A Bilateral Reduction Sentence for Modulation

Abstract

The theory of mental models considers sentential connectives to refer to semantic possibilities. The theory also proposes that the possibilities can be amended by virtue of modulation processes, that is, processes in which semantics or pragmatics can have an influence. The definition of modulation the theory of mental models gives has been deemed as a scientific definition within Carnap’s framework. This is because it is easy to find reduction sentences corresponding to it. What seems to be harder is to think about bilateral reduction sentences for that definition. This paper addresses this issue. It shows that at least a bilateral reduction sentence is possible for modulation.