Abstract
The Mandarin language has a rich viewpoint component. There are two perfectives, two imperfectives, and a neutral viewpoint. Viewpoint morphemes are syntactically optional; as a result the neutral viewpoint is in principle always available. The choice of an explicit viewpoint morpheme thus carries a certain emphasis not available in languages in which viewpoint is syntactically obligatory. One perfective and one imperfective viewpoint conform to the general Universal Grammar schemata. The other viewpoints are idiosyncratic, representing parametric variation which requires special statement.
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Notes
The basic traditional Mandarin reference grammar in English is Chao 1968; a more recent functional approach is presented in Li Thompson 1981. There is a growing literature on the aspectual system, which is of particular interest because of its elaborateness and complexity. Also useful are Teng 1975, Paris 1981; see also the works cited in the text. I would like to thank Jeannette Faurot for interesting discussions, invaluable help with examples, and careful reading of the manuscript. Li Ping and Meng Yeh made many useful suggestions, especially concerning syntactic tests for situation types. I also thank my Chinese informants, especially Jocelyn Liu.
Many examples in this Chapter are taken from reference grammars or current texts. The constructed examples have been checked with speakers of the language.
The handbook says of both forms that they should be used for an action in progress or a continuing state; no distinction is made between the two. According to T’ung and Pollard 1982, however, -zhe is now used as a general imperfective while zai has an archaic flavor. Perhaps because of the overlap between them, usages vary for individuals: for one resident of Shanghai it is a matter of lexical variation (rather than situation type) which imperfective morpheme is used with a given verb constellation. A similar viewpoint is the Japanese imperfective to iru, which focusses both internal and external homogenous intervals (Jacobsen 1982, Smith Weist 1987, Ogihara 1989 ).
The sentential particles express various functions involving speaker attitude and, frequently, a discourse rather than a sentential context. According to Li Thompson, “their semantic and pragmatic functions are elusive;” the main functions of the particles are listed as le: Currently Relevant State, ne: Response to Expectation, ba: Solicit Agreement, ou: Friendly Warning, a/ya: Reduce Forcefulness (1983:238). To give some idea of the range of interpretations these particles can have, I mention other views on two of the particles. Chao lists the following 7 functions for sentential le: Inchoative, Command in Response to a New Situation, Progress in Story, Isolated Event in the Past (this one may refer to the perfective, post-verbal morpheme -le), Completed Action as of the Present, Consequent Clause to Indicate Situation, Obviousness, Particle of Lively Enumeration (1968:799–800). Chu focusses on discourse considerations. In discussing the particle ne, he notes that “it is continuative.. indicates the present utterance.. serves as a continuation from a previous portion of discourse or from a tacit understanding between speaker and hearer” ( 1986: 101 ).
These remarks about the imperfective can be generalized. Most languages have an imperfective viewpoint which is felt to be dependent and to require anchoring of some kind. I believe that an abstract approach like the one advocated in the text is appropriate for all cases where imperfectives are said to require an anchoring context. It is almost always possible to show that the dependence of the imperfective is not necessarily syntactic: one can usually construct a syntactically independent imperfective sentence which is dependent pragmatically on another sentence. See also the discussion of imperfectives in Chapter 4, section 4. 3.
The Neutral viewpoint arises when there is no overt viewpoint morpheme in a sentence. Statives in Chinese do not generally appear with perfective or imperfective morphemes. Therefore we analyze them as taking the Neutral viewpoint, which does not contrast with a viewpoint morpheme. The distributional facts are slightly more complicated: stage-level statives may appear with the resultative -zhe. This is an exception to the claim that the neutral viewpoint does not contrast with an explicit morpheme. Stative verb constellations may also appear with the perfectives -le and -guo. However in sentences with these morphemes the basic-level stative constellations have a shifted value, referring to change of state. These shifted situation type values are irrelevant to the viewpoint possibilities for basic-level states. The aspectual value of a stative with the Neutral viewpoint in Mandarin is like that of stative in English. However, the open viewpoint value arises differently in the two languages. In English statives have a zero morpheme, which conveys the perfective viewpoint and contrasts with the imperfective. The English stative perfective applies to the temporal schema of states: it does not include endpoints and therefore makes visible an open interval of a state.
The ba construction has been extensively discussed, especially in the Mandarin literature. There are restrictions on the properties of the object. Cheung 1973 presents a useful summary of some of the basic ideas about the construction; see also Li 1974; and the discussions in Chao 1968 and Li Thompson 1981.
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© 1991 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht
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Smith, C.S. (1991). The Aspectual System of Mandarin Chinese. In: The Parameter of Aspect. Studies in Linguistics and Philosophy, vol 43. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-015-7911-7_11
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