文献类型：期刊文献

英文题名：Temporal Shift Length and Antecedent Occurrence Likelihood Modulate Counterfactual Conditional Comprehension: Evidence from Event-Related Potentials

作者：Kong, Lingda[1];Jiang, Yong[1];Huang, Yan[2];Jiang, Xiaoming[3]

机构：[1]Shanghai Int Studies Univ, Inst Corpus Studies & Applicat, Shanghai 200083, Peoples R China;[2]East China Univ Sci & Technol, Sch Foreign Languages, Shanghai 200237, Peoples R China;[3]Shanghai Int Studies Univ, Inst Linguist, Shanghai 200083, Peoples R China

年份：2023

卷号：13

期号：12

外文期刊名：BRAIN SCIENCES

收录：;WOS:【SCI-EXPANDED(收录号:WOS:001136033900001)】；

基金：We thank Qiaoyun Liao for her insightful comments on an earlier version of the manuscript. We would like to thank all undergraduate volunteers from Shanghai International Studies University.

语种：英文

外文关键词：temporal shift; likelihood of occurrence; implied causal relationship; Chinese counterfactuals; N400

摘要：Counterfactual conditionals posit hypothetical scenarios in which antecedent events contradict reality. This study examined whether and how the processing difficulty of Chinese counterfactual conditionals (yaobushi, equivalent to if it had not been for in English) can be affected by the length of temporal shifts of the events across clauses and the likelihood of the antecedent occurrence. Participants read Chinese counterfactuals that contained either long (e.g., qunian-xianzai [last year-right now]) or short temporal shifts (e.g., zuotian-xianzai [yesterday-right now]) within highly likely (e.g., sign up for school activity) or less likely contexts (e.g., sign up for Arctic scientific research). ERP results revealed a significant N400 interaction between the temporal shift length and antecedent likelihood on the temporal indicators in the consequent and the sentence-ending verbs. Specifically, the less likely events elicited larger negativity than highly likely events with short temporal shifts on the temporal indicator. On the sentence-ending word, the long temporal shift elicited enlarged negativity than the short temporal shift when the antecedent was highly likely. These findings have two key implications regarding the interplay of implied causality and falsity constraints during counterfactual comprehension. First, salient falsity constraints can override effects of causal coherence on processing. Second, greater negativity for unlikely antecedents suggests that counterfactual markers concurrently activate factual and hypothetical representations.