Anderson Conditionals and Domain Expansion #
@cite{condoravdi-2002}
Formalizes the connection between backward temporal shifts and domain expansion in conditionals, following Mizuno's argument: the historical present (HP) in conditional antecedents achieves domain expansion because moving time backward expands the set of historical alternatives.
Key Results #
andersonConditional— HP in antecedent pushes a temporal shift + domain expandshp_achieves_expansion— Mizuno's argument: backward time + domain monotonicity yields expansion- Bridge to
BranchingTime.historicalBaseandMood.SUBJ
Connection to ContextTower #
The HP shift in the antecedent of an Anderson conditional is modeled as a
tower push of an hpShift: a context shift that moves time backward and
expands the domain. This connects the modal-temporal interaction in
conditionals to the tower architecture.
An Anderson conditional: the antecedent is evaluated at an HP-shifted context (backward time, expanded domain), and the consequent is evaluated at the original context.
The HP shift in the antecedent is what gives counterfactual conditionals their widened modal base — by shifting time backward, more futures branch, and the domain of quantification expands.
Equations
- Semantics.Tense.ConditionalShift.andersonConditional antecedent consequent hpTime expandedDomain rc = (antecedent ((Core.Context.hpShift hpTime expandedDomain).apply rc) → consequent rc)
Instances For
The HP-shifted context in an Anderson conditional has the shifted time.
Mizuno's argument: backward time + domain monotonicity yields expansion.
If the world history is backwards-closed (worlds that agree up to t
also agree up to t' ≤ t), then the historical alternatives at an
earlier time are a superset of those at a later time. This is domain
monotonicity.
The historical base (set of situations) at an earlier time includes situations with the same worlds as the later base, plus potentially more. This is the situation-level version of domain expansion.
A conditional is trivial when every world in the domain satisfies the consequent. The antecedent restriction does no work — the conditional is vacuously true regardless of what the antecedent says.
@cite{condoravdi-2002}: indicative conditionals with small domains can be trivial because every accessible world already satisfies the consequent. Domain expansion (via HP/X-marking) resolves this by adding worlds where the consequent may fail.
Equations
- Semantics.Tense.ConditionalShift.trivialConsequent domain consequent = ∀ w ∈ domain, consequent w
Instances For
A conditional is non-trivial when there exists a world in the domain where the consequent fails. This is the condition under which the antecedent restriction does meaningful work.
Equations
- Semantics.Tense.ConditionalShift.nonTrivialConsequent domain consequent = ∃ w ∈ domain, ¬consequent w
Instances For
Domain expansion resolves triviality: if the original domain makes the consequent trivial, but the expanded domain contains a world where the consequent fails, then the expanded conditional is non-trivial.
This completes the HP/X-marking argument:
hp_achieves_expansion— backward time shift expands the domainexpansion_resolves_triviality— expanded domain makes the conditional non-trivial
The counterfactual "If I had left earlier, I would have caught the train" is non-trivial precisely because the expanded domain (from X-marking's backward time shift) includes worlds where I didn't catch the train.
Contrapositive: if a conditional over a domain is trivial and a superset is also trivial, then every world in the superset satisfies the consequent. This shows that triviality is monotone: expanding the domain can only resolve triviality, never introduce it.
SUBJ's situation introduction can be decomposed into two steps:
- Expand the domain (via backward time shift)
- Existentially quantify over the expanded domain
When the history is backwards-closed, SUBJ at an earlier time introduces a situation whose world is in the expanded historical alternatives.