The case for the strong and conditional analysis of permission

Abstract

The classic analysis of permission modals involves existential quantification over a modal base. This analysis fails to account for many parallels between conditionals and permission, including non-monotonic and order-sensitive behavior in the scope of permission. An alternative-sensitive strict dynamic homogeneous conditional account of permission is given, which captures the parallels with conditionals, while also delivering simple and complex free choice patterns semantically. The semantic derivation of free choice makes it easier for the experimental evidence for the asymmetry between free choice and scalar implicatures to be accounted for than under the implicature approach to free choice.