Chapter 8
Resultative and termination
A unified analysis of Middle Chinese VP-YI
Edith Aldridge | University of Washington | Humboldt University Berlin
This paper proposes an account of the reanalysis of the Chinese morpheme 已yǐ from an intransitive verb meaning ‘end, terminate’ into a functional category marking completive aspect. We posit that this grammaticalization was triggered by the loss of aspectual affixes, prompting YI to be reinterpreted from a lexical verb to a secondary predicate supplying the endpoint to an event expressed by a preceding predicate. The use of YI as a secondary predicate was made possible in part by changes in Chinese VP structure which allowed an endpoint-denoting secondary predicate to occupy a VP-internal position in this period.
Article outline
- 1.Introduction
- 2.Aspect in Late Archaic Chinese
- 3.Evolution of YI from verb to secondary predicate
- 3.1Late Archaic Chinese YI
- 3.2Structural reanalysis
- 4.Extension of aspectual YI as a native development
- 5.Conclusion
-
Notes
-
References
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