The grammatical-lexical distinction in Chinese aspectual markers
This paper discusses the grammatical-lexical distinction based on
Boye and
Harder (2012) in the class of aspectual markers in Chinese and aims to decide whether these markers are grammatical or
lexical in a theoretically anchored sense. To accomplish this, the language-general criteria proposed in
Boye and Harder (2012) are translated into Chinese-specific criteria for diagnosing grammatical vs.
lexical status, and these translated criteria are then applied to Chinese aspect markers in a questionnaire-based survey in order
to test whether these markers are lexical or grammatical. Our classification of the Chinese markers tested is then compared with a
traditional classification based on grammaticalization features (
Lehmann 2015). The
results support an integration of the two ways of approaching the grammatical-lexical distinction.
Article outline
- 1.Introduction
- 2.The grammatical-lexical distinction in Boye and Harder (2012)
- 3.Chinese tests for distinguishing between grammatical and lexical status
- 3.1Means of marking focus in Chinese
- 3.2Means for addressing in Chinese
- 3.3Summary: The focus and addressability tests in Chinese
- 4.Chinese aspect markers
- 4.1Aspectual marking by V2 in the V1V2
resultative constructions
- 4.2Aspectual marking by directional verbs
- 4.3The durative aspect marker zhe
- 4.4The perfective aspect marker le
- 4.5The progressive aspect marker zài
- 5.A questionnaire survey of the focus and addressability tests in Chinese
- Participants
- Procedures
- Materials
- 6.Results
- 6.1Test results for durative zhe and perfective
le
- 6.2Test results for the resultative components wán ‘finish’ and
guò ‘cross’
- 6.3Test results for experiential guo
- 6.4Test results for progressive zài
- 6.5Evaluation of the results
- 7.Grammaticalization features
- 7.1Lehmann’s grammaticalization features
- 7.2Grammaticalization features and grammatical vs. lexical status
- 8.Conclusion
- Notes
- Abbreviations
-
References
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