A Contrastive Analysis Of The Tense Between Mongolian And Chinese

This dissertation is focusing on the contrast between the Chinese and the Mongolian verbal tenses. It is clear that the relationship between the tense system and time concept enjoys great attentions in linguistic study, and different people have different concept of time sequence, which is based on the time concept of different nations, whether in accordance with the concept of the space and self-image in linear or parallel form. This paper has carried out a synthronic contrastive analysis of the tense concept and system between Chinese and the Mongolian so as to investigate their universals and peculiarities. Watched from the external time viewpoint, the event process can be divided into the past tense, the present tense and the future tense, so it is the case with the Mongolian language.The author thinks that it is necessary to contrast the tense concept between Chinese and Mongolian on the basis of the absolute three kinds of tenses and relative time watch-point. The Mongolian verbs have three kinds of tense categories which distinguish the past tense, the present tense and the future tense, the aspect category which reveals verb itself, and the voice category which reveals the relationship between the action and the action performer. It is proved that Mongolian verbs can realize all of them through their morphological variations and indications. The Mongolian verbs have the mode{式) category which reflects how the speaker treats the relationship between the behavior and the related objects. The Mongolian mode(式) includes the declarative mode and the imperative mode, the former boasts of time category and the latter of the personal category, meanwhile there is no verbal variations in Chinese, but the Chinese verbs will express the same tense idea by other lexical indications and devices, so the author holds that it is difficult to grasp the Chinese verbal tense.However, there are some critical difference between both the Chinese and the Mongolian verbal tense, which are explicitness or implicitness, rigidity or flexibility. Specifically, there are some different features with the Chinese and the Mongolian verbs when they are dealing with the past tense, the present tense and the future tense: the Mongolian verbal tense is realized through verbal variations and inflectional affixes, namely, the Mongolian verbs make a full display of tense change with the help of complex grammatical devices and analytical syntactical devices, such as "Verb + auxiliary". In the Mongolian language, the declarative verbs has absolute time meanings,and the adjectives and adverbials have relative time meanings, so the Mongolian verbs tend to demonstrate the concept of tense mechanism mainly by the morphological devices even if there are some time words or phrases available, but they function only to make the time clearer in the sentences. On the other hand, the Chinese tense can be realized through time nouns, time adverbs, time auxiliaries or the utterances single-handed or in combinations. The paper has made a systematic contrast between the Chinese and the Mongolian verbal tenses so as to find out their similarities and dissimilarities and benefit the second language teaching and Chinese- Mongolian translations. The paper includes seven chapters, whose main ideas run as the following:Chapter One is discussing the concept of tense in other related research fields, the definition of tense in grammar, and the significance of tense research in linguistic study, then the author has turned out a new definition of tense and shown her own research angle and objectives.Chapte/Two is going over the previous literature and commenting on their achievements and defects with a discussion of the relationship between the concept of time and the concept of space. Besides, the author has also analyzed the tense-related issues so as to narrow her research objectives and establish the research methods.Chapter Three has made a full display and deep analysis of the concepts of Chinese and Mongolian verbs and related tenses.Chapter Four has carried out a mac...