The Cognitive Construction And Interpretation Of English Counterfactual Conditionals

English counterfactual conditional, a controversial topic, has drawn dramaticattention of many scholars at home and abroad. Some scholars concentrate on itsphilosophical meanings, some conduct its researches in psychological linguistics, andothers study it within the framework of grammar. However, the present study attemptsto make a cognitive analysis of English counterfactual conditionals with the help ofconceptual blending or integration theory, aiming to offer an innovative angle ofinterpretation of English counterfactual conditionals.Guided by the conceptual or integration theory advanced by Fauconnier andTurner, this study conducts a qualitative study of English counterfactual conditionals,and proposes a new way to classify English counterfactual conditionals according tocognition complexity. English counterfactual conditionals are classified into twocategories: metaphorical and non-metaphorical ones. Metaphorical counterfactualconditionals are those whose antecedents or consequents or both antecedents andconsequents are expressions of metaphor, whereas for non-metaphorical ones, neitherantecedents nor consequents are metaphors. Then the cognitive processes of these twocategories on the basis of CBT are illustrated respectively with concrete examples tofurther exhibit the higher cognition complexity to understand metaphoricalcounterfactual conditionals in comparison with non-metaphorical ones. An empiricalstudy is conducted to verify the rationality and feasibility of the new classification ofEnglish counterfactual conditionals according to their cognition complexity. Theresults show that the error rate of counterfactual conditionals is higher than trueconditionals and that the error rate of metaphorical counterfactual conditionals ishigher than non-metaphorical ones, which confirms the hypotheses and proves thatcounterfactual conditionals are more complex than true conditionals and metaphoricalEnglish counterfactual conditionals are more complex than non-metaphorical ones interms of cognition processing. Classifying English counterfactual conditionals into metaphorical ones and non-metaphorical ones is rational and feasible.Conclusion part describes the theoretical, methodological and practicalimplications of the present study and its limitations and recommendations for furtherresearch.