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1. Singularity and plurality of discourse reference to worlds

   https://doi.org/10.3765/salt.v1i0.5341  

   Yang, Muyi (December 2022, Semantics and Linguistic Theory)

   The referential analysis of conditionals has recently been put forth as an alternative of the Kratzer-style restrictor analysis (Schein 2001, Schlenker 2004, among others). Under this analysis, conditional antecedents are definite descriptions of worlds/situations. This paper explores a widely accepted assumption of the referential analysis, namely that conditional antecedents refer to plural objects. I show that the singularity/plurality of conditional antecedents can correlate with whether the conditional expresses modal or adverbial quantification. I use this correlation to motivate an analysis where conditional antecedents are number-neutral by default, but can be forced to denote singular referents. This idea is formally implemented within the dynamic framework by Brasoveanu (2010). 

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2. At the syntax-discourse interface: Verb phrase ellipsis interpretation in context

   https://doi.org/10.1353/lan.2021.0010  

   Geiger, Jeffrey; Xiang, Ming (March 2021, Language)

   A central question of language comprehension concerns the interaction between linguistic form and broader representations of discourse in the interpretation of context-sensitive expressions. This interaction is instantiated in the interpretation of verb phrase ellipsis, where previous work has shown that the linguistic antecedent and the broader context are both considered in resolution. Using a novel experimental paradigm, we investigated VPE interpretation in discourses where the antecedent and the broader context make different information available for inclusion in the interpretation of the ellipsis site. Our results point to a complex interaction between linguistic antecedents and the broader discourse context in interpretation, putting considerable constraints on the set of possible models for VPE resolution. This work contributes to a better understanding of both the connections between and the boundaries separating linguistic structure and mental models of discourse contexts. 

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3. Sensitive to future: the discourse dynamics of Japanese nara-conditionals

   Yang, Muyi (January 2021, Proceedings of Logic and Engineering of Natural Language Semantics (LENLS) 18)

   Butler, Alastair (Ed.)

   This study explores the felicity condition of Japanese nara-conditionals. Building on the observation that nara-conditionals require the antecedent to express information that the speaker has recently acquired (Akatsuka 1985), I argue that nara-conditionals require that the antecedent be in some possible future context set provided by the actual context. I implement the idea in Farkas and Bruce’s (2010) Table model, and explore the consequence of the proposed account regarding the interaction between nara-conditionals and (i) evidentiality and (ii) directive speech acts. 

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4. Bridging social and ecological science to create spatially explicit models of human-caused mortality of carnivores

   https://doi.org/10.1007/s13280-025-02165-1  

   Bruskotter, Jeremy_T; Carter, Neil_H; Berl, Richard; Hinton, Joseph; Murphy, Jazmin; Mark_Elbroch, L.; Vucetich, John_A (April 2025, Ambio)

   Abstract Research indicates that human-caused mortality (HCM) is a key factor limiting numerous large carnivore populations. However, efforts to represent HCM in spatially explicit models have generally been limited in scope—often relying on proxies, such as road or human density. Yet such efforts fail to distinguish different sources of HCM, which can arise from different antecedent processes. We offer a systems-based conceptual framework for understanding the antecedents of HCMs that is grounded in theory from the social and behavioral sciences. Specifically, we first explain how HCMs are usefully distinguished into four types (e.g., accidental, harvest, illicit, control actions), then discuss how these different types tend to be driven by different sets of psychological and sociopolitical processes. We contend that improvements in understanding the spatial variation in HCMs would rise from more explicit attention to the various antecedent processes that precede each mortality type. 

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5. The typology of actual clauses in Eastern Bantu

   https://doi.org/10.4000/lla.9572  

   Sikuku, Justine Mukhwana; Mulalu, Joseph Wanyonyi; Safir, Ken (June 2023, Linguistique et langues africaines)

   This article reports on the existence of actual clause morphology and interpretation in selected Bantu languages. Essentially, we treat the actual clause as an embedded assertion whereby the utterer is committed not only to the truth of the proposition described by the actual clause: It must be the case that the event in the proposition cannot be unrealized (or describe a future state) at the time of the utterance. The Bantu languages in our sample mark the actual clause by a verbal prefix in a typical tense position on the lower verb. This prefix occurs as a single vowel or as a consonant/vowel combination. When the actual clause is a syntactic complement, it co-occurs with verbs that may be incompatible with indicative clauses. The clause is also semantically distinct from other clause types such as the infinitive and the subjunctive. Our analysis of actual clauses as assertions explains why they are not complements of factive verbs. We argue that the source of the speaker’s commitment to truth arises in part from the way actual clauses are licensed by the clauses they are dependent on. That is, we propose that actual clauses are licensed by a “contingent antecedent clause” which is taken to be a precondition for the actual clause assertion. Our approach generalizes to explain other non-complement uses of actual/narrative clause types, typically described as “narrative” tense in Bantu, which bears the exact same morphology 

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