Abstract
Previous research on Chinese tense indicates that Chinese has either null tense or no tense. However, the present study suggests that the conclusions of previous studies regarding Chinese tense are either against the syntactic truth or illogical. The present study provides new evidence to support that Chinese has two independent tense elements, zai and guo, which clearly indicate present and past tense, contrary to the traditional assumption that they are aspectual markers. From the perspective of grammaticalization, both zai and guo witnessed grammaticalization from the spatial concept to the temporal concept. The semantic evidence shows that zai and guo are semantically different from the aspectual markers zhe and le and convey the meaning of time location. The fact that both zai and guo are allowed in negation but not permitted in non-finite structure provides syntactic evidence that they are tense markers. However, the present study also suggests there can be two different zai and guo; zai and guo used separately and independently and zai and guo used with zhe and le. In the latter case, zai is a time adverbial and guo is an aspectual marker. The existence of independent tense markers in Chinese also shows that Chinese may have at least four different mechanisms to anchor tense.
About the authors
Zhiyi Zhang (b. 1979) is a professor and PhD supervisor at the School of Foreign Languages and Cultures, Nanjing Normal University. His major academic interests lie in formal syntax, and he has published more than 60 papers in top journals both at home and abroad, such as The Journal of Psycholinguistic Research, Foreign Language Teaching and Research, and Foreign Language Research.
Li Shikun (b. 1985) is a lecturer at the School of Foreign Languages and Cultures, Nanjing Normal University. Her major academic interests lie in TESL, and she has published 4 papers in journals both at home and abroad.
References
Adger, David. 2004. Core syntax: A minimalist approach. New York: Oxford University Press.Search in Google Scholar
Auwera, Johan van der. 2011. Expression and interpretation of negation (review). Language 87(4). 845–865.10.1353/lan.2011.0086Search in Google Scholar
Bittner, Maria. 2012. Temporality: Universals and variation (Explorations in Semantics). Chichester, England: Wiley-Blackwell.Search in Google Scholar
Chao, Yuen Ren. 1968. A grammar of spoken Chinese. Berkeley: University of California Press.Search in Google Scholar
Chomsky, Noam. 1993. A minimalist program for linguistic theory. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.Search in Google Scholar
Corbett, Greville. 1979. The agreement hierarchy. Journal of Linguistics 15. 203–225. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0022226700016352.Search in Google Scholar
De Wit, Astrid. 2017. The present perfective paradox across languages. Oxford: Oxford University Press.10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198759539.001.0001Search in Google Scholar
Giorgi, Alessandra & Fabio Pianesi. 1997. Tense and aspect: From semantics to morphosyntax. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Search in Google Scholar
Hu, Jianhua, Haihua Pan & Lu Xu. 2001. Is there a finite vs. nonfinite distinction in Chinese? Linguistics 39. 1117–1148. https://doi.org/10.1515/ling.2001.043.Search in Google Scholar
Huang, C.-T. James, Yan-Hui Audrey Li & Yafei Li. 2009. The syntax of Chinese. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.10.1017/CBO9781139166935Search in Google Scholar
Kong, Lingda. 1986. On dynamic particles guo1 and guo2. Journal of Anhui Normal University 4. 16–22.Search in Google Scholar
Law, Peter & Jeremy Ndayiragije. 2017. Syntactic tense from a comparative syntax perspective. Linguistic Inquiry 48(4). 679–696. https://doi.org/10.1162/ling_a_00258.Search in Google Scholar
Lin, Jo-Wang. 2006. Time in a language without tense: The case of Chinese. Journal of Semantics 23. 1–53. https://doi.org/10.1093/jos/ffh033.Search in Google Scholar
Lin, Jian W. 2010. A tenseless analysis of Mandarin Chinese revisited: A response to Sybesma 2007. Linguistic Inquiry 41(2). 305–329. https://doi.org/10.1162/ling.2010.41.2.305.Search in Google Scholar
Lin, Jonah T.-H. 2011. Finiteness of clauses and raising of arguments in Mandarin Chinese. Syntax 14. 48–73.10.1111/j.1467-9612.2010.00145.xSearch in Google Scholar
Lin, Tim J. 2015. Tense in Mandarin Chinese sentences. Syntax 18(3). 320–342. https://doi.org/10.1111/synt.12032.Search in Google Scholar
Lv, Shu Xiang. 1956. The essential of Chinese grammar. Beijing: Shangwu Publishing House.Search in Google Scholar
Nikolaeva, Irina. 2007. Finiteness: Theoretical and empirical foundations. New York: Oxford University Press.Search in Google Scholar
Palmer, Frank R. 2001. Mood and modality. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.10.1017/CBO9781139167178Search in Google Scholar
Salkie, Raphael, Pierre Busuttil & Johan van der Auwera (eds.). 2009. Modality in English (Topics in English Linguistics). Berlin: Mouton De Gruyter.10.1515/9783110213331Search in Google Scholar
Simpson, Andrew & Zoe Wu. 2002. From D to T – Determiner incorporation and the creation of tense. Journal of East Asian Linguistics 11. 169–209https://doi.org/10.1023/a:1014934915836.10.1023/A:1014934915836Search in Google Scholar
Smith, Carlota S. 1997. The parameter of aspect. Boston: Kluwer.10.1007/978-94-011-5606-6Search in Google Scholar
Smith, Carlota S. & Mary Erbaugh. 2005. Temporal interpretation in Mandarin Chinese. Linguistics 43. 713–756. https://doi.org/10.1515/ling.2005.43.4.713.Search in Google Scholar
Sun, Hongyuan. 2006. Temporal construals of bare predicates in Mandarin Chinese. Utrecht: LOT: Doctoral thesis Leiden University.Search in Google Scholar
Swart, Henriëtte. 2006. Expression and interpretation of negation. Studies in Natural Language & Linguistic Theory 77. 123–134.10.1007/978-90-481-3162-4Search in Google Scholar
Sybesma, Rint. 2007. Whether we tense-agree overtly or not. Linguistic Inquiry 38(3). 580–587. https://doi.org/10.1162/ling.2007.38.3.580.Search in Google Scholar
Tenny, Carol. 1994. Aspectual roles and the syntax-semantics interface. Dordrecht: Kluwer.10.1007/978-94-011-1150-8Search in Google Scholar
Tsai, Wei-Tien Dylan. 2008. Tense anchoring in Chinese. Lingua 118(5). 675–686. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lingua.2007.09.002.Search in Google Scholar
Verkuyl, Henk J. 1993. Theory of aspectuality. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.10.1017/CBO9780511597848Search in Google Scholar
Wang, Cai. 1999. Delimitation: Evidence from Chinese. PhD thesis. Lawrence: University of Kansas.Search in Google Scholar
Wang, Shiqun. 2011. The grammaticalized course of dynamic particle guo. Journal of Nanjing Audit University 4.85–90.Search in Google Scholar
Xiao, Richard & Tony McEnery. 2004. Aspect in Mandarin Chinese: A corpus-based study. Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company.10.1075/slcs.73Search in Google Scholar
Xu, Shen. 2015. The origin of Chinese characters. Beijing: China Bookstore Press.Search in Google Scholar
Yu, Lixiang. 2014. A tentative analysis of the grammaticalization of time adverbial za. Modern Chinese 11. 57–59.Search in Google Scholar
© 2020 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston