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13 - Aspect and Tense

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 March 2023

Yuzhi Shi
Yuzhi Shi
Affiliation:
National University of Singapore
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Summary

The emergences of the aspect suffixes le (perfective) and zhe (progressive) were epoch-marking events in the history of Chinese grammar, and their development processes should be seriously studied. This chapter explains the reasons why they emerged at the time they did. Two closely related questions need to be answered: what factors in the earlier grammatical system blocked aspect suffixes from grammaticalizing? What changes in the grammar at the time made it possible for them to come into existence? The motivation and mechanism for their development involves two factors: (a) the overall change of the grammatical system at the time and (b) the concrete grammaticalization process of each aspect suffix.

Keywords

aspect suffixperfective aspectexperiential aspectprogressive aspectfuture tense
Type
Chapter
Information
The Evolution of Chinese Grammar , pp. 326 - 367
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2023

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  • Aspect and Tense
  • Yuzhi Shi, National University of Singapore
  • Book: The Evolution of Chinese Grammar
  • Online publication: 16 March 2023
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108921831.013
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  • Aspect and Tense
  • Yuzhi Shi, National University of Singapore
  • Book: The Evolution of Chinese Grammar
  • Online publication: 16 March 2023
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108921831.013
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Aspect and Tense
  • Yuzhi Shi, National University of Singapore
  • Book: The Evolution of Chinese Grammar
  • Online publication: 16 March 2023
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108921831.013
Available formats
×