A Comparison Between English And Chinese Existential Verbs From The Perspective Of Aspect

Existential verbs express the existence, appearance or disappearance of people or things, which are common in both English and Chinese. Due to the distinctiveness of attributes in existential verbs and sentence structure in which existential verbs are used, existential verbs have received wide attention from scholars both at home and abroad, yet the research focus differs and controversy exists. This paper tries to make a comparative study of English and Chinese existential verbs from the perspective of aspect feature.According to three binary aspect features, stative vs. dynamic, durative vs. punctual, and bounded vs. unbounded, Vendler (1957) classifies verbs into four categories of lexical aspect, which are states, activities, accomplishments and achievements. However, research has found that the same verb in different sentences or contexts may demonstrate different aspect features. Whether this kind of phenomenon appears in English and Chinese existential verbs is worth of discussion. Based on the three binary aspect features adopted by Vendler (1957) in the classification of verbs, according to the classification of existential verbs, this thesis chooses six existential verbs in English and Chinese respectively and makes a comparative analysis of aspect features of the verbs in different sentences and contexts. English existential verbs selected for the study include verbs of existence, exist and live, verbs of appearance, occur and come, and verbs of disappearance, die and disappear, while Chinese existential verbs include verbs of existence,“存在”and“住”,verbs of appearance,“发生”and“来”,and verbs of disappearance,“死”and“消失”.Adopting a corpus-based approach, this study takes the selected English and Chinese existential verbs as main index to retrieve raw data from COCA and CCL respectively and sifts out typical examples. Through lateral comparison and longitudinal comparison, this study mainly discusses the following three questions: (1) the interaction of aspect feature in English and Chinese existential verbs with the tense and aspect of the sentences, and similarities and differences between English and Chinese existential verbs in this respect; (2) the interaction of aspect feature in English and Chinese existential verbs with the construction of sentences, and similarities and differences between English and Chinese existential verbs in this respect; (3) the interaction of aspect feature in English and Chinese existential verbs with adverbials, and similarities and differences between English and Chinese existential verbs in this respect.The study reveals that the tense and aspect of the sentences exerts influence on durative vs. punctual and bounded vs. unbounded aspect feature of existential verbs; the construction of sentences affects stative vs. dynamic aspect feature of existential verbs; besides, adverbials influence durative vs. punctual and bounded vs. unbounded aspect feature of existential verbs.In general, the study provides some guidance for foreign language teaching of English and Chinese as well as translation between English and Chinese existential verbs and sentences. In particular, the study helps Chinese English learners have a better understanding of English existential verbs and sentences, and vice versa.This thesis consists of five chapters. The first chapter provides a general background of the study. The second chapter presents the literature review of aspect and studies of existential verbs both at home and abroad. The third chapter describes the research methodology of the study. The fourth chapter introduces the process of data analysis and discussion, in which comparisons are made on aspect features of English and Chinese existential verbs in three respects. The last chapter is the conclusion, which makes a summary of the major findings and points out implications and limitations of the study.