ipoteticità

Ipoteticità is a term used in Italian philosophy of language and linguistics to describe the quality of a proposition or utterance as hypothetical rather than factual. It refers to a stance or context in which something is assumed for the purposes of argument, analysis, or conditional reasoning. The concept helps distinguish actual claims from those imagined, stipulated for exploration, or conditioned on another state of affairs.

In logic and linguistic analysis, ipoteticità is linked to modality and conditionals. A sentence shows ipoteticità to the extent that its truth conditions depend on a supposition, an antecedent clause, or a non-actual state of affairs. This can be explicit through conditional structures or signaled by verb mood and modal markings in natural language.

In Italian grammar, ipoteticità is often conveyed through the subjunctive mood (congiuntivo) and by verb forms in the conditional or imperfect subjunctive. For example, "Se avessi tempo, verrei" expresses a hypothetical situation, and "Se piovesse, restareremmo a casa" marks hypotheticality. The degree of ipoteticità can vary with tense, mood, and adverbial markers.

Applications of the concept appear in philosophical argumentation, thought experiments, and analyses of how speakers frame claims under hypothetical scenarios. It also intersects with discussions of epistemic justification, evidence, and the boundaries between conjecture and knowledge.

See also: hypothesis, modality, subjunctive mood, counterfactual.