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Published in:
2018 | OriginalPaper | Chapter
The Semantic Differences and Substitution Restrictions of -Zhe(着) and Zhengzai(正在)
Authors : Jie Fan, Chong-ming Ding
Published in: Chinese Lexical Semantics
Publisher: Springer International Publishing
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Abstract
The substitution of -zhe(着) and zhengzai(正在) is influenced by the temporal meaning, aspectual meaning and the verb situation. This paper analyzes the differences of -zhe and zhengzai in detail in these three areas above, and finds out some meanings and usages of them, which rarely be mentioned in the prior literature. The temporal and aspectual meaning of -zhe and zhengzai are quite different. It is proposed that -zhe represents aspectual meaning while zhengzai mainly represents temporal meaning. -Zhe can not only indicate progressive, continuous and frequentative aspect of single event, but also indicate plural event and habitual events. The core meaning of zhengzai is concurrence, which means the process of change occurs simultaneously with the corresponding event. Only in two occasions can -zhe and zhengzai substitute with each other. One is when -zhe and zhengzai represent progressive aspect plus process verb. The other is when they represent frequentative aspect plus instantaneous verb. In the rest of situations -zhe and zhengzai are not mutually replaceable.