前提真假对外语违实语义加工的影响

The influence of the truth of a premise on the processing of counterfactuals in foreign language contexts

违实句的理解需要构建双重心理表征,这一过程会受句法、语义、语用、语境等多种因素的影响。目前有关违实语义的实证研究主要局限于母语领域。在外语环境下违实语义是否能够顺利激活双重表征,以及前提和语境知识如何影响外语环境下的违实推理,目前尚不清楚。本文采用自定步速阅读技术,考察前提知识的真假以及外语水平的高低如何影响违实推理。研究发现,对于高水平中国外语学习者来说,当前提命题为真时,违实推理能够顺利展开,而当前提命题为假时,违实推理无法正常进行;对于低水平学习者来说,无论前提真假与否,违实推理均无法正常展开。这表明,在外语环境下,违实推理会受语境和外语水平的双重影响。当外语水平达到一定程度时,外语环境下的违实推理与母语环境下的违实推理均受前提知识真假的约束;但当外语水平一般时,违实推理就会遇阻,前提知识也无法对违实推理产生影响。

It is generally believed that understanding counterfactual sentences requires the construction of dual mental representations. This process will be affected by many factors, such as syntax, semantics, pragmatics, and context. However, the existing empirical studies on counterfactual processing mainly focus on native languages. It remains unclear whether the dual representations of counterfactuals can be successfully activated in a foreign language context and how pragmatic and contextual information affects counterfactual processing in this context. To this end, this study uses the self-paced reading technique to examine how the truth of a premise influences counterfactual reasoning and how this process is modulated by participants’ foreign language proficiency. The results show that for highly proficient learners, counterfactual reasoning can successfully take place if its premise is true but not if its premise is false;for low proficiency learners, however, such reasoning cannot proceed irrespective of whether the premise is true or not, suggesting that it is affected by both the context and the language proficiency. For highly proficient learners, counterfactual reasoning in a foreign language context is constrained by the truth of the premise just like that in the native language context. However, when learners’ language proficiency is moderate, such reasoning encounters difficulties, and the real-world knowledge has no effect on it.