Typological Stage of Counterfactuals in Mandarin

Wu(1994) listed ten words as CFs’ markers in Chinese, they are 早 (early) , 了 (perfect/perfective marker), 要不是/要不然 (had it not been the case), 没(didn’t), 就好了 (would have been great if only),还以为(had thought), 原来应该(should have been), ...的 话 (in the case), 真的 (really). However, according to our definitions, none of them are dedicated CFs markers but only CFE 1 markers except要不是. Several observations can be summarized from these markers: (1)although they can be applied to deliver a counterfactual reading, they can never ensure a counterfactual reading; (2) the counterfactuality delivered by them can be easily cancelled by inserting another sentence following behind; (3)counterfactuality can be expressed in absense of these CFE markers.