The Temporal System Of Modern Chinese:A Systemic Functional Linguistics Approach

Temporal phenomena generally involve three basic categories,namely tense,aspect and phase.However.relevant studies concerning concepts,system construction,realizations and the relationship inside the temporal system are not enough,mainly because they are not rooted in a relatively comprehensive and systematic theoretical framework,instead,they merely focus on the expressions of given meanings.In view of this,based on Systemic Functional Linguistics and with reference to relevant researches on tense?aspect and phase,the study sets out to explore the potential meaning of the temporal system "from above",realizations of the temporal system "from below" and the relationships inside the temporal system "from around",taking a trinocular perspective,to build a more comprehensive temporal system for modern Chinese.First of all,this study,following the meaning-oriented principle of Systemic Functional Linguistics,is based on the theory of metafunction and looks into the temporal system of modern Chinese "from below",to explore its potential meaning.It points out that the temporal system of modern Chinese consists of tense,aspect and phase,all of which express meanings experientially,logically,interpersonally and textually.Specifically,the experiential meaning expressed by tense mainly refers to the temporal orientation of process,participant and circumstance,all of which are finally located in the past,present or future;logical meaning includes paratactic elaboration and hypotactic elaboration;interpersonal meaning refers to the interpersonal relationships and the modal meaning that are set up by and derived through tense;textually,the linear tense series and simultaneous tense series express sequential temporal meaning,so as to organize,link and develop discourse.As far as aspect is concerned,experiential meaning refers to different ways of construing the temporal experience of speakers through aspect;logical meaning is conveyed in either overt or covert way.The overt way relates to paratactic elaboration;interpersonally,the interpersonal relationships are constructed and some modal meaning is derived through aspect;textually,the perfective and imperfective undertake functions of backgrounding and foregrounding for organizing and developing text.As for phase,its experiential meaning refers to construing the temporal experience as process,participant and circumstance in transitivity system:logically,like the aspect,its meaning which includes elaboration,extension and enhancement is expressed in either covert or overt way;in terms of its interpersonal meaning,due to the coercion from the lexical items as the predicator which expresses more overt interpersonal meaning,the phase expresses meanings covertly:textually.phase tends to provide background information and foreground information.They extend all the way along a cline along which accomplishment and activity are situated in the medium,while achievement and state are located at the two ends.Moreover,the study is based on the theory of stratification and looks into the temporal system "from below",focusing on the typical realizations of temporal meanings.It puts forward the view that the realizations of temporal system form a cline composed of lexical resources,semi-grammatical resources and grammatical resources.With reference to relevant studies of grammaticalization,the study argues that the main criteria being used to distinguuish realizations are established on the three strata of language,that is,the desemanticization at the semantic stratum,the decategorialization at the lexicalgrammar stratum and the erosion at the phonetic stratum.Based on these criteria,this study develops research on the realizations of tense,aspect and phase.It is found that the primary realizations of tense are lexical items,mainly including time adverbs and other temporal lexicons,while other realizations are aspect markers,which fall into grammatical resources,and semi-aspect markers,which belong to semi-grammatical resources.The meanings of phase are realized by predicators and complements which are filled or expounded by nominal groups,verbs,quality groups and quantity groups.In addition,the study is based on the theory of system and looks into the temporal system "from above:,to explore the relationships inside it.It is found that complementarites(?.e.oppositions and unity)exist in temporal systems.In terms of oppositions,the complementarity between tense and aspect is as follows:i)as two different categories,they undertake distinct functions;?)in terms of meanings,there are saliency-coercion interrelationships between them;?)they have different iconic proximity on predicator.In terms of unity,the complementarity between tense and aspect is as follows:firstly,both categories are related to three temporal factors,namely time of event,time of reference and time of speech;secondly,there is a correspondence between the two categories.For tense and aspect,in terms of oppositions,the complementarity between them is as follows:on the one hand,aspect is subjective,while phase is objective;on the other hand,progressive aspect or continuous aspect and state or accomplishment are incompatible with each other;in addition,aspect may coerce phase.Specifically,in terms of their unity,aspect and phase are linked together because phase is the foundation of aspect and aspect reflects different ways of speaker's observation on phase.On the whole,based on a new approach,the present study focuses on the systemic construction of the temporal system of modern Chinese from a trinocular perspecitve.Theoretically,the study not only enriches the current theory of tense,aspect and phase,but also provides a new approach and a systemic paradigm for temporal study;practically,it provides a valuable reference for the choice of temporal expressions for the teaching of modern Chinese as a foreign language.