Kai von Fintel (Andrew Mellon Professor of Linguistics at MIT, 1994 UMass PhD) will give a public lecture on the little word “if” at the Centre for Interdisciplinary Research in Arts and Languages (CIDRAL) in Manchester (UK) next month. The Center will dedicate a whole semester to the discussion of possible worlds. Here is the abstract for Kai’s talk: “Cognition and language revolve around distinguishing between alternative ways the world might be. As a possible worlds semanticist, I explore the grammar of how language connects us to possibilities. After a whirlwind survey of the field, I focus on some of my research on conditionals. This includes both the familiar “if … then …” kind but also many “if-less” kinds (“Walk in there and the dog barks at you”). I argue that conditionals are a core pattern at the heart of grammar and that “if” is merely a convenient lexification.”