A Study On The Interface Between Grammaticalization And Lexicalization Of The Research About The Evolution Of Chinese Typical Aspect Marker

This paper mainly studies Chinese typical aspect category in the evolutionary linguistic perspective.We argued three relevant topics:The development of Chinese typical aspect markers,and which evolved into the internal element of a preposition phrase and that of a discourse marker.Firstly,we have built the interface between the lexicalization and the grammaticalization on the basis of the processes by which Chinese clauses were fused.It is interface,i.e.the syntax environment and the way the lexicalization and the grammaticalization interacted with,that led to appearing kinds of new grammatical categories and innovative forms.We examine the questions of how and why lexical formatives and grammatical equivalents are renewed,so we pay more attention to those syntactic constructions that frequently caused the changes to take place.Relative clauses developed out of parataxis,resulting in change from Clause chains to Serial verbs Structure,and to Verb-complement Structure.Therefore,we observe the process of the linguistic category evolution from the interface.Secondly,we trace the source of Mandarin Chinese aspect category at the interface of lexicalization and grammaticalization.We Mainly make a comparison between the marker of aspect category“zhe(?)”and“le(?)”and“guo(?)”.(1)We discuss the two development paths of verb“zhe(?)”,one of which is resultative“zhao(?)”,another is continuous“zhe(?)”.The resultative“zhao(?)”that developed out of the construction of“V?O”is lexical aspect,which mainly focus on expressing the result of an event.The semantic reason that made it happened is the meaning of verb“zhe(?)”is alienate;There are alterative two patterns due to isomorphism generate and complementary deletion:“V?+PP_Locate”and“PP_Locate+V?”.And then“PP_Locate+V?”was reanalyzed.(2)We argued that verb“guo(?)”is not involved starting point and terminal,and implicate the orientation that decided by the subject of the sentence.(3)There are three layers of aspect system:(1)aktionsart,including original verb“zhuo(?)?liao(?)?guo(?)”,because of the singleness of meaning,so they are easy to grammaticalization.(2)lexical aspect,including resultative aspect“zhao(?)”(3)grammatical aspect,including continuous aspect“zhe(?)”?terminal aspect“le(?)”,and process aspect“guo(?)”.There are similarities about grammatical aspect,that is,continuous aspect“zhe(?)”?terminal aspect“le(?)”,and process aspect“guo(?)”.It can be divided into three steps:Step 1:we observe the evolutionary processes and the motivation of the Continuous Aspect“Zhe(?)”again:Continuous Aspect is derived from the verb“Zhe(?)”.There are two syntactic positions in the sentence of“VZhe(?)”:“T_opic,VZhe(?)+PPL”and“T_opic,PPL+VZhe(?)”.This is the fundamental reason of the re-arrangement of its constituents.In the two alternative forms,the latter provides a favorable syntactic position for the generation of the Continuous Aspect.In the processes that simplify bi-clausal structures,“Zhe(?)”may reanalyzed as the Continuous Aspect.The topicalization of PPL and the emergence of the domain argument of V,have established the character of the Continuous Aspect“Zhe(?)”.Step 2:Then,It is found that“le(?)”and“guo(?)”may be originated from another grammaticalization path:Stage1,completive;Stage2,young anterior;Stage3,old anterior;Stage4,perfective;Stage5,simple past,which were reconstructed by Joan Bybee,William Perkins&Revere Pagliuca in 1994.Step 3:There are some subtle differences between“le(?)”“guo(?)”,for example:“le(?)”:completive(terminal);young anterior(terminal);old anterior(terminal);perfective(terminal).“guo(?)”:completive(process);young anterior(process);old anterior(process);perfective(process).Thirdly,we investigate the generation of disyllable preposition from the interface of lexicalization and grammaticalization.e.g.“X le(X?)”and“X zhe(X?)”.Finally,in order to explain the evolution of discourse marker“X le/zhe(X?/?)”,and finally reveals its motivation and mechanism,we investigate the generation of discourse marker,such as“X le(X?)”and“X zhe(X?)”(cf.Heine et al(2013)).