PRAGMATIC CONDITIONALS IN ENGLISH

The inference 'if not P then not Q' (äs in l') is an invited inference rather than a necessary one. The antecedent event is a sufficient, though not a necessary condition for the consequent. There are, however, several instances of i/-clauses in English which, though seemingly conditional 'in some sense', do not fit the pattern of the examples in 1. Such instances are often ignored in linguistic analyses, though they have, of course, been given due attention by logicians and in semantic studies.