Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-p2v8j Total loading time: 0.001 Render date: 2024-05-30T22:06:48.625Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Bundling telicity, verbal quantification, and perfective aspect: A study on lǝ in Yixing Chinese

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 March 2023

XUHUI HU Open the ORCID record for XUHUI HU [Opens in a new window]
XUHUI HU*
Affiliation:
Institute of Linguistics & Applied Linguistics, School of Foreign Languages, Peking University, No. 5 Yiheyuan Road, Beijing, China xhu819@pku.edu.cn
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This paper investigates the properties of a particle, lǝ, in Yixing Chinese that invariably denotes telic reading, obligatorily fronts definite and bare NP objects to the topic position, and imposes past event reading in most situations. It is argued that lǝ is a functional item bearing a quantity feature in the sense of Borer (2005b) and is hence responsible for telicity. Following Partee et al. (1987), Partee (1990), Filip (1997) and Borer (2005b), we propose that lǝ functions as a verbal quantifier, and more specifically, as a verbal universal quantifier, which needs to bind a variable in its quantificational domain. The fronting of definite and bare NPs is compatible with this variable-binding requirement because a trace, and hence a variable, is left as a result of the movement. It is further argued, following the analysis in Lin (2000, 2003, 2007), that lǝ bears a perfective feature. When there is no specific reference time, speech time is taken as default reference time, resulting in the past event reading. lǝ, therefore, bears both an inner aspectual feature and an outer aspectual feature. This paper exhibits how telic items can behave differently across languages and shows the possibility of bundling two temporal features (inner and outer aspectual features) on a single functional item.

Keywords

perfective aspecttelicityverbal quantificationYixing Chinese
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Linguistics , Volume 60 , Issue 2 , April 2024 , pp. 325 - 361
Check for updates
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2023. Published by Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Bach, Emmon. 1986. The algebra of events. Linguistics and Philosophy 9.1, 5–16.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Baker, Mark C. 2008. The syntax of agreement and concord. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Borer, Hagit. 2005a. Structuring sense: volume I: In name only. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Borer, Hagit. 2005b. Structuring sense: volume II: The normal course of events. New York: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Borer, Hagit. 2013. Structuring sense: volume III: Taking form. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bošković, Željko. 2008. What will you have, DP or NP? Proceedings of the North East Linguistic Society (NELS) 37, 101–114.Google Scholar
Bošković, Željko. 2009a. More on the no-DP analysis of article-less languages. Studia Linguistica 63.2, 187–203.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bošković, Željko. 2009b. The NP/DP analysis of Slovenian. Proceedings of the Novi Sad Generative Syntax Workshop 1, 53–73.Google Scholar
Bošković, Željko & Hsieh, I-Ta Chris. 2015. On word order, binding relations, and plurality in Chinese noun phrases. Studies in Polish Linguistics 8.4, 173–204.Google Scholar
Chierchia, Gennaro. 1998. Reference to kinds across language. Natural Language Semantics 6.4, 339–405.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chomsky, Noam. 1977. On wh movement. In Wasow, Thomas, Culicover, Peter W., & Akmajian, Adrian (eds.), Formal syntax, 71–132. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Comrie, Bernard. 1976. Aspect: An introduction to the study of verbal aspect and related problems. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Demirdache, Hamida & Uribe-Etxebarria, Myriam. 2000. The primitives of temporal relations. In Martin, Roger, Michaels, Davis, Uriagereka, Juan & Keyser, Samuel (eds.), Step by step: Essays on minimalist syntax in honour of howard lasnik, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Demirdache, Hamida & Uribe-Etxebarria, Myriam. 2014. Aspect and temporal anaphora. Natural Language & Linguistic Theory 32.3, 855–895.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Diesing, Molly. 1992. Indefinites. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Dowty, David. 1991. Thematic proto-roles and argument selection. Language 67.3, 547–619.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Filip, Hana. 1997. Integrating telicity, aspect and NP semantics: the role of thematic structure. In Toman, Jindrich (ed.), Formal approaches to Slavic linguistics, volume III: The College Park meeting 1994, 61–96. Ann Arbor: Michigan Slavic Publications.Google Scholar
Filip, Hana. 2000. The quantization puzzle. In Tenny, Carol & Pustejovsky, James (eds.), Events as grammatical objects: The converging perspectives of lexical semantics and syntax, 3–60. Stanford, California: CSLI Publications.Google Scholar
Filip, Hana & Rothstein, Susan. 2000. Telicity as a semantic parameter. In Lavine, James (ed.), Formal approaches to slavic linguistics (=fasl) xiv: The Princeton meeting, 193–156. Ann Arbor: Michigan Slavic Publications.Google Scholar
Hu, Xuhui. 2018. Encoding events: Functional structure and variation. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Huang, C.-T. James. 2014. On syntactic analyticity and parametric theory. In Li, Audrey, Simpson, Andrew & Tsai, Wei-Tien Dylan (eds.), Chinese syntax in a cross-linguistic perspective, 1–48. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Iatridou, Sabine, Anagnostopoulou, Elena & Izvorski, Roumyana. 2001. Observations about the form and meaning of the perfect. In Kenstowicz, Michael (ed.), Ken Hale: A life in language, 189–238. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Keine, Stefan & Poole, Ethan. 2017. Intervention in tough-constructions revisited. The Linguistic Review 34.2, 295–329.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Koopman, Hilda & Dominique, Sportiche. 1982. Variables and the bijection principle. The Linguistic Review 2, 139–160.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lee, Thomas Hun-Tak. 1986. Studies on quantification in Chinese. Ph.D. dissertation, University of California, Los Angeles.Google Scholar
Lin, Jo-wang. 1998. Distributivity in Chinese and its implications. Natural Language Semantics 6.4, 201–4243.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lin, Jo-wang. 2000. On the temporal meaning of the verbal –le in Mandarin Chinese. Language and Linguistics 1, 109–133.Google Scholar
Lin, Jo-wang. 2003. Temporal reference in Mandarin Chinese. Journal of East Asian Linguistics 12, 259–311.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lin, Jo-wang. 2007. Time in a language without tense: The case of Chinese. Journal of Semantics 23, 1–53.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lin, Jo-wang. 2017. [zai lun ciwei le de shi ti yiyi](the temporal meaning of the verbal –le revisited). [zhongguo yuwene](Studies of the Chinese Language) 1, 3–21.Google Scholar
Ma, Xiwen. 1983. Guanyu ‘le’ de ruohua xingshi /lou/ [on /lou/, the reduced form of ‘le’ ]. Journal of Chinese Linguistics 1, 1–14.Google Scholar
MacDonald, Jonathan E. 2008. The syntactic nature of inner aspect: A minimalist perspective. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Marantz, Alec. 2013. Locality domains for contextual allomorphy across the interfaces. In Matushasky, Ora & Marantz, Alec (eds.), Distributed morphology today, 95–116. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McCloskey, James. 2000. Quantifier float and wh-movement in an Irish English. Linguistic Inquiry 31.1, 57–84.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pan, Haihua. 2006. Focus, tripartite structure and the semantics of dou in Mandarin Chinese [jiaodian, sanfen jiegou yu hanyu dou de yuyi jiedu]]. In Research and Exploration on Grammar [yuyan yanjiu yu tansuo] 13, 163–184. Beijing: Commercial Press.Google Scholar
Partee, Barbara. 1990. Domains of quantification and semantic typology. In Ingemann, Frances (ed.), Proceedings of the 1990 Mid-America Linguistics Conference, 3–39. University of Kansas.Google Scholar
Partee, Barbara, Bach, Emmon & Kratzer, Angelika. 1987. Quantification: a cross-linguistic investigation. NSF proposal, Amherst, MA.Google Scholar
Pesetsky, David & Torrego, Esther. 2007. The syntax of valuation and the interpretability of features. In Karimi, Simin, Samiian, Vida & Wilkins, Wendy K (eds.), Phrasal and clausal architecture: Syntactic derivation and interpretation, 262–294. Amsterdam: Benjamins.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ramchand, Gillian. 2018. Situations and syntactic structures: Rethinking auxiliaries and order in English. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ritter, Elizabeth & Rosen, Sara. 2000. Event structure and ergativity. In Carol, Tenny & James, Pustejovsky (eds.), Events as grammatical objects: The converging perspectives of lexical semantics and syntax, 187–238. Stanford, California: CSLI Publications.Google Scholar
Roberts, Ian & Holmberg, Anders. 2010. Introduction. In Biberauer, Theresa, Holmberg, Anders, Roberts, Ian & Sheehan, Michelle (eds.), Syntactic variation in the minimalist program: The null subject parameter, 1–58. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Rothstein, Susan. 2004. Structuring events: A study in the semantics of lexical aspect, Oxford: Blackwell Publishing.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Safir, Ken. 1983. Multiple variable binding. Linguistic Inquiry 15.4, 603–638.Google Scholar
Smith, Carlota S. 1997. The parameter of aspect, Dordrecht: Springer.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Soh, Hooi Ling & Gao, Meijia. 2007. It’s over: verbal -le. In Hedberg, Nancy & Zacharski, Ron (eds.), The grammar-pragmatics interface: Essays in honor of Jeanettee K. Gundel, 91–109. Philadelphia: John Benjamins.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stowell, Tim. 2007. Sequence of perfect. In de Saussure, Louis, Moeschler, Jacques & Puskas, Genoveva (eds.), Recent advances in the syntax and semantics of tense, aspect and modality, 123–146. Mouton: Walter de Gruyter.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sybesma, Rint. 1997. Why Chinese verb-le is a resultative predicate. Journal of East Asian Linguistics 6.3, 215–261.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sybesma, Rint. 2017. Aspect, inner. In Sybesma, Rintje, Behr, Wolfgang, Yueguo, Gu, Handel, Zev, Huang, Cheng-Teh James & Myers, James (eds.), Encyclopedia of Chinese language and linguistics, 186–193. Leiden: Brill Leiden.Google Scholar
Tenny, Carol L. 1994. Aspectual roles and the syntax-semantics interface, vol. 52. Dordrecht: Springer.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thompson, Ellen. 2006. The structure of bounded events. Linguistic Inquiry 37.2, 211–228.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Travis, Lisa. 2010. Inner aspect: the articulation of vp. Dordrecht: Springer.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tsai, Wei-tien Dylan. 1994. On economizing the theory of A-bar dependencies. Ph.D. dissertation, MIT.Google Scholar
Vendler, Zeno. 1957. Verbs and times. Philosophical Review 56, 143–160.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wood, Jim & Marantz, Alec. 2017. The interpretation of external arguments. In D’Alessandro, Irene Franco Roberta & Gallego, Angel J. (eds.), The verbal domain, 255–278. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Wu, Mary. 2017. Can numerals really block definite readings in Mandarin Chinese? In Raung-fu, Chung, Hsien-Chin, Liou, Jia-ling, Hsu & Dah-an, Ho (eds.), On and off work, 127–142. Leiden: Brill Leiden.Google Scholar