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
References
Aarts, Bas
2007 Syntactic Gradience: The Nature of Grammatical Indeterminacy. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Aikhenvald, Alexandra Y.
2018 Evidentiality: The framework. In
A. Y. Aikhenvald (ed.),
The Oxford Handbook of Evidentiality, 1–43. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Baxter, William H., Sagart, Laurent
2014 Old Chinese: A New Reconstruction. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Biq, Yung-O.
1988 From Focus in Proposition to Focus in Speech Situation: Cai and Jiu in Mandarin Chinese.
Journal of Chinese Linguistics 161. 72–108.
Bisang, Walter & Andrej Malchukov
(eds.) forthc/
2019 Grammaticalization Scenarios: Areal Patterns and Cross-Linguistic Variation. A comparative Handbook. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
Bundesen, Claus
1990 A theory of visual attention.
Psychological Review 971. 523–547.
Boye, Kasper
2010 Raising verbs and auxiliaries in a functional theory of grammatical status. In
K. Boye &
E. Engberg-Pedersen (eds.),
Language Usage and Language Structure, 73–104. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
Boye, Kasper & Roelien Bastiaanse
2018 Grammatical versus lexical words in theory and aphasia: Integrating linguistics and neurolinguistics.
Glossa: A Journal of General Linguistics 3(1). 29.
Boye, Kasper & Peter Harder
2012 A usage-based theory of grammatical status and grammaticalization.
Language 88(1). 1–44.
Burgess, Thomas F.
2001 A general introduction to the design of questionnaires for survey research.
[URL]
Chao, Yuen-Ren
1968 A Grammar of Spoken Chinese. Berkeley; Los Angeles; London: University of California Press.
Chen, L. M.
2005 On Jiu and Cai
.
Contemporary Linguistics 11. 16–34.
Djamouri, Redouan. & Waltraud Paul
2009 Verb-to-preposition reanalysis in Chinese. In
P. Crisma. &
G. Longobardi (eds.),
Historical Syntax and Linguistic Theory, 194–402. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Dik, Simon C.
1997 The Theory of Functional Grammar. 21 Vols. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
Henne, Henry, Ole Bjorn Rongen & Lars Jul Hansen
1977 A Handbook on Chinese Language Structure. Oslo: Universitetsforlaget.
Hole, Daniel P.
2004 Focus and background marking in Mandarin Chinese: System and theory behind cai, jiu, dou and ye. London-New York: Routledge Curzon.
Hopper, Paul J. & Elizabeth C. Traugott
2003 Grammaticalization, 2nd Edition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Ishkhanyan, Byurakn, Halima Sahraoui, Peter Harder, Jesper Mogensen & Kasper Boye
2017 Grammatical and lexical pronoun dissociation in French speakers with agrammatic aphasia: A usage-based account and ERF-based hypothesis.
Journal of Neurolinguistics 441. 1–16.
Jiang, Shaoyu
2000 Hanyu dongjieshi chensheng de shidai.
Guoxue Yanjiu 61.
Lai, Huei-Ling
1999 Rejected Expectations: the scalar particles cai and jiu in Mandarin Chinese.
Linguistics 37(4). 625–661.
LaPolla, Randy J.
2009 Chinese as a Topic-Comment (Not Topic-Prominent and Not SVO) Language. In
Janet Xing (ed.),
Studies of Chinese Linguistics: Functional Approaches, 9–22. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press.
Lee, Hui-chi
2005 On Chinese focus and cleft constructions. Hsinchu City, Taiwan: National Tsing Hua University PhD. dissertation.
Lehmann, Christian
2015 Thoughts on Grammaticalization. Berlin: Language Science Press.
Lei, Dongping & Hu Lizhen
2010 Shijian fuci ‘zhengzai’ de xingcheng zai tan.
Studies of the Chinese Language 2010 (1). 67–73.
Li, Charles N. & Sandra A. Thompson
1981 Mandarin Chinese: A Functional Reference Grammar. Berkeley/Los Angelos: University of California Press.
Li, Kening
2008 Contrastive Focus Structure in Mandarin Chinese. In
Marjorie K. M. Chan &
Hana Kang (eds.),
Proceedings of the 20th North American Conference on Chinese Linguistics (NACCL-20). Volume 21, 759–774. Columbus, Ohio: The Ohio State University.
Liu, Feng-Hsi
2000 The scalar particle hai in Chinese.
Cahiers de linguistique – Asie orientale 291. 41–84.
Lu, Bingfu, Guohua Zhang & Walter Bisang
2015 Valency classes in Mandarin. In
Andrej Malchukov &
Bernard Comrie (eds.),
Valency Classes in the World’s Languages, 21 Vol, 709–764. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
Lü, Shuxiang
1999 Xiandai Hanyu Babai Ci [
Modern Chinese 800 words]. Beijing: The Commercial Press.
Mei, Tsu-Lin
1991 Cong Handai de “dong, sha”, “dong, si” lai kan dongbu jiegou de fazhan – Jianlun zhonggu shiqi qici de shishou guanxi zhonglihua.
Yuyanxue Luncong 161: 112–136.
Mei, Tsu-Lin
2008 Shanggu Hanyu dongci zhuo qing bieyi de laiyuan [The original differences of the verbs with voice and voiceless initials in Ancient Chinese].
Minzu Yuwen 2008(3). 3–20.
Paul, Waltraud & John Whitman
2008
Shi…de focus clefs in Mandarin Chinese.
The Linguistic Review 25 (2008), 3/3. 413–451.
Simpson, Andrew & Xiu-Zhi Zoe Wu
2002 From D to T – Determiner Incorporation and the Creation of Tense.
Journal of East Asian Linguistics 111. 169–209.
Shyu, Shu-ing
1995 The syntax of focus and topic in Mandarin Chinese. Los Angeles: University of Southern California PhD. dissertation.
Smith, Carlota S.
1997 The Parameter of Aspect. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers.
Sun, Chaofen
1996 Word-Order Change and Grammaticalization in the History of Chinese. Stanford University Press.
Sun, Chaofen
2005 To use and to cause: shiyong and the derivation of indirect causation in Chinese.
Journal of Chinese Linguistics 33(1). 140–163.
Sun, Chaofen
2006 Chinese: A linguistic Introduction. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Sun, Chaofen
2013 Chinese resultative verb compounds: lexicalization and grammaticalization. In
Guangshun Cao,
Hilary Chappell,
Redouane Djamouri &
Thekla Wiebusch (eds.),
Breaking Down the Barriers: Interdisciplinary Studies in Chinese Linguistics and Beyond (
Language and Linguistics Monograph Series 50), 625–649. Acedamia Sinica Institute of Linguistics.
Sun, Linlin & Walter Bisang
forthc.
Grammaticalization in Chinese. In
Walter Bisang &
Andrej Malchukov eds.
Grammaticalization Scenarios: Areal Patterns and Cross-Linguistic Variation. A comparative Handbook Berlin Mouton de Gruyter
Tsai, Wei-Tien
2015 Tan zhi yu lian de xingshi yuyi (On the formal semantics of
only and
even in Chinese).
Zhongguo Yuwen 21. 99–111.
Wang, Li
1958 Hanyu Shigao (A Draft History of Chinese Gramma). Beijing: Science Publishing House.
Wang, Xin
2008 The semantics and pragmatics of lian…dou/ye, lian, dou, and ye
. In
Marjorie K. M. Chan &
Hana Kang (eds.),
Proceedings of the 20th North American Conference on Chinese Linguistics (NACCL-20), Vol. 21, 875–891. Columbus, Ohio: The Ohio State University.
Wang, Jinhui
2015 Shijian fuci “zai” yu “zhengzai” de xingcheng tanjiu.
Language and Linguistics 16(2). 187–212.
Wu, Hsiao-Ching
2003 A case study on the grammaticalization of GUO in Mandarin Chinese – polysemy of the motion verb with respect to semantic change.
Language and Linguistics 2003 4(4). 857–885.
Xiao, Richard & Tony McEnery
Xu, Dan
2006 Typological Change in Chinese Syntax. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Xu, Jie
2003 Focus-marking in Chinese and Malay: a comparative perspective.
Language, Information and Computation: Proceeding of the 17th Pacific Asia Conference 1–3 October 2003, Sentosa, Singapore. Colips Publications.
Xu, Liejiong
2004 Manifestational of informational focus.
Lingua 114(3). 277–299.
Yang, Ching-Yu Helen
2017 On the syntax-semantics interface of focus particles: the additive particle 還 hai “HAI” in Mandarin Chinese.
Lingua Sinica 2017 3(3).
Yao, Zhenwu
2013 Shanggu hanyu dongjieshi de fazhan ji xiangguan yanjiu fangfa de jiantao.
Guhanyu Yanjiu 2013(1). 63–74.
Yap, Foong Ha, Ying Yang & Wong Tak-Sum Wong
2014 On the development of sentence final particles (and utterance tags) in Chinese. In
Kate Beeching &
Ulrich Detges (eds.),
Discourse Functions at the Left and Right Periphery: Crosslinguistic Investigations of Language Use and Language Change [
Studies in Pragmatics Series], 179–220. Bingley United Kingdom: Emerald Publishers.
Yeh, Meng
1993 Stative situations and the imperfective ‑zhe in Mandarin.
Journal of Chinese Language Teachers’ Association 281. 69–98.
Yeh, Meng
1996 An analysis of the experiential guo
EXP in Mandarin: A temporal quantifier.
Journal of East Asian Linguistics 51. 151–182.
Zhang, Lihua
1995 A Contrastive Study of Aspectuality in German, English and Chinese (
Berkeley insights in linguistics and Semiotics 19). Peter Lang.
Zhuang, Huibin
2014 The prosodic history of Chinese Resultatives.
Language and Linguistics 15(4). 575–595.
Cited by
Cited by 2 other publications
Boye, Kasper, Roelien Bastiaanse, Peter Harder & Silvia Martínez-Ferreiro
2023.
Agrammatism in a usage-based theory of grammatical status: Impaired combinatorics, compensatory prioritization, or both?.
Journal of Neurolinguistics 65
► pp. 101108 ff.
Li, Hui, Luyao Liang & Dandan Wu
2022.
Predicting Chinese Preschoolers’ Acquisition of Aspect Markers: A Corpus-Based Study.
Languages 7:2
► pp. 133 ff.
This list is based on CrossRef data as of 14 april 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers.
Any errors therein should be reported to them.