Counterfactuality Construction In English And Chinese Conditionals

Counterfactual thinking is an important part of human reasoning.Counterfactuality is produced by the conceptualization of counterfactual thinking.The typical way to express counterfactuality is the employment of conditionals in the form of "if p,(then)q." Since the 20th century,philosophers,psychologists and linguists have been studying counterfactual conditionals from such aspects as truth-condition,causality,counterfactual thinking,and subjunctive mood.However,few of them have committed themselves to the cognitive process of counterfactuality construction.With the development of cognitive linguistics,a few studies on counterfactuality in English conditionals have been conducted,but these studies have their own limitations.Furthermore,counterfactuality in Chinese conditionals has not obtained enough attention,not to mention the comparison of counterfactuality construction between English conditionals and Chinese conditionals.This study attempts to reveal the construction process of counterfactuality in English If-conditionals and Chinese Ruguo-conditionals employing Conceptual Blending Theory.The similarities and differences of counterfactuality construction in the two conditionals are emphasized.First of all,counterfactuality is classified into acting counterfactuality,knowing counterfactuality and uttering counterfactuality based on Shen’s three domains.Then each type of counterfactuality in If-conditionals and Ruguo-conditionals is analyzed within an integration network.Last but not least,the similarities and differences of counterfactuality construction in the two conditionals are presented.The linguistic data for this study are selected from OANC and CCL.It is found that there are three similarities of counterfactuality construction between If-conditionals and Ruguo-conditionals.First,counterfactuality construction in If-conditionals and Ruguo-conditionals follows the similar rule:one input space produces the negative epistemic stance as an element in this space.The negative epistemic stance,together with other elements and the frame in the other input space,is projected on the blended space.Thus the counterfactual interpretation emerges by composition,completion and elaboration in the blended space.Second,the context and encyclopedic knowledge are significant in constructing the blending network in If-conditionals and Ruguo-conditionals.Third,some integration networks are the same in If-conditionals and Ruguo-conditionals.It is also found that there are two differences of counterfactuality construction between If-conditionals and Ruguo-conditionals.First,If-conditionals and Ruguo-conditionals construct different integration networks in acting counterfactuality(agent-change counterfactuality,time-change counterfactuality and place-change counterfactuality),and knowing counterfactuality.Second,the negative epistemic stance markers are different.Most English If-conditionals mark the negative epistemic stance by syntactic devices-tense backshifing.While most Chinese Ruguo-conditionals mark the negative epistemic stance by lexical devices such as "没有" and "不."This study not only presents the strong explanatory power of Conceptual Blending Theory,but also gives some implications for language users to better understand English and Chinese counterfactual conditionals.