A unified analysis of concessive conditionals and unconditionals

Abstract

Across languages, scalar concessive conditionals (SCCs; Even if Al comes…) and unconditionals (Whoever comes…) are typically expressed by distinct constructions. Japanese presents an intriguing contrast: both are realized by te mo adjuncts. This paper argues that mo in these constructions uniformly instantiates the scalar additive particle EVEN, yielding a unified compositional analysis of SCCs and unconditionals. Following Szabolcsi (2019), the universal force of unconditionals is derived through recursive exhaustification applied to existential statements over conditional propositions. The existential structure is not lexically encoded; rather, it is introduced by Erlewine’s (2020) covert ∃ operator, inserted to satisfy the semantic requirements of EVEN. The analysis also extends to FCIs and NPIs involving mo