Reduced Conditionals in German: Event Quantification and Definiteness

Abstract

This paper investigates German conditionals that are reduced in the sense that their consequent clauses lack a verb and possibly more material. Focusing on readings in which conditionals quantify over events, it is shown that there are a number of semantic contrasts between reduced conditionals and their non-reduced versions. These contrasts are derived in a unified way from a hypothesis as to how the truth conditions of a reduced conditional relate to those of its non-reduced version. This hypothesis is in turn derived from assumptions as to how the Logical Form of a reduced conditional relates to the one of its non-reduced version. It is suggested that reduced and non-reduced consequent clauses can be seen to differ in a way analogous to the way definite and indefinite noun phrases differ.