Interdisciplinary Colloquium
Prof. Ariel Cohen, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev
As part of the department’s weekly research colloquium,
held every Thursday from 16:15 to 17:45 in the Webb Building (Room 103),
the following lecture by Prof. Ariel Cohen (Ben-Gurion University of the Negev) will take place:
Irrealis is not asserted to be real: Evidence from Biblical Hebrew
Abstract:
Many languages have some form that marks a realis/irrealis distinction. This distinction is usually characterized in terms of factuality vs. non-factuality, and this idea has recently been formalized by von Prince et al. (2022). They use a framework where time is seen as branching, and argue that timelines that precede the present (including the present) are indicated by realis, and other timelines are irrealis.
This view is, as far as I know, the most detailed and rigorous formalization of the irrealis as indicating non-factuality. However, it suffers from two problems.
One problem is that of present and past habituals, and the other involves presupposition. Both of these refer to factual events, yet are often marked as irrealis.
In this talk I propose to solve the problem of habituals using the branching time framework of Cohen (1999), according to which the habitual still refers to actual events, but is evaluated with respect to timelines that will not actually occur.
In accounting for presupposition, I note that while presupposed material is factual, it is not asserted to be factual. I propose that realis is asserted to be real; if a proposition is either not asserted or is asserted not to be factual, it may be marked as irrealis.
Some scholars attempted to reinterpret habituals or presupposition as non-factual after all; I therefore bring evidence for my proposal from the Biblical Hebrew yiqtol (imperfect) form. It is irrealis, but can indicate events that are unquestionably factual, and cannot be reinterpreted otherwise.
I argue that, although such cases indicate factual events, these events are not asserted, but rather inferred. I demonstrate this fact by applying the test of reinforceability. Originally proposed as a test for implicature, it can apply to all speaker-intended inferences (Ariel 2019).
Therefore, the Biblical Hebrew irrealis may indicate perfectly factual events, so long as it they are inferred and not asserted. Hence, it provides a counterexample to the claim that irrealis always indicates the factual/non-factual dichotomy, and supports the proposal made here.
All are welcome!
