Examines semantic implications of Sobel sequences in language, suggesting a reevaluation of existing theories.
This paper considers reverse Sobel sequences, NPI licensing, and related speaker judgments as they bear on von Fintel-style dynamic approaches to the semantics of subjunctive conditionals. We argue that neither reverse Sobel sequences nor von Fintel’s explanation of NPI licensing speak in favor of von Fintel’s semantics and that the alternative Lewisian approach, augmented by Moss-style pragmatic considerations, can accommodate and predict the relevant data at least as well as, and in some cases better than, von Fintel’s view. Our arguments include counterexamples to von Fintel’s semantics with respect to both its treatment of reverse Sobel sequences and NPI licensing.
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Sennet et al. (2026) studied this question.
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