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International Journal of Chinese Linguistics
Vol. 4:1 (2017) ► pp.22–61

Aspectual coercion

Interpretations of V-le in Mandarin Chinese

| University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

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.

Keywords: aspect, coercion, interpretation, situation types, Chinese
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Literature review
    • 2.1Aspectual coercion
    • 2.2The verbal -le and perfectivity in Chinese
      • 2.2.1The viewpoint marker -le
      • 2.2.2Perfectivity conveyed by information from situation aspect
    • 2.3Types of situation entities: Situations and general statives
  • 3.Coercion of V-le in Chinese
    • 3.1Coercion of V-le triggered by nonagent subject/topic
      • 3.1.1The existential construction
      • 3.1.2Passive constructions
      • 3.1.3Sentences with preposed patient
      • 3.1.4Double-nominative constructions
    • 3.2Coercion of V-le in general stative sentences
    • 3.3Coercion of V-le by the adverb yijing ‘already’
  • 4.Discussion
    • 4.1The role of external argument in aspectual interpretation
    • 4.2Aspectual designations and event complex
    • 4.3Word order
    • 4.4The role of context
    • 4.5Issues for further study
  • 5.Concluding remarks
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References


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Published online: 4 September 2017
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/ijchl.4.1.02li
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Aspectual coercion