On English and Italian complex conditional connectives: Matching features and implicatures in defining semanto-pragmatic equivalence

Abstract

A contrastive semantic and pragmatic analysis of English and Italian Complex Conditional Connectives ( Cccs) is presented. The hypothesis underlying the research is that a fine-grained characterization of the internal structure of the lexical meaning is an essential tool for contrastive analysis. The first part of the paper focuses on the semantic properties of these connectives, defining the status of the concepts associated with their representation in the lexicon. The distinctions are established between “logico-semantic” and “conventional” meaning and between “general” and “individual” conventional features. The general features allow classification of the Cccs into the three categories of hypothetical , positive restrictive and negative restrictive Cccs. The individual features are outlined and contrasted in the second part of the paper. The comparison of the Cccs' lexical representations provides the input for the contrastive investigation of their pragmatic properties. In this context, the question is considered whether “semantic equivalence” as a result of feature-matching between two lexical entries is a sufficient condition for “pragmatic equivalence” in terms of corresponding implicatures in the two languages.