A Study Of Chinese Counterfactual Conditionals From The Perspective Of Conceptual Integration

This dissertation aims at giving cognitive interpretation of Chinese counterfactual structures in terms of conceptual integration theory (also called mental space blending). The theory, rmainly proposed by Fauconnier and Turner, is a general cognitive operation and serves a variety of cognitive purposes. By applying this theory to interpret Chinese counterfactual conditionals (Chinese Cfs for short), the dissertation attempts to demonstrate the plausibility of conceptual integration for counterfactual meaning construction in Chinese conditionals.Delimitating the subject to explicitly interpreted Chinese Cfs with a protasis and a apodosis, based on categorizing (Chinese Cfs includes grammatically-marked Cfs and non-grammatically-marked Cfs), employing qualitative analysis and case study as the major methodologies, this dissertation tries to provide insight into the cognitive mechanism of Chinese Cfs, providing an alternative perspective on interpreting the pervasive and expressive counterfactuals in Chinese.The lexical item"早"in either protasis or apodosis and negative hypothetical connective word such as"若非","若不是","要不是", or"不是"in conditionals are grammaticalized to be the markers of Cfs. These grammatical markers play a key role in the conceptual integration network construction of Cfs. The marker triggers to build abstract counterfactual grammatical input space, which contains a specific abstract frame. The frame together with the elements in another input is projected to the blend, leading to the emergence of a new frame in the blend, thus counterfactuality is delivered by completion and elaboration the blend.The non-grammatically-marked Chinese Cfs usually contain a contradictive or encyclopedically wrong protasis or apodosis. Drawing much inference from the world knowledge and the cognitive judgment power of human beings, the conceptual integration network of Cfs of this category is constructed. During the process of construction, two prominent aspects deserve our attention. Firstly, In the non-grammatically-marked Cfs which contains a contradictive or encyclopedically wrong clause (for example:如果太阳从西边出来,你才会变成善人), the negative epistemic stance of the wrong clause, together with the elements of the other is projected into the blend, thus leading to its counterfactual interpretation. Secondly, a natural person is conceived to be split into two separate elements, namely the Subject and the Self. Therefore it is possible that the Subject of A and the Self of B are simultaneously projected to the blend, thus forms an unique counterfactual figure with both the subject of A and the self of B in the blend. And pragmatic inferences are drawn from the contrast between the blend and the base space.