If They Had Been More Transparent , the Child Would Have Discovered Them More Easily : How Counterfactuals Develop

Language is a powerful device that allows humans to communicate about concepts and events that are irrealis, i.e., not part of the real world. From a developmental perspective, an important question is when and how children develop the ability to understand and talk about hypothetical worlds, and as a special case, counterfactual worlds. This study focused on Past Counterfactual conditionals (PastCFs), a linguistic construction that refers to events in the nonactual world, and investigated when and how children become aware that these constructions are counterfactual. We argue that the understanding of the grammatical construction that expresses counterfactuality in the past, i.e. if + Pluperfect, is separable (although not independent) from counterfactual reasoning abilities.