The Semantics and Pragmatics of Conditional Connectives: cross-linguistic and experimental perspectives

条件的概念是人类思想和行为的核心，这体现在自然语言中丰富的条件表达。一个条件句的形式，例如，如果p， q，是由一个条件连词、一个先行词(p)和一个后句(q)构成的。在形式语义学和语用学的文献中，条件连接词的意义贡献一直争论不休。根据限制符分析（Kratzer 1986/1991），英语if是一个本身没有语义的操作符，if子句用于限制显性或隐性模态操作符或通用频率操作符。这一分析启发了许多富有洞察力的后续研究，通过这些研究，人们清楚地认识到条件句的解释及其语义/语用特性受到语义和语用调节的影响。其中，条件连接词可以以各种方式影响条件句的解释。例如，英语中的条件句可以通过使用过去完成时或德语中的现在完成时和虚拟语气的结合来获得反事实的阅读，而汉语条件句中的反事实则可以通过特定的条件连接词来实现（e.g. Wu 1994, Jiang 2014）。此外，人们还观察到，条件连接词可以在语义上或（可以说）在语用上将条件句转变为双条件句（例如Geis和Zwicky， 1971年及其后的作品），条件连接词可以表达非问题说话者对先行词和/或结果词的态度（例如Visconti， 1996年），条件连接词影响条件句对许可/反许可极性项目的能力（例如Leslie 2008年，Hoeksema， 2012年）。刘2012)。然而，现有的结果远非结论性的；总的来说，目前的文献对条件连接词在条件句中的调节作用缺乏系统性。本项目拟采用形式语义/语用（如Giannakidou的说话人承诺模型（1998/2014）、Liu的三维语义框架（2012））和心理语言学（理解、产生、脑电图）方法，研究不同语言中条件连接词的分布、语义和语用，以德语和汉语普通话为研究对象。由于条件连接词涉及多方面的意义方面（如隐含和预设），研究结果将揭示现有形式模型和语义和语用学实验范式的范围和局限性。

The concept of conditionality is central to human thought and action, which is manifested by a rich repertoire of conditional expressions in natural language. A conditional sentence of the form, for example, If p, q, is constructed by a conditional connective if, an antecedent (p) and a consequent (q). In the literature of formal semantics and pragmatics, the meaning contribution of conditional connectives has been long debated. According to the restrictor analysis (Kratzer 1986/1991), English if is an operator with no semantics on its own and if-clauses are used to restrict overt or covert modal operators or generic frequency operators. This analysis has inspired many insightful follow-up studies through which it becomes clear that the interpretation of conditional sentences and their semantic/pragmatic properties are subject to a process of semantic and pragmatic modulation. Among others, conditional connectives can influence the interpretation of conditional sentences in various ways. For example, while a conditional sentence can get a counterfactual reading by use of past perfect in English or through a combination of present perfect and subjunctive mood in German, counterfactuality can be realized by specific conditional connectives in Mandarin conditional sentences (e.g. Wu 1994, Jiang 2014). Moreover, it has been observed that conditional connectives can turn a conditional sentence into a bi-conditional one semantically or (arguably) pragmatically (e.g. Geis and Zwicky 1971 and subsequent works), that conditional connectives can express non-at-issue speaker attitudes towards the antecedent and/or the consequent (e.g. Visconti 1996) and that conditional connectives affect a conditional sentence in its ability to license/anti-license polarity items (e.g. Leslie 2008, Hoeksema 2012, Liu 2012). However, the existing results are far from conclusive; overall, the current literature lacks systematicity regarding the modulating role of conditional connectives in conditional sentences.The proposed project aims to study the distribution, semantics and pragmatics of conditional connectives in different languages with a focus on German and Mandarin Chinese, using formal semantic/pragmatic (e.g. the speaker commitment model of Giannakidou (1998/2014), the three-dimensional semantic framework of Liu (2012)) and psycholinguistic (comprehension, production, EEG) methods. Due to the multifaceted meaning aspects involved in conditional connectives (such as implicatures and presuppositions), the results will shed light on the scope and limits of existing formal models and experimental paradigms of semantics and pragmatics.