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Abstract:

This paper investigates the processing of conditional sentences and sentences with ‘since’ in two respects. Firstly,we investigate the clausal implicature originating from the scale . Secondly, we investigate how modals can affect the interpretation of these sentences. A reading time experiment is reported which involved these two factors. It appears that ‘since’ is processed fastest in a context in which the antecedent has been affirmed, whereas ‘if’ is processed fastest in a context with an uncertain antecedent. The use of modals can speed up or slow down the reading process. Modals help to speed up processing of sentences involving ‘if’ in a certain context and ‘since’ in an uncertain context. However, when modals are used with ‘if’ in an uncertain context or with ‘since’ in a certain context, they slow down processing of the relevant sentences. The results will be situated in two accounts of implicatures, neo-Gricean and Relevance Theoretic.