A Character-Based Constructional Approach to Chinese Imperfective Aspect Markers 在Zai and 着Zhe
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.4312/ala.6.1.59-79Keywords:
Chinese, imperfective aspect marker, grammaticalization, character, constructionAbstract
在zai and着zhe are commonly recognized imperfective aspect makers in Mandarin Chinese, though there are noticeable differences between their distributions and functions. By resorting to origins, historical evolutions, and corpus data for the meanings and functions of these two characters, it can be observed that they are both polysemies displaying semantic networks organized around a central sense respectively and the characters 在 and 着 are distinct form and meaning pairings. 在 is a construction indicating presence within a certain range while 着generally denotes ‘reach to’. Related to their basic meanings, 在 and 着 exhibit some constraints respectively when marking imperfective aspect. From this character-based constructional account, 在’s and 着’s qualifications as Chinese imperfective aspect markers are theoretically arguable.
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References
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DeFrancis, J. (1989).Visible Speech: The diverse oneness of writing systems. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press.
Diringer, D.(1962). Writing. Westport, Connecticut: Praeger.
Dowty, D. R. (1979). Word meaning and montague grammar. Dordrecht: D. Reidel Publishing Company.
Everson, M. E. (1988). Speed and comprehension in reading Chinese: Romanization vs. characters revisited. Journal of the Chinese Language Teachers Association, 23, 1–15.
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Guo, R. (1997). Guocheng he feiguocheng- hanyu weicixing chengfen de liangzhong waizai shijian leixing [Process and non-process: two extrinsic temporal types of Chinese predicative constituents]. Chinese Language, 1997(3), 162-175.
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Lakoff. G. (1987). Women, fire, and dangerous things. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Lakoff. G. (1990). The invariance hypothesis: Is abstract reason based on image schemas? Cognitive Linguistics, 1, 39-74.
Langacker. R. W. (1987). Foundations of cognitive grammar: theoretical prerequisite. Stanford, California: Stanford University Press.
Langacker. R. W. (1990). Concept, image, and symbol: The Cognitive Basis of Grammar. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
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Li., C. & Thompson, S. (1981). Mandarin Chinese: A functional reference grammar. Berkeley: University of California Press.
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Lv, S. (1999). Xiandai hanyu babai ci [Eight hundred words in modern Chinese]. Beijing: The Commercial Press.
McGinnis, S. (1999). Students’ goals and approaches. In M. Chu (Eds.), Chinese Language Teachers Association monograph series: Vol. III. Mapping the course of the Chinese language field. Kalamazoo, MI: Chinese Language Teachers Association.
Pan. W. (2006). Zibenwei lilun de zhexue sikao (Philosophical Thinking of character-based theory). Yuyan jiaoxue yu yanjiu [Language teaching and research], 3, 36-45.
Saussure, F. (1983). Course in general linguistics. Peru, Illinois: Open Court Publishing.
Shao, J. (1989). Yuqici ne zai yiwenju zhong de zuoyong [The Function of the Expressive Particle ne in Interrogatives]. Zhongguo Yuwen [Chinese Language]. 3, 170–175.
Smith, C. (1991). The parameter of aspect. Dordrecht. The Netherlands: Kluwer Academic Press.
Su, P. (2001). Xiandai hanzixue Gangyao [An outline of modern Chinese characters]. Beijing: Peking University Press.
Tai, J. H.-Y. (1984). Verbs and times in Chinese: Vendler's four categories. In D. Testen (Eds.), Papers from the Parasession on Lexical Semantics (pp.23-35). Chicago: Chicago Linguistics Society.
Talmy, L. (2000). Towards a cognitive semantics, Vol. 1: Concept structuring systems. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Taylor. J. R. (2008). Protypypes in Cognitive Linguistics.In P. Robinson, & N. C. Ellis (Eds.), Handbook of cognitive linguistics and second language acquisition (pp.39-66). London: Routledge.
Travis, L. deMena. (2010). Inner Aspect. New York: Springer Science & Business Media.
Tyler, A. (2012). Cognitive linguistics and second language learning-theoretical basics and experimental evidence. New York and London: Taylor & Francis Group, 2012.
Vendler, Z. (1967). Linguistics in philosophy. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.
Wang, L. (2004). Hanyu shigao. [Chinese history]. Beijing: Zhonghua Book Company.
Wenzel, C. H. (2010). Isolation and involvement: Wilhelm von Humboldt, François Jullien, and more. Philosophy East & West, 2010 (4), 458-475.
Xu. T. (2004). Hanyu yanjiu fangfalun chutan [In the methodology of Chinese study]. Beijing: The Commercial Press.
Xuan, Y. (2013). Mingci duanyu de youjiexing yu shuliang duanyu de guanxi [The relationship between boundedness of NP and Quantitative phrase]. In Y. Shen (Eds.), Zouxiang dangdai qianyan kexue de xiandaihanyu yufa yanjiu [The Chinese grammar study that is approaching forward science] (pp. 372-391). Beijing: The Commercial Press.
Yang, G., & Bateman, J. A. (2002). The Chinese aspect system and its semantic interpretation. In Proceedings of the 19th International Conference on Computational Linguistics (COLING'02) Vol. 1 (pp. 1-7). Taipei: Taiwan.
Yuan, Y. (1992). Qishi jushi V+zhe fenxi [Analysis of V+zhe imperative sentence]. Chinese Teaching in the World, 1992 (4), 259- 275.
Zhang,Y. (2000). Xiandai hanyu xuci [Functional words in modern Chinese]. Shanghai: Academia Press.
Alleton, Viviane (1981). Final particles and expression of modality in Modern Chinese. [J].Journal of Chinese Linguistics 9, 90-115.
Baredal, J. (2011). Lexical vs. structural case: A false dichotomy. Morphology 21(1), 619–654.
Bell, J. S. (1995). Relationship between L1 and L2 literacy: Some complicating factors. TESOL Quarterly, 29, 687–704.
Boas, H. C. (2008). Determining the structure of lexical entries and grammatical constructions in Construction Grammar. Annual Review of Cognitive Linguistics. http://sites.la.utexas.edu/hcb/files/2011/02/06boa.pdf
Boroditsky, L. (2000). Metaphoric structuring: Understanding time through spatial metaphors. Cognition, 75, 1-28.
Bybee, J. L. (2003). Aspect. In: W. J. Frawley (Eds.), International Encyclopedia of Linguistics (pp. 157-158). Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
Bybee, J. L. (2006). Frequency of use and the organization of language. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
Chen, G. (1980). On comparison between the usage of -zhe and English progressive. In Z. J. Yang & R. H. Li (Eds.), Collections of Articles of Comparison between English and Chinese (pp. 379- 390). Shanghai: Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press.
Chen, N. (2001). Jiaguwen dongci cihui yanjiu [Study of the verbs in oracle bone inscriptions]. Chengdu: Bashu Publishing House.
Chen, P. (1998). Lun xiandai hanyu shijian xitong de sanyuan jiegou [On tripartite organization of the temporal systmen in modern Chinese]. Zhongguo yuwen, 6, 401-422.
Comrie, B. (1976). Aspect. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
Croft, W. (2003). Lexical rules vs. constructions: a false dichotomy. In H. Cuyckens, T. Berg, R. Dirven & K.-U. Panther (Eds.), Motivation in language: Studies in honour of Günter Radden (pp.49–68). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Dai, Y. (1991). Xiandai hanyu biaoshi chixuti de zhe de yuyifenxi [Semantic analysis of zhe denoting continuative aspect in modern Chinese]. Language Teraching and Linguistic Studies, 1991(2), 92- 106.
DeFrancis, J. (1984). The Chinese language: Fact and fantasy. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press.
DeFrancis, J. (1989).Visible Speech: The diverse oneness of writing systems. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press.
Diringer, D.(1962). Writing. Westport, Connecticut: Praeger.
Dowty, D. R. (1979). Word meaning and montague grammar. Dordrecht: D. Reidel Publishing Company.
Everson, M. E. (1988). Speed and comprehension in reading Chinese: Romanization vs. characters revisited. Journal of the Chinese Language Teachers Association, 23, 1–15.
Fabar, A.(1992).Phonemic segmentation as an epiphenomenon. Evidence from the history of alphabetic writing. In P. Downing, S. D. Lima & M. Noonan (Eds), The linguistics of literacy (pp. 111-134). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Fang, M. (2000). Cong Vzhe kan hanyu buwanquan ti de gongneng. [On the functions of incomplete aspect in Chinese through Vzhe]. In Chinese Language Magazine House (Eds.), Grammar Study and Exploration (Vol. 9) (pp. 212- 221). Beijing: The Commercial Press.
Foley, W., & Van Valin, R. (1984). Functional syntax and universay grammar. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Gao, M. (1986). Hanyu yufa lun. [Studies on Chinese grammar]. Beijing: The Commercial Press.
Goldberg, A. (2006). Constructions at work. The nature of generalization in language. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
Guder, A. (2005, August). Struggling with Chinese: New dimensions in foreign language teaching. Paper presented at the International and Interdisciplinary Conference, University of Mainz, Germersheim, Germany.
Guo, R. (1997). Guocheng he feiguocheng- hanyu weicixing chengfen de liangzhong waizai shijian leixing [Process and non-process: two extrinsic temporal types of Chinese predicative constituents]. Chinese Language, 1997(3), 162-175.
Hill, A. (1967). The typology of Writing systems. In W. A. Austin (Eds), Papers in linguistics in honor of Leon Dostert (pp. 92-99). The Hague: Mouton.
Hopper, P. J., & Traugott, E. (2003). Grammaticalization. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Huang, C.-T. J., Li, Y.-H. A., & Li, Y. (2009). The syntax of Chinese. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Humboldt, W. (1825). Über die Entstehung der grammatischen Formen und ihren Einfluss auf die Ideenentwicklung. Berlin: Abhandlungen der Akademic der Wissenschaften zu Berlin.
Jiang, Y., & Pan, H. (1998). Xingshi yuyixue yinlun [Introduction to formal semantics]. Beijing: China Social Science Press.
Kibort, A. (2008). "Aspect." Grammatical Features. 7 January 2008. http://www.grammaticalfeatures.net/features/aspect.html.
Kwan-Terry, A. (1978). Two progressive aspect markers in Chinese. In N. G. Liem (Eds.), South-east asian linguistic studies: vol. 4 (pp. 213-232). Canberra: Pacific Linguistics, the Australian National University.
Lakoff. G. (1987). Women, fire, and dangerous things. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Lakoff. G. (1990). The invariance hypothesis: Is abstract reason based on image schemas? Cognitive Linguistics, 1, 39-74.
Langacker. R. W. (1987). Foundations of cognitive grammar: theoretical prerequisite. Stanford, California: Stanford University Press.
Langacker. R. W. (1990). Concept, image, and symbol: The Cognitive Basis of Grammar. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
Langacker. R. W. (2008). Cognitive grammar as a basis for language instruction. In P. Robinson, & N.C.Ellis (Eds.), Handbook of cognitive linguistics and second language acquisition (pp. 66-88). London: Routledge.
Li., C. & Thompson, S. (1981). Mandarin Chinese: A functional reference grammar. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Liu, M. & Chang, J.-C. (2015, April). Redefining Locative Inversion in Mandarin: A Lexical-constructional Approach. Paper presented at the 27th North American Conference on Chinese Linguistics, Los Angeles, California. Abstract retrieved from http://chineselinguistics.org/Events/NACCL-27/NACCL27_Abstracts.pdf.
Liu, N. (1985). Lun zhe jiqi xiangguande liangge dongtai fanchou [On zhe and two related dynamic categories]. Chinese Research,1985(2), 117- 128.
Lv, S. (1999). Xiandai hanyu babai ci [Eight hundred words in modern Chinese]. Beijing: The Commercial Press.
McGinnis, S. (1999). Students’ goals and approaches. In M. Chu (Eds.), Chinese Language Teachers Association monograph series: Vol. III. Mapping the course of the Chinese language field. Kalamazoo, MI: Chinese Language Teachers Association.
Pan. W. (2006). Zibenwei lilun de zhexue sikao (Philosophical Thinking of character-based theory). Yuyan jiaoxue yu yanjiu [Language teaching and research], 3, 36-45.
Saussure, F. (1983). Course in general linguistics. Peru, Illinois: Open Court Publishing.
Shao, J. (1989). Yuqici ne zai yiwenju zhong de zuoyong [The Function of the Expressive Particle ne in Interrogatives]. Zhongguo Yuwen [Chinese Language]. 3, 170–175.
Smith, C. (1991). The parameter of aspect. Dordrecht. The Netherlands: Kluwer Academic Press.
Su, P. (2001). Xiandai hanzixue Gangyao [An outline of modern Chinese characters]. Beijing: Peking University Press.
Tai, J. H.-Y. (1984). Verbs and times in Chinese: Vendler's four categories. In D. Testen (Eds.), Papers from the Parasession on Lexical Semantics (pp.23-35). Chicago: Chicago Linguistics Society.
Talmy, L. (2000). Towards a cognitive semantics, Vol. 1: Concept structuring systems. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Taylor. J. R. (2008). Protypypes in Cognitive Linguistics.In P. Robinson, & N. C. Ellis (Eds.), Handbook of cognitive linguistics and second language acquisition (pp.39-66). London: Routledge.
Travis, L. deMena. (2010). Inner Aspect. New York: Springer Science & Business Media.
Tyler, A. (2012). Cognitive linguistics and second language learning-theoretical basics and experimental evidence. New York and London: Taylor & Francis Group, 2012.
Vendler, Z. (1967). Linguistics in philosophy. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.
Wang, L. (2004). Hanyu shigao. [Chinese history]. Beijing: Zhonghua Book Company.
Wenzel, C. H. (2010). Isolation and involvement: Wilhelm von Humboldt, François Jullien, and more. Philosophy East & West, 2010 (4), 458-475.
Xu. T. (2004). Hanyu yanjiu fangfalun chutan [In the methodology of Chinese study]. Beijing: The Commercial Press.
Xuan, Y. (2013). Mingci duanyu de youjiexing yu shuliang duanyu de guanxi [The relationship between boundedness of NP and Quantitative phrase]. In Y. Shen (Eds.), Zouxiang dangdai qianyan kexue de xiandaihanyu yufa yanjiu [The Chinese grammar study that is approaching forward science] (pp. 372-391). Beijing: The Commercial Press.
Yang, G., & Bateman, J. A. (2002). The Chinese aspect system and its semantic interpretation. In Proceedings of the 19th International Conference on Computational Linguistics (COLING'02) Vol. 1 (pp. 1-7). Taipei: Taiwan.
Yuan, Y. (1992). Qishi jushi V+zhe fenxi [Analysis of V+zhe imperative sentence]. Chinese Teaching in the World, 1992 (4), 259- 275.
Zhang,Y. (2000). Xiandai hanyu xuci [Functional words in modern Chinese]. Shanghai: Academia Press.
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ZHANG, L. (2016). A Character-Based Constructional Approach to Chinese Imperfective Aspect Markers 在Zai and 着Zhe. Acta Linguistica Asiatica, 6(1), 59-79. https://doi.org/10.4312/ala.6.1.59-79
