Department of English and American Studies, Humboldt University of Berlin, Unter den Linden 6, 10099, Berlin, Germany.
J Psycholinguist Res. 2021 Dec;50(6):1337-1368. doi: 10.1007/s10936-021-09812-0. Epub 2021 Oct 26.
In this paper, the meaning and processing of the German conditional connectives (CCs) such as wenn 'if' and nur wenn 'only if' are investigated. In Experiment 1, participants read short scenarios containing a conditional sentence (i.e., If P, Q.) with wenn/nur wenn 'if/only if' and a confirmed or negated antecedent (i.e., P/not-P), and subsequently completed the final sentence about Q (with or without negation). In Experiment 2, participants rated the truth or falsity of the consequent Q after reading a conditional sentence with wenn or nur wenn and a confirmed or negated antecedent (i.e., If P, Q. P/not-P. // Therefore, Q?). Both experiments showed that neither wenn nor nur wenn were interpreted as biconditional CCs. Modus Ponens (If P, Q. P. // Therefore, Q) was validated for wenn, whereas it was not validated in the case of nur wenn. While Denial of the Antecedent (If P, Q. not-P. // Therefore, not-Q.) was validated in the case of nur wenn, it was not validated for wenn. The same method was used to test wenn vs. unter der Bedingung, dass 'on condition that' in Experiment 3, and wenn vs. vorausgesetzt, dass 'provided that' in Experiment 4. Experiment 5, using Affirmation of the Consequent (If P, Q. Q. // Therefore, P.) to test wenn vs. nur wenn replicated the results of Experiment 2. Taken together, the results show that in German, unter der Bedingung, dass is the most likely candidate of biconditional CCs whereas all others are not biconditional. The findings, in particular of nur wenn not being semantically biconditional, are discussed based on available formal analyses of conditionals.
本文研究了德语条件连词(CCs)如 wenn“如果”和 nur wenn“只有当”的意义和处理。在实验 1 中,参与者阅读包含条件句(即如果 P,则 Q.)的简短场景,其中包含 wenn/nur wenn“如果/只有当”和确认或否定的前提(即 P/非-P),然后完成关于 Q 的最后一句话(有或没有否定)。在实验 2 中,参与者在阅读包含 wenn 或 nur wenn 以及确认或否定前提的条件句(即,如果 P,则 Q. P/非-P. // 因此,Q?)后,对 Q 的真假进行评分。这两个实验都表明,无论是 wenn 还是 nur wenn 都没有被解释为双条件 CCs。模态推理(如果 P,则 Q. P. // 因此,Q.)在 wenn 的情况下得到验证,而在 nur wenn 的情况下则未得到验证。虽然在 nur wenn 的情况下否定前提(如果 P,则 Q. 非-P. // 因此,非-Q.)得到验证,但在 wenn 的情况下则未得到验证。在实验 3 中,使用相同的方法测试 wenn 与 unter der Bedingung, dass“在条件下”,在实验 4 中测试 wenn 与 Vorausgesetzt, dass“假设”。实验 5 使用肯定结论(如果 P,则 Q. Q. // 因此,P.)来测试 wenn 与 nur wenn 复制了实验 2 的结果。总的来说,结果表明,在德语中,unter der Bedingung, dass 是最有可能的双条件 CCs 候选者,而其他的都不是双条件。特别是 nur wenn 在语义上不是双条件的发现,根据条件句的现有形式分析进行了讨论。