appropriateness of an M-sentence. M-sentences are contrasted with sentences of the form “S was supposed to φ, but (s)he cannot”. We shall refer to these sentences as displaced sentences, as they temporally displace the obligation, pushing it back in the past. One of our main predictions is that participants will opt for the displaced alternative.
- Published
- 2022
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