Counterfactuality:The Meaning Level and Its Pragmatic Realization
The investigation of counterfactuality often triggers substantial controversy on whether/how the counterfactual expression conveys counter-to-fact(non-factive)meaning.Such research excessively relies on the objective status of tangible events in the physical world as criteria for determining the(counter)factual nature and function of an expression.Events occurring in the past or present are generally deterministic,making it relatively straightforward to evaluate whether their real-time status aligns with the corresponding expressions.Events occurring in the future could also be deterministic,when they are pre-determined by relevant past or present events.Additionally,regular events can be evaluated as deterministic based on conventional norms.It is not the real-time status or its morphology/content but the nature of certainty that helps researchers to check so-called counterfactuality of an expression.But this type of counterfactual investigation provokes intractable disputes.This paper contends that the objective status of events in the physical world,the non-factive meaning of tangible categories in the cognitive world,and the communicative meaning of expressions in the linguistic world should not be conflated or regarded as interchangeable.The aim of this paper is to elucidate the confusion surrounding counterfactuality investigations through a hierarchical distinction of non-factive meaning,on the basis of which,explores the interaction principle of the form,semantics and pragmatics of counterfactuality.Non-factive meaning is derived from the irrealis modality of counterfactual category,manifests in pragmatical communication with layered degrees of prominence.Correspondingly non-factive meaning is represented in two levels:abstract category level and concrete pragmatic level,which constructs a realizational relationship from semantics to pragmatics.As a category connotation,non-factive meaning acts much like entailment.Specifically speaking,there are two sources of evidence which support the entailment nature of the non-factive meaning in a counterfactual category.Firstly,the commonly used markers of counterfactual expression come from irrealis subcategories such as reasoning,cognition,appearance,and subjunctive evaluation.And the category meaning of the counterfactual marker can entail the non-factive meaning.Secondly,the counterfactual expression reflects the non-cancellability,non-reenforceability,non-deducibility,and separability,which are the typical characteristics of entailment.The categorical non-factive meaning can be utilized in three pragmatical layers.In the background knowledge layer,non-factive meaning default exists in the background meaning of marker's category,which is absent.In the contrastive association layer,non-factive meaning plays a speculative role,which co-presents with the category's basic meaning.In the foreground expression layer,non-factive meaning implements the negation of asserted fact,which surfaces as a main function.
non-factive meaningmeaning category associationbackground knowledge layercontrastive association layerforeground expression layer
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