Abstract
It is believed that Classical Chinese, though without grammatical category of aspect, has the lexical aspect. This chapter proposes that verbs in Classical Chinese contain semantic components related to aspectual meaning and the lack of morphological means is compensated by the rich contents of lexical words. It is argued, in discussing aspect, it is necessary to distinguish between the lexical level and the verb-phrase level. This chapter first probes into the aspectual features of motion verbs in Classical Chinese. The verbs of ascend-descend, transfer and passing are discussed based on the comparison of completeness and incompleteness of event structure. Then verbs of arrival and traversal are taken as examples to illustrate the interaction of aspectual features and situation types. Aspectual feature, the basis of situation type, is regarded as the intrinsic and constant property of verb meaning while situation type, co-determined by the verb and its context, is dynamic and changeable.
This is a revised and translated version of a part of the author’s doctoral thesis.
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Notes
- 1.
Meisterernst (2015: 39) argues that “although a grammaticalised morphological system with regard to different aspectual values evidently existed, and was productive at a certain time, already during the Classical period and the Han period at the latest its productivity must have ceased.”.
- 2.
Meisterernst (2015: 39) points out that “an analysis of the grammatical means to express tense and aspect in Ancient Chinese has to concentrate primarily on the lexical means”.
- 3.
In Guo 郭锐(1993) the course of event is composed by an inception, a finish and a duration.
- 4.
A path schema involves physical or metaphorical movement from place to place, and consists of a starting point, a goal, and a series of intermediate points, as described by Johnson (1987: 113–117).
- 5.
- 6.
Since verbs zhì 陟 and jī 躋 appear far less frequently in Classical Chinese texts, they are not discussed here.
- 7.
The scope adverb bì 畢 means ‘totally’, referring to the army or soldiers. Since the soldiers ascend the city-wall in a line, ‘bì dēng 畢登’ means all the soldiers have ascended.
- 8.
It is worth noting that the rising of the sun or moon can only be described by the verb shēng.
- 9.
The term “MEASURE” is borrowed from Tenny (1994: 15). A related concept is incremental theme, see Dowty (1991: 547–619). In their discussions, “measuring out” refers to the aspectual role “played by the argument in marking the temporal terminus of the event” and the direct internal argument is regarded as the sole argument which can “measure out” the event (Tenny 1994: 11). However, the term used in this paper is somewhat different.
- 10.
For more discussion of the aspectual function of the particle yú in Old Chinese, see Wang 王诚(2016).
- 11.
This is exactly the case in Classical Chinese before the beginning of the Western Han period. Nevertheless, this rule was not strictly observed anymore after the Eastern Han period.
- 12.
The Chūnqiū (Spring and Autumn Annals) is the first Chinese chronological history; it is said to be the traditional history of the vassal state of Lu 鲁, as revised by Confucius.
- 13.
For instance, in the term ‘zhuì zhòng yú gāo 墜重於高 (falling from the high place)’ from the Guǎnzǐ, gāo is the starting point of zhuì, whereas in the term ‘zhuì zhū yuān 隊諸淵 (push him into the deep pool)’ from the Lǐjì, yuān is the endpoint of zhuì.
- 14.
The preposition yú in (52) does not seem to perform any semantic or grammatical function except for adding a syllable.
- 15.
To express accomplishment, the verb zhì 至 has to be followed by preposition yú. See Wang 王诚 (2016).
- 16.
Here we refer to the Chinese language in the Classical period and the Han period and do not exclude the hypothesis that that Chinese, like other Tibeto-Burman languages, actually had a kind of derivational morphology in pre-Classical period as has been proposed.
- 17.
In addition to verbs, temporal adverbials also contribute to the expression of aspectual meanings.
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Wang, C. (2019). A Preliminary Investigation of Aspectual Features of Motion Verbs in Classical Chinese. In: Meisterernst, B. (eds) New Perspectives on Aspect and Modality in Chinese Historical Linguistics. Frontiers in Chinese Linguistics, vol 5. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-1948-8_2
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