Counterfactual reasoning embodied in cognition rather than linguistic forms: Evidence from a developmental study in Chinese
中文与过去事实相反假设语气推论存在于认知而非语言形式：从语言发展研究着手
Chingfen Hsu 许静芬

Abstract 摘要
This study aimed to prove that counterfactual reasoning was accessible without contextual cues in Chinese, further demonstrating developmental differences in mastering counterfactuality in this language. This study challenged the traditional view that counterfactual thinking is exclusively available through discourse in conversational Chinese due to the lack of a subjunctive mood. It was argued that without morphological inflections, Chinese counterfactual reasoning could be reached through unique coercive tactics with negative linguistic expressions. The sentence-verification paradigm (Carpenter and Just, 1975) was employed to probe counterfactual comprehension by comparing mental representations of contrary-to-fact sentences. It was predicted that successful counterfactual reasoning would be observed in these coercions. Meaning-based representations would be formed in mental models, rather than structural ones. Because of the discrepancy between linguistic form and meaning in counterfactuals, extra time was required to process counterfactual clauses. The results confirmed the predictions. It was concluded that the same cognitive concept is reached in distinct linguistic ways. Developmental differences in mastering Chinese counterfactual reasoning were observed, and the function of negation in Chinese counterfactuals was discussed.

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