Cover not available

Article published In: International Journal of Chinese Linguistics
Vol. 6:1 (2019) ► pp.27–45

Get fulltext from our e-platform
JBE logo with link
PDF logo with download linkDownload PDF
authorization required

Encoding counterfactuality in Chinese, syntactically

 | Wayne State University
Published online: 2 July 2019
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/ijchl.18002.liu
Abstract
In this article, I demonstrate how past time-reference, modality, negation, conditional, and the causal relationship between the protasis and the apodosis work together to generate counterfactuality in Chinese, syntactically. I study two syntactic means that can help construe counterfactuality in Chinese. First, I study the case of the specialized complementizer yaobushi ‘if not for’ based on Ippolito, M. & Su, J. (2009). Counterfactuals, negation, and polarity. Proceedings of NELS 40. MIT.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar by arguing that the causal clausal relationship and the overt or covert modality are obligatory in yaobushi counterfactual; in particular, I resort to the inherent negative entailment of the modal adverb cai ‘not until’ that satisfies the exhaustive operator to account for the needed negation in cai apodosis. Second, I propose that a hypothetical conditional clause with a past time-reference guarantees past counterfactuality in Chinese. I extend the morphological past-tense exclusion operator for counterfactuality (Iatridou, S. (2000). The grammatical ingredients of counterfactuality. Linguistic Inquiry 31(2), 231–270. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar) to a more general and more pragmatic past time-reference to include tenseless languages like Chinese. I also show the special typological status of past tense and past counterfactual.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.There is counterfactuality reasoning in Chinese
  • 3.The exclusion operator in counterfactuality
  • 4.Chinese counterfactual
    • 4.1Factual ambiguity in tenseless Chinese
    • 4.2Specialized complementizer yaobushi ‘if not for’
      • 4.2.1Non-defeasible counterfactuality in yaobushi conditional
      • 4.2.2Overt or covert modality in yaobushi counterfactual
    • 4.3Hypothetical conditional and past time-reference in counterfactual
  • 5.Conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
References (37)
References
Aijmer, K. (2007). Modal adverbs as discourse markers: a bilingual approach to the study of indeed . In J. Rehbein, C. Hohenstein, & L. Pietsch (Eds.), Connectivity in Grammar and Discourse (pp. 329–344). John Benjamins: Amsterdam and Philadelphia. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Athanasiadou, A., & R. Dirven. (1997). Conditionality, hypotheticality, counterfactuality. In A. Athanasiadou & R. Dirven (Eds.), On Conditionals Again (pp. 61–96). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Anderson, A. (1951). A note on subjunctive and counterfactual conditionals. Analysis, 12(2), 35–38. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Au, T. (1983). Chinese and English counterfactuals: the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis revisited. Cognition, 151, 155–181. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bhatt, R. & Pancheva, R. (2006). Conditionals. In Gibson, G. & Friedman, T. (Eds.), The Blackwell companion to syntax, Vol. 11, 638–687. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bloom, A. (1981). The Linguistic shaping of thought: a study in the impact of language on thinking in China and the West. Hillsdale, NY: Erlbaum Associates.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Comrie, B. (1985). Tense. Cambridge. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Dryer, M. & Haspelmath, M. (2013). The World Atlas of Language Structure Online. [URL]
Dubinsky, S. & Williams, K. (1995). Recategorization of preposition as complementizers: the case of temporal prepositions in English. Linguistic Inquiry 26(1), 125–137.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Eifring, H. (1988). The Chinese counterfactual. Journal of Chinese Linguistics 16(2), 193–218.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Espanol-Echevarria, M. & Vegnaduzzo, S. (2000). Generalizing exception constructions: the case of Romance UNTIL. Proceedings of NELS 30, the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Greenberg, S. (1966). Language universal: with special reference to feature hierarchies. The Hague: Mouton & Co.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Henderson, R. (2010). “if not for” counterfactuals: negating causality in natural language. Cascadilla Proceedings Project.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hole, D. (2004). Focus and background marking in Mandarin Chinese: System and theory behind cái, jiù, dōu and yĕ. (Asian Linguistics 5). London and New York: Routledge Curzon. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hsu, H.-M., Fang, Y. & Hu, K.-M. (2015). Direct and indirect conditionals: a corpus-based study of Chinese yaoshi and yaobushi in spoken and written discourse. Taiwan Journal of Linguistics 13.2 31–37.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Iatridou, S. (2000). The grammatical ingredients of counterfactuality. Linguistic Inquiry 31(2), 231–270. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ippolito, M. & Su, J. (2009). Counterfactuals, negation, and polarity. Proceedings of NELS 40. MIT.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Komoto, N. (2011). Topics in the semantics of English and Japanese modals. Ph.D. dissertation, The University of Washington.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Jokic, A. & Smith, Q. (2003). Time, tense, and reference. MIT Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Li, C. & Thompson, S. (1981). Mandarin Chinese: a functional reference grammar. The University of California Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lin, J. (2010). A tenseless analysis of Mandarin Chinese revisited: A response to Sybesma 2007. Linguistic Inquiry 41.2, 305–329. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2003). Aspectual selection and negation in Mandarin Chinese. Linguistics 411, 425–429. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Liu, H. (2008). Bu-Yu, the complex-predicate structures in Mandarin. Munich: Lincom Europa, Chinese Linguistics Series 4.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Nevins, A. (2002). Counterfactuality without past tense. In M. Hirotani (Ed.), The proceedings of NELS 321 441–451. The University of Massachusetts, Amherst.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Palmer, F. R. (2001). Mood and modality. Cambridge. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Paris, M.-C. (1999). Condition et conditionnelles en chinois contemporain [Condition and conditionals in Contemporary Chinese]. Cahiers de Linguistique Asie Orientale 28(2) 227–251. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Peoples, J. (2000). A new theory of counterfactual conditionals. Ph.D. dissertation, University of Florida.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Szczyrbak, M. (2017). Modal adverbs of certainty in the rhetoric of advocates general: a dialogic view. Topics in Linguistics 18(1), 48–58. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Sybesma, R. (2007). Whether we tense-agree overtly or not. Linguistic Inquiry 381, 580–587. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Tian, Y. (2003). Ambiguities of the evaluative adverb Jiu. Ph.D. dissertation, University of Hawai’I at Manoa.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Yeh, D. and Gentner, D. (2005). Reasoning counterfactually in Chinese: picking up the pieces. Proceedings of the 27th Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society, 2410–2415.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Van linden, A. & Verstraete, J-C. (2008). The nature and origins of counterfactuality in simple clauses: cross-linguistic evidence. Journal of Pragmatics 40(11), 1865–1895. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Vegnaduzzo, S. (2001). A partition semantics for temporal adverbs. Ph.D. dissertation, UCLA.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Vlach, F. (1993). Temporal adverbials, tenses and perfect. Linguistics and Philosophy, 16(3), 231–283. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
von Fintel, K. (2012). Subjunctive conditionals. In G. Russell & D. Fara (Eds.). The Routledge companion to philosophy of language (pp. 466–477). New York: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Wu, Z. (1989). Exploring counterfactuals in English and Chinese. Ph.D. dissertation, The University of Massachusetts, Amherst.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Zepeda, O. (1983). A Tohono O’odham grammar. Tucson, AZ: The University of Arizona Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue