International Journal of Chinese Linguistics - Volume 4, Issue 1, 2017

This study investigates the functions of the perfective marker -le and its acquisition by native speakers of American English from the perspective of the Aspect Hypothesis ( Andersen and Shirai, 1994 ). We set out to test the predicted order regarding four verb categories in terms of their frequencies of -le marking. Our results confirmed that -le was most frequently used with achievement verbs by learners, but revealed deviated patterns of distribution in other categories when they were compared with those of native speakers of Chinese. We discussed our data further from the perspective of prototypicality, and provide pedagogical implications to Chinese as a foreign language.

Dynamic verbs followed by the perfective aspect morpheme -le (V-le) in Chinese typically designate bounded events but can also encode states. This article proposes that the eventive designations are at the basic level and the stative interpretations are at the derived level through aspectual coercion. The categorical shifts from the former to the latter may be brought about by a number of factors, which include sentences with nonagent subject/topic, general stative sentences, and certain adverbs. These factors introduce aspectual properties incompatible with V-le's basic-level eventive interpretation. They trigger a coercion procedure to reconcile the incompatibilities, leading to aspectual reinterpretations. These findings are discussed in light of the principle of external override and the analytic nature of the Chinese language.

This study presents a corpus-based analysis of the sentential particle lia 俩 in Xining Mandarin (Qinghai province, northwest China), which functions both as a future tense marker and as an atemporal marker of affirmative mood. Applying the notion of “aspectually sensitive tenses” ( de Swart, 1998 ), the distribution of lia is explained in terms of the selectional restrictions that lia places upon the aspectual class of its complement. In particular, it is argued that lia functions as a future tense marker with dynamic situations, but as a marker of affirmative mood with stative situations.

本文探討漢語方言的 m 聲母增生，初步發現音變的條件是零聲母逢韻頭 ü，音變的動機在於元音的固有鼻音性。中古各組聲母或多或少都有方言實證;換言之，聲母一旦歸零，只要逢 ü 便可順理成章增生 m。同時，ü 或留、或銷聲匿跡、或以別的面貌示人，端視個別方言如何因應唇音限制。除了個別轄字的方言材料，諧聲系列的北京話今讀也見證 m-增生的演變歷程。方言對比一目瞭然之外，本文進一步闡述舌根音唇化兼及塞音和鼻音，從規律平行性看，聲母歸零後先增生 ŋ，然後根據韻頭調整發音部位。三個理論貢獻包括：（一）明泥(娘)疑母恐怕只是語音演變的中繼站，（二）非組和見組關係匪淺，（三）效流攝本是合三韻。與其拘泥中古分類，不如正視方言今讀，依循橫向比較的內在邏輯，條分縷析地演繹語音的縱向發展。