On the lexical meaning of conditional connectives in Chinese

Abstract

This paper examines some common logical notions, their explicit encoding in English and in Chinese, their representations in logic, and their semantic characterizations. Detailed treatments are given to the analysis of the necessary condition and the counterfactual protasis-inducer ‘yàobúshì’ (if-not-be) in Chinese. Factors affecting the comprehension of these terms are explored in detail. Given that the characterization of the necessary condition is a rather familiar topic, the novel aspect of this study lies in the analysis of ‘yàobúshì’, which is characterized here as an explicit counterfactual marker taking on a proposition which is both veridical and a falsifying contingent.