The Relation Between Factual and Counterfactual Conditionals

What is the relation between factual conditionals: If A happened then B happened, and counterfactual conditionals: If A had happened then B would have happened? Some theorists propose quite different semantics for the two. In contrast, the theory of mental models and its computer implementation inte...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Cognitive science 2018-09, Vol.42 (7), p.2205-2228
Main Authors: Quelhas, Ana Cristina, Rasga, Célia, Johnson‐Laird, P. N.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Computational Linguistics
Conditionals
Correlation
Counterfactual conditionals
Discourse Analysis
Form Classes (Languages)
Language Processing
Mental models
Possibilities
Probabilities
Semantics
Sentence Structure
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Summary:What is the relation between factual conditionals: If A happened then B happened, and counterfactual conditionals: If A had happened then B would have happened? Some theorists propose quite different semantics for the two. In contrast, the theory of mental models and its computer implementation interrelates them. It postulates that both can have a priori truth values, and that the semantic bases of both are possibilities: states that are possible for factual conditionals, and that were once possible but that did not happen for counterfactual conditionals. Two experiments supported these relations. Experiment 1 showed that, like factual conditionals, certain counterfactuals are true a priori, and others are false a priori. Experiment 2 replicated this result and showed that participants selected appropriate paraphrases, referring, respectively, to real and to counterfactual possibilities, for the two sorts of conditional. These results are contrary to alternative accounts of conditionals.
ISSN:0364-0213
1551-6709
DOI:10.1111/cogs.12663