Tense and aspect in Han Period Chinese : a linguistic analysis of the "Shijì"

"Many grammatical issues of Archaic and Medieval Chinese still lack a comprehensive analysis. The book provides the first thorough investigation of the syntactic and semantic constraints of the linguistic categories tense and aspect and their relation with the lexical aspect of the verb in Han period Chinese. The author uncovers fascinating details of a language with a highly restricted verbal morphology"--Provided by publisher Acknowledgements 5 List of abbreviations 11 1 General introduction 13 1.1 Topic 13 1.2 The text 15 2 The category tense 20 2.1 The present tense 23 2.2 The past tense 24 2.3 The future tense 25 3 The category aspect 27 3.1 Grammatical aspect 29 3.2 Lexical aspect 32 3.3 Pragmatic functions of aspectual representation 43 4 Tense and aspect in Chinese 45 4.1 Morphological distinctions in the verb in Chinese 45 4.2 Tense in Chinese 51 4.3 Aspect in Chinese 53 4.3.1 Grammatical aspect 53 4.3.1.1 Perfective and perfect 54 4.3.1.2 The progressive or durative aspect 59 4.3.1.3 The experiential aspect 63 4.4 The Lexical aspect or situation type (Aktionsart) in Chinese 66 4.4.1 State verbs 69 4.4.2 Activity verbs 74 4.4.3 Event verbs 76 4.5 Aspect, temporal relations and adverbs in Chinese 83 5 The syntactic and semantic analysis of temporal adverbials and duration phrases 88 5.1 The analysis of temporal adverbials (TA) in the Shijì 94 5.1.1 The semantic analysis of temporal adverbials indicating a point of time 95 5.1.2 Proper adverbs indicating a point of time 100 5.1.2.1 Examples for proper adverbs in sentence-initial position 102 5.1.2.2 Examples for proper adverbs in preverbal position 123 5.1.3 Noun phrases indicating a point of time 133 5.1.3.1 Calendar temporal adverbials in sentence-initial position 134 5.1.3.2 Dependent / anaphoric temporal adverbials in sentence-initial position 147 5.1.3.3 Dependent temporal adverbials with hòu in sentence-initial position 151 5.1.3.4 Calendar adverbials in preverbal position 169 5.1.3.5 Dependent temporal adverbials in preverbal position 170 5.1.4 Prepositional phrases indicating a point of time 174 5.1.4.1 Adverbial prepositional phrases referring to a closed domain 175 5.1.4.2 Adverbial prepositional phrases referring to an open domain 195 5.1.5 Concluding remarks on point of time adverbials 223 5.1.5.1 Concluding remarks on proper adverbs indicating a point of time 224 5.1.5.2 Concluding remarks on noun phrase point of time adverbials 227 5.1.5.3 Concluding remarks on prepositional phrases referring to a point of time 229 5.1.5.3.1 Prepositional and related phrases referring to a closed domain 229 5.1.5.3.2 Prepositional phrases referring to an open domain 231 5.2 The syntactic and the semantic constraints of duration phrases 234 5.2.1 The syntax of duration phrases 237 5.2.2 The semantics of duration phrases 241 5.2.3 Examples for duration phrases in the Shijì 244 5.2.3.1 Preverbal duration phrases expressing situational duration 244 5.2.3.2 Postverbal duration phrases included in the VP [vP DPSubj [V’ Vi [VP DPObj] [V’ ti DPdur]]] 257 5.2.3.3 Postverbal duration phrases as predicates of the sentence [vP [DP [vP DP VP] [vP DPdur]]] 270 5.2.3.4 Duration phrases in temporal clauses in topic position 277 5.2.4 Concluding remarks on duration phrases 282 6 The syntactic and semantic constraints of aspecto-temporal adverbs in the Shijì 285 6.1 The inchoative and the inceptive aspect: The adverbs chu and shi as aspecto-temporal adverbs 292 6.1.1 The aspecto-temporal adverb chu 294 6.1.2 The aspecto-temporal adverb shi 300 6.1.3 Concluding remarks on the aspecto-temporal adverbs chu and shi 306 6.2 Simultaneity and the Continuous: The adverb fang 309 6.2.1 The syntactic and semantic constraints of the adverb fang 311 6.2.2 Examples of fang in combination with the different situation types of the verb 312 6.2.3 Concluding remarks on fang 333 6.3 Past tense and Habituality: the adverbs cháng, céng, sù, y', and cháng 335 6.3.1 The adverb cháng 336 6.3.2 The adverb céng 346 6.3.3 The adverb sù 349 6.3.4 The adverb y# 359 6.3.5 The adverb cháng 362 6.3.6 Concluding remarks on adverbs marking past tense and habituality 372 6.4 Future tense and Modality: the adverbs jiang and qie 376 6.4.1 The aspecto-temporal adverb jiang 379 6.4.2 The aspecto-temporal adverb qie 393 6.4.3 Concluding remarks on the aspecto-temporal adverbs jiang and qie 403 6.5 Completion and Non-completion: the adverbs jì and yi and the negative marker wèi 406 6.5.1 The aspecto-temporal adverb jì 417 6.5.2 The aspecto-temporal adverb yi 432 6.5.2.1 The aspecto-temporal adverb yi in combination with other adverbs 445 6.5.3 The negative marker wèi 448 6.5.4 The negative marker wèi in combination with the aspectotemporal adverb cháng 471 6.5.5 Concluding remarks on the concepts of Completion and Noncompletion: the adverbs jì and yi and the negative marker wèi 482 6.6 Concluding remarks on aspecto-temporal adverbs in the Shijì 496 7 Conclusion 508 Bibliography 514 Index 531

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