英语条件句中违实意义建构认知概述

hereare still things to be desired and that there is still room for improvement. The merits of the previous studies of the counterfactuality expressedby the English conditionals can be summarized as follows:First of all, as to philosophical views on counterfactuality expressedby the English conditionals, researchers undoubtedly give a detailedexplanation on the truth condition of the protasis and apodosis, especiallythose made by Levis from the perspective of possible world. They haveprobed into the counterfactual reasoning, which gives someenlightenment for further discussion.Secondly, previous researches done by grammarians both at homeand abroad are of great practical significance. Traditional grammariansstudy the hypothetical or unreal conditionals structurally and semantically.One of theoretical foundations of these grammars is Quirk's grammar.Zhang Zhenbang's grammar is more theoretical than the other twogrammars. Zhang Daozhen and Bo Bing pay more attention to theapplication of counterfactual conditionals. They use many examples intheir grammars to elucidate when and how to use unreal conditionals.Most of English teachers in China adopt these three grammarians'viewpoints. Chinese learners will concentrate on the verb forms of thesentences when they leam English unreal conditionals.
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Chapter 3 Counterfactuality in English Conditionals .......... 41
3.1 Counterfactual Thinking and Counterfactuality......... 41
3.2 Categorization of Counterfactuality ......... 45
3.3 Summary.........54
Chapter 4 The Construction of Counterfactuality......... 57
4.1 The Construction of the Physical-social Counterfactuality .........58
4.2 The Construction of the Epistemic Counterfactuality ......... 69
4.3 itsPragmatic Functions......... 71
4.4 Summary......... 74

Chapter 4 The Construction of Counter factuality in English Conditionals with CB and its Pragmatic Functions in Context

As we mentioned in Chapter Two, linguistic expressions are seen asunderdetermined prompts for processes of rich meaning construction;linguistic expressions have meaning potential. Rather than 'encoding'meaning, linguistic expressions represent partial building instructions,according to which mental spaces are constructed. However, meaningconstruction cannot rely solely upon 'simple' conceptual projectionprocess like structuring one conceptual region in terms of another.Blending Theory accounts for the emergence of meanings like these byadopting the view that meaning construction involves emergent structure:meaning that is more than the sum of its component parts. As Fauconnier(2002:218) points out counterfactual scenarios are assembled mentallynot by taking full representations of the world and making discrete, finite,known changes to deliver full possible worlds but, instead, by conceptualintegration, which can compose schematic blends that suit the conceptualpurposes at hand.In this chapter, we try to analyze how each type of counterfactualityis constructed and how other emergent aspects of meaning emerge.

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Conclusion

This thesis has been devoted to a cognitive account of theconstruction of counterfactuality in English conditionals. In order to reachthe goal, the thesis has first made a brief review of the previous studies onconditionals that can express counterfactuality and presented thetheoretical foundations of the study by introducing the theory ofconceptual blending. Then, the thesis makes categorizations of theco