10.1. Between SENTENCEs 38510.1.1. Lexical Cohesion 38510.1.2. Rhetorical Relations 393

10.2. The Paragraph: Discourse Theme and ParagraphBoundary 40110.2.1. The Discourse Theme 40110.2.2. How Paragraph Boundaries Are Identified 404

10.2.2.1. Semantic Incompatibility 40510.2.2.2. Appearance of 'Controlling' Phrase of

the Same Category .40510.2.2.3. Switch ofViewpoint.. 40710.2.2.4. Appearance of Anaphoric Phrase 40710.2.2.5. Difference in Style of Writing 40810.2.2.6. End-of-Scope Description .40910.2.2.7. Summary 409

INTRODUCTION:BETWEEN GRAMMAR AND DISCOURSE

10.3. Discourse Markers in Spoken Mandarin 41110.3.1. Miracle on Hao, Keshi (Danshi, Buguo) and

Na(me) 4111O.}.2. Yang on Na and Wang on Ranhou .413

Researchers in Chinese grammar have long recognized the limitations of theWestern theoretical framework of syntax that has been imposed on the study ofChinese grammar since Ma Jianzhong's Ma Shi Wen Tong toward the end of the19th century. For example, Chao (1968) adopts the notion of 'topic' instead of theWestern 'subject' as one of the immediate constituents of the Chinese sentence.'Since then, topic has become a familiar term to most grammarians in thecharacterization of Chinese and other similar languages in spite of the lack of aprecise defmition for it. Through the development of Chinese grammatical study inthe past twenty years or so, 'topic' has been utilized to create further functionalnotions, such as 'topic prominency' (Li and Thompson, 1976), 'topic chain' (Tsao,1979), 'secondary topic' (Tsao, 1990), and many others. Topic structures inChinese are also well recognized and worked on in the G-B theory (Li,1990:197-200). They all represent a departure from the mainstream Westernlinguistic thought and a new direction for Chinese linguistics.

While the tremendous amount of work done on 'topic' has certainly helpedanswer many structural and functional questions in Chinese grammar, there are a lotmore pr.oblems that can be raised concerning the further understanding andexplanatIOn of the grammar of the language. For instance, are there other functionsfor the verbal suffixes, such as Ie and zhe, than their aspectual marking function?Why is it that adverb sets such as you, zai, and hai are interchangeable in isolatedclauses while they are not always interchangeable in larger contexts despite theirnear synonymity (Chen, 1993)? Why is it that the third-person pronouns ta andtamen tend to occur less frequently in Chinese than their counterparts in manyWestern languages? How can a Chinese 'sentence' be given a more precisedefinition than 'expressing a complete thought' while English and other Westernlan?uages. seem to have ~ better structural defmition for it? Why is it that manynative ~hmese grammarians have perceived the Chinese language as having apredommantly liushuiju (literally, 'flowing-water sentence') structure2 asdistinguished fro~ other Western types of sentences? These are, of course, ju~t afew of the questIOns that may be raised within the context of current research inChinese grammar. Attempts have been made to explain such facts but,unfortunately, many of them have only appealed to linguistic bias and conjecturethrough native intuition (Cf. Shen, 1988).

Underlying all those questions, however, there is one fundamental problem with

11.1. The Running Theme 41611.2. Grammatical Roads That Lead to Discourse Structure 41811.3. Further Issues and Outlook 419

the traditional, and some of the current, grammatical theories. That is the strictadherence to 'sentence grammar'-grammar that limits itself within the confines ofthe sentence. In other words, most traditional and many currently dominantgrammatical theories are only concerned with the structure of the sentence, withoutrecognizing the fact that the form of a sentence may be affected by extra-sententialfactors. When the criteria of such a sentence grammar are applied to a language likeChinese, it is immediately obvious that the model is far from being adequate fordescribing the structure of a linguistic system that lacks an elaborate formalapparatus of tense-aspect, case marking, voice, modal auxiliaries, etc. in terms ofthe familiar structural signals that prevail in Indo-European languages. Chinese, inparticular, relies heavily on relative ordering of constituents, inter-clausalcore ference, particles, and semantic correlates, among many others, to signalsyntactic structure as well as discourse relations. It is therefore indispensable, onone hand, to account for the syntactic structure of Chinese in terms of signalsdifferent from the ones familiar to most Western grammarians and, on the other, toutilize discourse notions to uncover the inner workings of the clause/sentencestructure of the language. The presence of the verbal suffix -Ie, for example, is notonly to satisfy the need for marking the perfective aspect, but also to indicate theorganization of clauses into larger units. (Cf. Chu and Chang, 1987.) Thus, thegrammatical description of the suffix -Ie cannot be regarded as complete withoutconsideration of its discourse functions.

Facts like the above have in many ways convinced the present author that ameaningful grammar of Mandarin Chinese must take into consideration what hasgenerally been swept aside as irrelevant to syntax because of its functional andpragmatic nature. One of the purposes of this volume is, for example, to show thatfunctional and pragmatic factors, such as information structure and the relativedegree of foregrounding and backgrounding, are not only relevant but also crucialto the determination of the structure ofa clause in Chinese. Another such purposeis to demonstrate that there is not necessarily a clearcut dividing line between syntaxand discourse but rather a continuum extending from one to the other.

It is on the basis of beliefs like the above that the present author has beenworking in the areas of Chinese syntax and discourse. He has thus called his workDiscourse Grammar rather than the more prevalent term Discourse Analysis.

An example of the discourse grammar of Mandarin Chinese may be taken, again,from the use of the verbal suffix -Ie, which has been regarded as the perfectiveaspect marker of the language. As a perfective aspect marker, however, it doesn'tparallel many of the known uses for Western languages. Though it does often marka past action or event in its entirety (Comrie, 1976:12); yet, even more often, suchan action or event is NOT so marked in Mandarin. Otherwise, -Ie is used forsomething else. (Cf. Chu & Chang, 1987; Chang, 1986.) These latter cases cannotbe simply dismissed as optional or be reasonably explained on the basis ofperfectivity without taking into account the discourse functions of the suffix. Aspecific instance is the deletion of -Ie in a series of action verbs except the last oneto signal their relatedness.

Another example concerns the relative positioning of the reason-consequenceclauses containing the conjunctive adverbs yinwei 'because' and suoyi 'therefore'.It is often said that Chinese grammar strictly observes the iconicity principle ofcause-effectlreason-consequence and therefore the yinwei-clause as a statement of'reason' invariably precedes the statement of 'consequence' in the form ofa clausewith or without suoyi. As a matter of fact, there ARE cases where we find thereverse order of the consequence clause without suoyi before the reason clause withyinwei. These cases then are often conveniently labelled as Westernization.Admittedly, there are cases of Westernization where no justification of reversing theorder can be found. Ifwe take a closer look, however, some instances of the reverseorder may be well justified on the basis of discourse cohesion, just like the preposedand postposed if- and when-clauses are in English (Ramsey, 1987).

Given the rough defmition of a discourse grammar proposed at the beginning ofthis section, the discourse grammar of Mandarin Chinese then must be able to relatethe structural descriptions of such grammatical items as the verbal suffixes and therelative order of clauses to the cohesive organization of a block of discourse. Inother words, it must account for how the structure of a clause may affect thecohesion of the linguistic form within which the clause occurs. Conversely, it mustalso be able to demonstrate in what ways discourse may require that a structuralunit, such as a verb or a clause, take one form over any other for reasons offelicitous organization.

Thus, a discourse grammar in our sense is distinct, in some significant ways,from what is generally known as discourse analysis in linguistics. We address thefollowing three areas of difference.

First, while discourse analysis is by and large communicatively oriented,discourse grammar is structurally oriented. The prevailing view of discourseanalysis is that discourse is a process and it takes 'words, phrases and sentenceswhich appear in the textual record of a discourse to be evidence of an attempt by aproducer (speaker/writer) to communicate his message to a recipient(hearer/reader)' (Brown and Yule, 1984:24). The main purpose of a discoursegrammar is, on the other hand, to examine the structure of discourse: what structuraldevices are used to perform what functions?

Secondly, while discourse analysis is concerned with both spoken and written

The term Discourse Grammar3 is here used to designate the area of linguisticinquiry that unites the study of the syntax of the clause on one hand and the studyof the organization of clauses into larger structural units on the other. It covers somepart of the syntax of the clause and the combination of single clauses into whatmight be perceived as similar to 'compound sentence' and 'complex sentence' inWestern terminology as well as combining these 'sentences' into even larger unitslike the 'paragraph'. More importantly, however, it deals with the effect of suchcombinations on the internal structure of the clause.

discourse (though for many researchers spoken discourse is the primary concern);discourse grammar at this stage mainly deals with the written text (cf. Liao, 1992).This is not a distinction by nature but one by convenience. Since discourse grammaris at its infant stage, it has to start from something that is more tangible and betterunderstood. By taking written language as its data base, discourse grammar may nothave to worry about intonation, speaker attitude,4 performance factor, etc., all ofwhich are less well understood than overt written signals, especially in terms ofMandarin Chinese.

Thirdly, discourse grammar emphasizes both the effect of discourse organizationon the structural grammar of the clause and that of grammar on discourse, whilethere is no such emphasis discernible in the usual practice of discourse analysis.This has to do with the primary motivation of the present author. He started withsyntax in his academic career, but was disillusioned by the restrictive approachesin the syntactic theories at that time. He turned to discourse for solution to thesyntactic problems that he had to deal with. He has now been fIrmly convinced thatthere exists in discourse a large body of reasonable explanations for syntacticproblems, which would otherwise seem to be arbitrary or unaccountable. Thisnaturally leads to why there is a need for a discourse grammar, especially forMandarin Chinese.

Before we go on, some clarifIcation is in order. Our discourse grammar in oneway or another bears quite some resemblance to one view of discourse analysis,which Brown and Yule (1985:24-25) terms discourse-as-product. Typical of thisview is the cohesion approach such as exemplifIed in Halliday and Hasan (1976).It is obvious that many of their notions on cohesive ties are adopted in this volume.

In the early 70s, some syntacticians started to feel uncomfortable about the solutionsthat autonomous syntax had to offer for many structural problems. Among thoseproblems were, just to name a few, pronominalization, reflexivization, defInitenessinterpretation, tense-aspect marking, relativization, and subordination. Whatautonomous syntax like transformational grammar did was to set up a rule for eachand every syntactic phenomenon to generate grammatical forms and rule outungrammatical ones. While such rules in a grammar may certainly be made relatedto each other and most of them may be made general enough to subsume certainportions of related phenomena under them, they don't really offer any furtherrationale for why there are such forms. Thus, one can not feel satisfIed with suchrules unless one is willing to accept them as the ultimate explanations. Thisdissatisfaction led to the formulation of many other theoretical frameworks such asgenerative semantics, case grammar, lexical function, etc. One of the furtherdevelopments resulted in functional syntax, which paved the way for discoursegrammar.

Some of the problems that fInd autonomous syntax insufficient are illustratedbelow.

(A) Pronominalization. Pronominalization, for example, is supposed to occurwithin a sentence, e.g.

(l.a) When Dad! comes home, hej will be mad.b) When hej comes home, Dadj will be mad.

(2.a) Dadj will be mad when hej comes home.b) *Hej will be mad when Dadj comes home.

In the (a) sentences, forward pronominalization is said to have occurred and thereis no restriction that forbids such forward process. In the (b) sentences backwardpronominalization is said to have occurred, but there is some restriction that forbidssuch a backward process. Sentence (2.b) is ungrammatical just because it hasviolated the restriction. While it is true that the ungrammaticality of (2.b) is theresult of violation of some rule, the acceptability of (l.b) may not be by the sametoken that the other sentences in such sets are acceptable. The following pair thatKuno (1980: 131) gives illustrates the problem:

(3.a) *In John's portrait of Maryj, shej found a scratch.b) In John's portrait ofMaryj, shej looks sick.

Any syntactic constraint should be applicable to both or neither of(3.a) and (3.b).As a matter of fact, the same argument also applies to forward pronominalization:(Kuno, 1980: 130)

(4.a) *In John/s dormitory, hej smoked pot.b) In John!' s dormitory, only hej smoked pot.

According to Kuno, the problem involves whether the nominals in question arethematic or not. Pronominalization therefore is not merely an INTRAsententialoperation and it has to go beyond the sentence boundaries to fInd a more plausiblesolution.

Pronominalization in Chinese is notoriously irregular in terms of J.Ylltax. Anyaccount for the many uses and non-uses of third-person pronouns in Chinese mustaddress a larger domain than what has usually been equated to the Westernsentence. (See, for example, Cherry Li, 1985.)

(B) Reflexivization. The solution to reflexivization has long seemed to be thecomer stone of formal syntax. In early generative grammar, it was often used as thestarting point for transformational rules. Later in the G-B theory, it has formed partof the basis for the binding theory. One would think that it ought to have beensolidly established and universally accepted as a grammatical rule. Recent research,however, has discovered that many cases of the reflexive pronouns in English and

other languages are not accountable by such rules. Zribi-Hertz (1989:707-8) citesthe following examples as reflexivization on the principle of 'emphasis' and'domain of point of view':

b) Zuotian wanshang women kanle dianying.yesterday evening we see-PERFECTIVE movie'Last night we saw a movie.'

(5.a) ARTHU~'s fulsomeness seemed to embarrass the Baron as muchas it did HIMSELFj.

b) MARYj eventually convinced HER SISTER SUSANj that Johnhad better pay visits to everybody except THEMSELVESj&j'

there doesn't seem to be any difference between them in isolation. The differenceshows up only when one asks whether there is anything following the givenstatement. The statement in (7.a) doesn't seem to be finished, but the one in (7.b)sounds more complete. An explanation for this kind of phenomenon has to comefrom connected discourse instead of isolated clauses/sentences.

The problem of aspect in syntax can be further illustrated by the verbal suffix-zhe in Mandarin. Chu (1987) claims that there are three levels of function for thisdurative aspect marker: semantic, syntactic and pragmatic. While its semanticfunction is to signal a durative aspect and its pragmatic function is an interactiveone, Chu's syntactic analysis of the suffix is to treat it as a means of subordinationin both the simple and the complex sentence. This analysis, in fact, should beregarded as a discourse solution to the problem rather than a syntactic one. That is,the decision of when to use the subordination and what to be made subordinate isbased on discourse rather than on syntax. E.g., the choice between the followingforms depends more on discourse needs than anything else:5

In Mandarin Chinese, the problem seems to be even more complex. Chu(1989:101-6) presents a survey of60 native speakers on the use ofziji 'self andtaziji 'him-/herself in various contexts. He finds that while the binding principlecan correctly apply to the use of the reflexive pronouns in single clauses inMandarin, in cases where more than one single clause are involved the notion'theme' must be invoked to provide a better explanation. (Also cf. Xu, 1993.) Theanalysis of the Korean reflexive caki seems to involve a hierarchical ranking of thecoreferential NPs. (See O'Grady, 1987, and Kang, 1990, for example.) (8.a) Ta tiaozhe wu chang ge.

(s)he dance-zhe dance sing song'(S)he sings while (s)he dances.'(C) Aspect Marking. In most theories of syntax, tense and aspect have merely

been treated as a problem of cooccurrence of verbal inflections with appropriateauxiliaries within a clause. The more substantial problem of choosing one tense oraspect over another is relegated to rhetoric. Only recently has the use of tense andaspect attracted the attention of theoretical linguists such as Hopper (1979) andGivon (1984). Aspect, in particular, seems to bear more on discourse than onanything else. Hopper (1982:4) suggests for aspect 'a core function which isdiscourse-derived and in some sense universal, and a set of additive functions whichare not universal (though some of them may be common) and which representgrammaticized semantic extensions of the discourse function.' Foreground indiscourse seems to be closely related to the perfective aspect in French and Russian(Hopper, 1979:217-8). In Mandarin Chinese, the perfective aspect marker -Ieperforms, among many others, a forward linking function (Li & Thompson,1981:640-1) or a 'peak' and an anteriority function (Chang, 1986:105-114), all ofwhich are discoursal in nature.

Especially disturbing is the problem of when the perfective aspect marker -Ie inMandarin occurs or does not occur. E.g. in single clauses like the following:

b) Ta changzhe ge tiao wu.(s)he sing-zhe song dance dance

'(S)he dances while (s)he sings.'

Despite the fact that (8.a) and (8.b) are syntactically different but semantically (i.e.propositionally) equivalent, the selection of one over the other depends entirely onwhether chang ge 'singing' or tiao wu 'dancing' is taken to be the main theme inthe discourse.

(D) Subordination. As it was mentioned in the preceding sub-section (C),though subordination is a syntactic device, it anchors its motivation in discourse.The anatomy of the syntax of subordination, therefore, cannot be fully understoodunless a discourse view of the structure is incorporated.

In terms of discourse, a claim has been made and generally accepted thatindependent clauses are for main events in a narrative but subordinate clauses arefor background descriptions or non-eventline happenings. This absolute dichotomy,however, has recently been challenged.

Thompson (1987:451) fmds that 'while a majority [of the temporally sequencedevents in a written narrative] are coded by independent clauses, a significant subsetare "subordinate".' In each of these cases, she claims, 'the use of a subordinate

(7.a) Zuotian wanshang women kan dianying.yesterday evening we see movie'Last night we saw a movie.'

clause allows the writer to accomplish a text-creation goal in addition to theobvious one of maintaining the temporal line.' Some of her text-creation goals ofthe subordinate structures are: (I) to indicate dependency of one event on another(p. 446), (2) to signal simultaneity of one event with another (pp. 446-7), and (3)to perform a relating-back function (pp. 447-9).

Mathiessen and Thompson (1988:275) find that 'it is impossible to defme oreven characterize "subordinate clause" in strictly sentence-level terms.' They claimthat 'in written English discourse, a certain kind of what linguists have called"subordinate clause" ...can usefully be viewed as grammaticalization of a verygeneral property of the hierarchical structure of the discourse itself.' \ibid.)

Fox and Thompson (1990) show that the form of a relative clause in Englishconversation (i.e. whether the head NP is a subject, direct object or object of apreposition, etc. and whether the relativized NP is a subject, direct object or objectofa preposition, etc.) can be reasonably explained 'by the information-flow patternscharacteristic of English discourse .... ' For example, ' ...Existential-Head relativeclauses tend to be S-relatives, since the grounding for the human Existential Headsis typically either main-clause grounding8 or proposition-linking, and the relativeclause generally does not serve an anchoring function.' (p. 314)

Finally, Myhill and Hibiya (1988) deal with the problem of 'subordination' inanother light. Skeptical of the assumption that non-finite verbs as a form ofsubordination must be background, they fmd that, in terms of grounding, 'non-fmiteforms occupy a position between fully finite forms and other subordinate forms.'(p.395)

It is quite obvious that demands of discourse heavily affect the structure ofsyntax. Despite the general view that syntax makes available formal devices fordiscourse, it can perhaps be more appropriately claimed that discourse provides abasis for such syntactic forms.

up those syntactic features in Mandarin Chinese that seem most likely to beoperating at the sentence level, yet have not had a reasonable explanation withinthat domain. This includes aspect marking and sentential adverbials. From there, thebook moves on to areas that have less syntactic relevance. This covers clause-particles and modality. Finally, the volume enters the purely discourse-orienteddomain. This embodies such notions as topicality, information status, and groundingstructure. These latter notions, however, necessarily involve syntactic structuressuch as pronominalization, subordination, and clause-combining. The studying ofthese notions will profitably result in a relatively precise defmition of what the unitabove clause might be like in Chinese. In other words, is there a structural unit inMandarin Chinese that can compare with the sentence in Western grammar? If yes,what is it like structurally? A positive answer to the questions should lead the studyinto another level of discourse structure-the definition of paragraph and itsorganization.

1.4. Mandarin Chinese Discourse Grammar-What ItShould Be Like

On the basis of the discussions in the preceding sub-sections, we are now in aposition to layout a blueprint for a complete discourse grammar of MandarinChinese. At this point, the requirements that it must meet seem to be the following:

(A) A discourse grammar of Mandarin Chinese must distinguish betweengrammatical markers which are for purely syntactic purposes and those which arealso relevant to discourse. It is the latter markers that it must be able to treatreasonably and convincingly. They include, but are not limited to, such devices asaspect marking, pronominalization and subordination. All of them have traditionallybeen treated as purely grammatical devices or processes with little or no attentionpaid to their discourse functions.

(B) A discourse grammar of Mandarin Chinese must determine whether markersthat are amphibious in nature are actually syntactically oriented or discoursallymotivated. Only after such determinations have been made can any reasonableexplanation be offered for why a given marker is used in both ways. The sentence-fmal particle Ie seems to be a syntactically oriented marker that is extended to signaldiscourse functions, while other sentence-final particles like ne, me, and (y)a seemto be discoursally oriented but their interpretations are often restricted within thesentence.

(C) A discourse grammar of Mandarin Chinese must attempt to discoverdiscourse signals that have not been grammaticalized. Such signals havetraditionally been neglected in linguistic study, but their importance in a discoursegrammar is self-evident. The relative order of clauses and the use of adverbsespecially in terms of their position in a clause, seem to belong to this category i~Mandarin Chinese.

(D) A discourse grammar of Mandarin Chinese must recognize grammatical

We have argued above that there is a close and indispensable relation betweensyntax and discourse. While discourse relies to a certain extent on grammaticalmarkings to express its organization, many syntactic devices have their roots indiscourse. It is therefore safe to say that one cannot fully understand grammarwithout also taking discourse into consideration and vice versa. But when we startto look at such a relation in Mandarin Chinese, we immediately fmd ourselvesconfronted with an entry problem in terms of methodology-that is, the problem ofbeginning research activities in a relatively uncharted area.9 To start from Chinesediscourse is unrealistic because there is virtually nothing to start from in that area. 10

It is then perhaps more practical to begin with the problems in Chinese grammarthat have not been sufficiently dealt with in the current theory of syntax.

The present work, representing the research philosophy of the author, thereforeadopts an approach that begins with a look at such syntactic problems. It first takes

notions that have impact on discourse but have not so far been utilized in the studyof Mandarin Chinese discourse. This covers the notions of state vs. action (and thefmer distinctions in-between), marked vs. unmarked verb forms, and the transitivityscale. Shades of subordination, for example, may be expressed in Mandarin bydifferent forms of the verb in addition to the explicit subordinate conjunctions. Suchfunctions, by which clauses are put together in an orderly manner, are inevitablyrelevant to the organization of discourse.

(E) Finally, a discourse grammar of Mandarin Chinese must propose anintegrated framework that is based on commonly accepted theories of discourse ingeneral but at the same time is compatible with the peculiarities of the language.Such a proposal represents the ultimate contribution of a complete grammar to thefield of Chinese discourse.

For the benefit of those who do not have a prior knowledge of MandarinChinese, we give a sketch of the language below before we go on to describe itsdiscourse structures.

1.6. A Sketch of the Language

The following sub-sections are very short descriptions of modem Mandarinphonology, morphology, and syntax of basic simple sentences. The pinyin systemis used in representing the Mandarin pronunciation.

The phonology of Mandarin Chinese generally starts with a discussion of thesyllable structure followed by a description of the consonants, vowels and tones. Inour presentation we will follow this same format. The Mandarin syllable structureis quite simple and can be represented in (9) below:As a first attempt for a discourse grammar of Mandarin Chinese, this book does not

aim to formulate a complete theory of Mandarin discourse, nor does it claim topresent a comprehensive record of all that there is about discourse of the language.It is rather a sampler of what has so far been done in the field as well as an effort todemonstrate what is most appropriate for a fuller theory of discourse grammar. Alarge portion of the book is a synthesis of past research in Mandarin discourse, inwhich the author and some of his graduate students have played an active part. Theremainder of the book, the author may legitimately claim to be his own originalcontributions to the analysis of many of the facets of Mandarin discourse. In fact,such a combination of past research and original contribution can be foundthroughout the book. The second chapter, for example, is a recount of thegrammatical analyses of the aspect markers together with their discourse functionsdiscovered in more recent studies. The author's original contribution in this chapterlies largely in the discovery ofthe background/foreground hierarchy where each ofthe aspect markers may be assigned a position.

The main emphasis of the book is on the total organization of discourse. Whilethere are specific innovative ideas in the chapters, each ofthem plays a vital part inthe final definition of a structural unit above the Mandarin clause. Thus, forexample, in addition to the grounding hierarchy of aspect markers mentioned above,Chapter 3 claims its originality in the treatment of the conjunctive nature of manymodality adverbs; Chapter 4 proposes a 'personal involvement' factor for theparticle alya; Chapter 5 incorporates the management of information and its impacton the interpretation of some types of topics; Chapter 7 identifies the three steps oftopic formation; etc. In the end, however, they all converge in Chapter 9 to definea discourse unit in Mandarin to be called SENTENCE, which is vastly differentfrom the Western sentence.

As was stated earlier, the main body of data for study in this book is fromwritten discourse. Hopefully, further research will expand its scope to includespoken discourse.

where C is a consonant, V is a vowel and N is a nasal consonant. Each pair ofparentheses enclose an optional element and V3 and N are alternates. The threevowels are not equal in prominence of articulation. While V2 is the vocalic nucleus,V I and V3 are less vocalic in nature and can be considered glides, i.e. semi-vowels.There are, however, some occurrence restrictions. Only Iii, Iu/ and IUI may occur inthe V I position and only Iii and 101may occur in the V3 position. Furthermore,

(10) Mandarin Consonants:

labials b

dentals d

velars g

alveolar jaffricates

retroflexes zh

alveolar zfricatives

not occur in the post vocalic position ofN and the velar nasal Ing/ does not occurin the prevocalic position of C.

In the spelling system known as pinyin, which is more or less phonemic innature, there are 22 consonants and 6 vowels. They are listed in (10) above and in(11) below, respectively.

A few explanations are in order. Each of the digraphs represents a singleconsonant, e.g. Ing/ represents a velar nasal and the graph h in 1M, Ich! and Ish!stands for retroflexion. Apart from the point and manner of articulation derivablefrom the labels in the fIrst column, there are other important distinctions of thephonemic sounds from their close counterparts in English. For example, theMandarin /hi is a velar fricative rather than a glottal one. While 1M, Ich! and Ish!are affricate in nature, Irl is more like a fricative than a liquid. The second columncontains unaspirated sounds but the third column contains their aspiratedcounterparts.

Name Description Level/Contour Symbol

First High-Level 5-5

Second High-Rising 3-5

Third Low-Dipping 2-1-4

Fourth High-Falling 5-1

There is another tone known as 'neutral tone', which generally occurs on anunstressed syllable and may vary in its pitch height depending on the neighboringsyllable. To indicate the neutral tone, the vowel is left unmarked, e.g. chuanghu'window', where the second syllable hu carries a neutral tone, which is indicated byleaving the vowel Iu/ unmarked.

The vowel lilI is a rounded high front one, very much like its counterpart in French.The pinyin system, however, has two more letters that are not included in the

chart in (10) above: y and w. They are used to replace a Iii, Iu/ or lilI in the VIposition when there is no initial consonant in the syllable. They are also added infront of a syllable that would otherwise begin with a Iii, Iu/ or lilI in the V2 position.

Now we turn to the tonal system of the language. The tones are defIned by theheight of voice pitch over the syllable. Chao (1968) distinguishes a scale of fIvepitch levels and labels them by numbers 1 through 5, with 1 being the lowest and5 the highest. There are four distinctive tones which are generally numbered from1st to 4th. The tones are presented in the chart in (12) above.

The fIrst tone starts at the highest pitch numbered 5 and stays on that pitch levelall the way till the end of the syllable. It is marked by the symbol ,-, over the vowelof the syllable, e.g. ma 'mother'. The second tone starts at the mid-level pitchnumbered 3 and rises to the high level 5. It is marked by the symbol ,', over thevowel, e.g ma 'hemp'. The third tone starts at the low pitch level 2 and dips evenlower to level 1 before it rises to level 4. It is marked by the symbol ,~, over thevowel, e.g. mil 'horse'. Finally, the fourth tone starts at pitch level 5 and falls all theway to level 1. It is marked by the symbol ,', over the vowel, e.g. ma 'to scold'.Thus, the tones serve a function of distinguishing meanings carried by the otherwiseidentical syllables.

Mandarin morphology is relatively simple in terms of inflection and derivation.Furthermore, as 'the borderline between affixation and compounding is rather fuzzyin Chinese' (Tang, 1994:496), there are many cases where a form can be consideredeither as a complex or as a compound word. For this reason, we will just give a fewless controversial examples for inflection and derivation. Compounding will bediscussed as an important process of word-formation in an outline format.

Two categories of affIXesmay be considered most genuinely inflectional in modemMandarin. They are the plural suffIx -men and the aspect markers -Ie, -zhe, -guo,zai- and -qilai. A third category, the diminutives, is also presented in this section asinflectional in nature. ClassifIers, or measure words, will also be discussed in thissection, though they are not really inflectional.

The 'Plural' -men. Strictly speaking, the suffix -men is a true pluralmarker only when it is added to personal pronouns w6 'I', ni 'you (sing.)' and ta'he/she', e.g. wOOlen 'we', nimen 'you (pl.)' and tamen 'they'. When it is used withhuman nouns, its function is to mark them as collective nouns rather than to indicatethe usual sense of plurality, e.g. haizimen 'children', xueshengmen 'students', etc.Such nouns take on a collective meaning in that they cannot be further specifIed bya defInite number, i.e. one cannot say *sange haizimen for 'three children' or

*liiingbiiige xueshengmen for 'two hundred students'.While the suffix -men is basically restricted to use with the pronouns and human

nouns, there are further complications on one hand and some relaxation of the basicrule on the other. One of the complications is that some monosyllabic human nounsdon't take the suffix easily, e.g. ?blhgmen for 'soldiers' but shiblhgmen 'soldiers',though the form renmen 'people (in general)' is easily acceptable. Othersmonosyllabic human nouns take the suffix only when another suffix -er is used fIrst,e.g. germen 'buddies' «gtH er + men). The relaxation of the basic rule has to dowith the extension of its use to non-human nouns, e.g. niiiormen 'birds' «niiio +er + men), gOOrmen 'dogs' (goo + er + men). These forms are mainly used inmodem literary writing. In short, the usages of -men as the plural suffix are still ina state of fluctuation.

Turning to the aspectual affixes, we fIrst note that only -Ie, -zhe and -guoare generally recognized and discussed as aspectual markers in most grammars. Butwe also include the other two, zai- and -qilai, for the reason that they fIt very wellinto the system of aspect-marking, though morphologically and syntactically theyseem different from the other three. We discuss the fIve below.

The perfective Aspect Marker -Ie. The suffix -Ie expresses a 'perfective'viewpoint in the sense that the speaker views a specifIc event as an integral whole,e.g. Zuotian wanshang wo kanle yichang dianying, 'I saw a movie last night,'where kan 'to see' is the verb and the perfective -Ie indicates the speakers is treatingthe specifIc event of the subject's seeing a moving as a whole. It is much like thepast tense in English. But the similarity between the Mandarin perfective and theEnglish past tense stops here. While the English past applies to a state, e.g. I wasvery tired last night, the Chinese -Ie does not, e.g. Zuotian wanshang wo hen lei,'I was very tired last night,' where hen lei 'very tired' is the predicate but noperfective -Ie need occur in it.

More detailed discussion ofthis and the other aspect markers can be foundin Chapter 2.

The Durative Aspect Marker -zhe. The suffix -zhe expresses a durativeviewpoint in the sense that the speaker views the progression of a specifIc event asthe most salient, Women kanzhe dianshi (de shihou), huran tingdian Ie. '(When)we were watching TV, the power suddenly went out,' where the suffix -zhehighlights the progression of the event 'our watching TV.' Without anotherpredicate, the one affixed with -zhe is felt to be incomplete. An explanation will begiven when the suffix is compared with the progressive aspect marker zai- below.

The Experiential Aspect Marker -guo. The suffix -guo marks some pastevent(s) as relevant to the present state, e.g. Wo quguo Riben sand, 'I have beento Japan three times.' The -guo on the verb qu 'to go' indicates that the speakerregards the events of 'his/her going to Japan' as an experience. The main differencebetween the functions of the perfective and the experiential aspect is that the former

reports the happening of an event while the latter asserts the existence of an eventand treats it as an experience. Thus, the use of -guo coincides with one of the usesof the English present perfect form.

The Progressive Aspect Marker zai-. The suffix zai- is not often treatedas an aspect marker in Mandarin for several reasons. First, unlike the other aspectmarkers, it is a prefIx rather than a suffix. Secondly, it can be heavily stressed.Finally, its function overlaps with that of the durative -zhe to a large extent. Just like-zhe, this marker can be similarly characterized as 'indicating that the speaker viewsthe progression of a specifIc event as the most salient.' Thus, the sentence illustratethe use of -zhe can also be used to illustrate that of zai-, i.e. Women zai kan dianshi(de shihou), huran tingdian Ie '(When) we were watching TV, the power suddenlywent out.' The most outstanding difference is that the clause with zai- is interpretedas a temporal adverbial but the one with -zhe is interpreted as a manner adverbial.As a result, the phrase de shihou 'when' is completely optional with the zai- clauseas far as meaning is concerned while it is necessary if the -zhe clause is intended tobe a temporal adverbial. Another difference is that the zai- clause is moregrammatically independent than the -zhe clause is. One piece of evidence for thisindependence is that the former can occur alone and serve as an answer to aquestion, e.g. Tamen zai chifan 'They are/were eating' in response to the questionTamen zai zuo shenme? 'What are/were they doing?' On the other hand, as amanner adverbial, a -zhe clause cannot stand alone as an answer to a questionasking about the manner in which an action is taken or an event takes place, e.g. *Tatiaozhe wu 'He dancing' in response to the question Ta zenme chang ge? 'Howdoes/did he sing?' even though it is perfectly acceptable to say Ta tiao-zhe wuchang ge 'He sings/sang while dancing.' The acceptable form of the answer is Tatiaozhe wu chang, where the verb of the other predicate must be repeated.

The Inchoative Aspect Marker -qilai. This suffix indicates that thespeaker is concerned with the starting of an event, e.g. Neige xiaohai shuozheshuozhe kuqilai Ie 'While talking, the child started crying,' where the verb ku 'tocry' with the suffix -qilai expresses the starting of the action/event. This suffix isnot generally treated as an aspect marker for several reasons. First, unlike the fIrstthree, it more often receives a stress. Secondly, the same suffix can be used foranother meaning, e.g. zhan-qilai 'stand up', where it means 'up' when added to aposture verb like zhan 'to stand'. Finally, the two syllables of the suffix can beseparated by a direct object, e.g. Tamen changqi-ge-Iai Ie 'They started singingsong(s),' where -qi- and -Iai are separated by the direct object ge 'song'.

From a diachronic viewpoint, the last two affixes are undergoing a processof grammaticalization to become full-fledged aspect markers.

Diminutive Affixes. These are affixes that combine with a noun, basicallyto attach the meaning 'small' to it. They include the suffixes -er, literally 'son', and-zi, literally 'off-spring', and the prefIx xiao- 'little'. They are best illustrated by the

two words xiaohar (<xiao + hai + er) and xiaohaizi (<xiao + hai + zi). Note thatthe 'suffix -er is reduced to Irl in the process of affixation. Both of them mean'child/children' and alternate with xiaohai and haizi and less frequently with har.The three affixes, however, do not serve the diminutive function in exactly the sameway. While the prefix xiao- is more often than not interpreted as carrying themeaning 'little', the two suffixes are looked upon as simply adding something to ashort, mostly monosyllabic, noun to make it longer. Thus, to the root {-hail or {hai-} 'child', any of the three affixes may be added to form a word, as was illustratedabove. But the bare root *hai itself is not acceptable as a free form.

The addition of the suffixes -er and -zi to a noun, however, is not completelyproductive. Whether a noun can be suffixed with one or the other or neither dependsvery much on the dialect, though there is some consensus on a number of words.The forms listed in (13) below are commonly acceptable.

laoshu 'mouse', laoshi 'teacher', etc. In these latter cases, it has become an integralpart of the words.

Classifiers. They are a category of words used to individuate, specify orquantify a noun. Examples are: yige ren 'a person', sankuai qian "three dollars',neiben shu 'that books'. -Ge, -kuai and -ben are classifiers to individuate or specifythe nouns ren 'person', qian 'money' and shu 'book', respectively, so that anumeral or a specifier can precede them. The most general or generic classifier inmodem Mandarin is -ge which, with an obsolete meaning of 'individual', can beapplied when no specific classifier is available for a given noun, e.g. anything newlyintroduced into the culture, e.g. yige dianzi chongwu 'a virtual pet'. But most nounshave their own specific classifiers. Some of them seem to be arbitrarily assigned,e.g. yikou guancai 'a coffin', where the classifier -kou means 'mouth'. But manyof them are meaningful and have some semantic relation with the noun, e.g. yitiaobandeng 'a bench', yizuo Jangzi 'a building', liangtao jiaju 'two suites of furniture' ,where the classifier -tiao indicates 'a long shape', -zuo being derived from the verbzuo 'to sit' refers to 'a large mass or object that sits on the ground', and -tao givesthe idea of' a set' of things.

Mass and abstract nouns can also be individuated, specified or quantified byclassifiers, e.g.yitan shui 'a pool of water (on the ground)', zhejian shi 'this matter(of business)'. The classifi~rs -tan 'shapeless pool' and -jian 'item' help specify theshape of water and individuate the matter. When a new noun is accepted into thelanguage after the initial introduction, a classifier has to be found from the stock tomatch the noun, e.g. yitai/jia dianshi 'a television set', where -tai or -jia is formachines. Otherwise, the general -ge may be used improvisionally until a moresophisticated one is found, e.g. yige diannao 'a computer'.

Historically, most classifiers were nouns but have developed into a specialclass. Many of them can still be used as nouns or have retained some nominalproperties. They are here considered inflectional in nature for the reason that theydon't change the major grammatical class of the stem to which they are added.

(13) hua-r 'flower'ge-r 'song'

ma-r 'horse'ren-r 'person'

yi-zi 'chair'dao-zi 'knife'jin-zi 'gold'

Jang-zi 'house'xie-zi 'shoe'yin-zi 'silver'

jiao-zi 'dumpling'piao-zi 'ticket'

Generally spekaing, the addition of the suffix -er is largely optional. In the case ofthe other suffix -zi, it is obligatory for some, e.g. yizi 'chair' ,jinzi 'gold' andyinzi'silver'; but is optional for others, e.g. dao(zi) 'knife', and piao(zi) 'ticket'.Compare with the following, however:

(14) ?cao-r 'grass'*chuang-zi 'bed'

*shu-r'tree'?/ou-zi 'building'

*qiu-r 'ball'*tie-zi 'iron'

It is impossible to give any hard and fast rule governing the use or non-use of thetwo suffixes. A rule of thumb is not to use -er unless one is sure of it. But for theuse of -zi, each form has to be learned individually.

The case of the prefix xiao- is quite different. Only a very limited number offorms with xiao- are available: xiaogui 'little devil', xiaojiahuo 'little fellow', etc.And they border on compound words. This prefix is therefore not productive at allexcept in one instance, i.e. its addition to a surname, e.g. Xiao-Zhang 'LittleZhang', Xiao- Wang' Little Wang', etc. As part of a proper name, it generally hasa very weak semantic content of' little/small'. The practice of adding this prefix toa surname has become more popular in mainland China after 1949. Parallel withthis practice is the addition of /ao- 'old' to a surname. Thus, Lao-Zhang 'OldZhang', Lao-Wang 'Old-Wang', etc. Just as Xiao-, Lao- in this use has littlesemantic content of 'old'. Lao- as a prefix to a common noun, on the other hand,is in fact more like the suffixes -er and -zi in its morphological function. It is addedin many cases to a monosyllabic noun just to make it longer, e.g. laohu 'tiger',

Modem Mandarin has a number of derivational affixes. We discuss somecommonly-used ones for illustrative purposes. They are the localizers, the genitiveor manner de, and some nominalizing, verbalizing and adjectivalizing affixes. Thissection is more or less modelled on Li and Thompson (1987) and draws heavily onChao (1968).

Localizers. They are suffixes added to a common noun for it to be used as alocative noun. A common noun can not serve as a locative noun in the sense that itcannot normally be preceded by locative prepositions (known as coverbs) like zai'at', dao 'to', cong 'from' and wang 'to, toward'. Compare *zai shujia with zai

Affixes Corresponding to English -able, -ize, -ology, -ist, -er, -ness. Theseare derivational affixes in the same sense their English counterparts are. We discusssix of them in total: ke- '-able', -hua '-ize, -ization', -xue '-ology', -jia '-ist', -zhe'-er (indicating a doer)', -xing '-ness (indicating an abstract quality)'.

The prefix ke- is added to a verb to produce an adjective, e.g. ke'ai 'lovable',kexiao 'laughable', kehen 'hateful', kechi 'shameful', where the stems ai 'to love',xiao 'to laugh', hen 'to hate' and chi 'to feel ashamed' are prefixed with ke- tobecome adjectives. It is noted that in fact the Mandarin prefix ke- is even moreproductive than the English suffix -able/-ible.

The suffix -hua is added to a noun or adjective to produce a correspondingverb, e.g. meihua «mei 'beautiful' + hua) 'to beautify', chouhua «chou 'ugly' +hua) 'to uglify', kexuehua( <kexue 'science' + hua) 'to make scientific', Meiguohua'to Americanize', yitaihua (<yitai 'one fetus' + hua) 'to make "one child per

family" into a policy'. This is again a very productive suffix, even more so than thecorresponding -ize and -jj; in English put together.

The suffix -xue '-ology', originally meaning 'to learn', produces words thatname a discipline of scholarship, e.g. wulixue «wuli 'principle(s) of matter' + -xue)'physics', huaxue «hua 'change' + -xue) 'chemistry', shenxue (<shen 'deity' +xue) 'theology', lishixue «lisM 'history' + -xue) 'history (as a discipline)',yuyanxue (<yuyan 'language' + -xue) 'linguistics'. This is another suffix that is veryproductive.

The suffix -jia '-ist' indicates a person who is an expert in a certain field. Thus,any of the disciplines that end in -xue can take this suffix to mean an expert in thatdiscipline, e.g huaxuejia 'chemist', yuyanxuejia 'linguist', etc. But its applicationis wider than just fields of learning. It can apply to skills such as playing the piano,writing the novel, etc., e.g. ganqingjia 'pianist', xiaoshuojia 'novelist', huajia'(artistic) painter', etc. The suffix, however, has a limited application to other fieldsof activities. For example, even thoughyundongjia (<yundong 'athletics' + -jia)'athlete' is acceptable, *zixingchejia «zixingche 'bicycle' + -jia) for '(bi)cyclist'is not. Since the suffix always carries a tone of expertise, one does not use any termcontaining it to refer to oneself. For example, it is inappropriate for the presentauthor to refer to himself as a yuyanxuejia, even though it is perfectly appropriateto use the English term linguist in this case.

The suffix -zhe13 'a person who V-es' is somewhat obsolete as a productivesuffix, but it appears in many fixed combinations in modem Mandarin, e.g.zhangzhe '(venerable) old person', zuozhe «zuo 'to do, work, create' + -zhe)'author', bianzhe «bian 'to edit' + -zhe) 'editor',jizhe (<ji 'to record' + -zhe)'(news) reporter',fangwenzhe (<fangwen 'to interview' + -zhe) 'inteviewer', beifangwen-zhe «bei 'passive marker' +fangwen to 'interview' + -zhe) 'interviewee'.The last one involves a syntactic process ofpassivization before the suffix is added.An interesting comparison may be made between the two suffixes -jia and -zhe:While a zuojia is an expert or professional writer, a zuozhe is an author of a specificproduction or productions.

The suffix -xing basically means 'nature, quality'. It generally combines withbound morphemes to give basic vocabulary like naixing «nai- 'to last for a longtime' + -xing) 'patience', duoxing «duo- 'lazy' + -xing) 'laziness',jixing (ji- 'toremember' + -xing) 'memory'. When it is added to a free morpheme, whether anoun, verb or adjective, to form an abstract noun, it takes on the function of a suffixmuch like the English -ness or -ity. Thus, kexuexing «kexue 'science' + -xing) 'thequality of being scientific', lianxuxing «lianxu 'to continue' + -xing) 'continuity',pubianxing (<pubian 'universal' + -xing) 'universality', kenengxing (keneng'possible' + -xing) 'possibility'. By analogy, it applies to phrases, e.g. kerongxing«ke rong 'which is soluble' + -xing) 'solubility', kesuxing «ke su 'which isplastic' + -xing) 'plasticity'. The use of this suffix seems to be gaining groundrapidly in writing and it has now become a completely productive one.

shujiashang 'on the bookshelf and *congfangzi chulai with congfangzili chulai'come out of the house.' The suffixes -shang '(on the) top (ot)' and -Ii 'inside ofare the two most commonly used localizers that turn common nouns into locativeones. There is another way to make locative nouns out of common nouns and evenpronouns, i.e. by following the noun or pronoun with a locative adverb zher 'here'or ner 'there', e.g. dao wo jer lai 'come to me' «literally, 'to me here come'), congtushuguan ner zou guochu 'walk past by the library' «literally, 'from library therewalk past go'. The locative adverbs jer 'here' and ner 'there' make the pronoun wo'I' and the common noun tushuguan 'library' into locative words, respectively.Though the locative adverbs serve the same function as the localizers, they are notgenerally considered derivational suffixes.

The Genitive and Manner Adverbial -de. 12 The particle -de serves anumber of functions, of which we select two for discussion: as a genitive markerand as a manner adverbial marker.

The genitive -de follows all nouns and pronouns to turn them into genitiveforms, e.g. wode shu 'my book', nide xiaohai 'your child(ren)', zhuozide tui 'table'sleg', kexuede mudi 'objective(s) of science' (literally, 'science's objective'),faludejichu 'foundation of law' (literally, 'law's foundation'), etc. When the noun towhich this -de is suffixed is an abstract one, the resultant form can be interpreted asan adjective instead of a genitive, e.g. kexuede fangfa 'scientific method' ,faludewendi 'legal problem', etc. The adjectival -de, however, is often optional in thislatter usage.

The manner adverbial -de is most frequently illustrated with a reduplicatedform, e.g. manmiirde zou «manman 'slow-slow' + de + zou 'to walk') 'walk goodand slow', Mohiiode zuo «MoMo 'good-good' + de + zuo 'to do/work') 'do itproperly and well,' etc. In fact, it is not restricted to use with reduplicates. It canalso occur with other types of words and phrases, e.g. xiaoxinde kan 'lookcarefully,' gankuaide mai 'hurry up and buy', etc., where xiaoxin 'careful' is aregular adjective and gankuai is a regular verb.

Compounding, a very important process in Mandarin Chinese, has attracted a lot ofattention in traditional as well as in modem linguistic studies. Almost all studiesrecognize the fact that there is no clear-cut boundaries between what might becalled simple, compound and complex words in modem Mandarin. The usual.criterion of relationship between the meaning of the word as a whole and themeanings of the components is not able to make a clear distinction between thethree categories of words, e.g. hudie 'butterfly' and huasheng «hua 'flower' +sheng 'to be born') 'peanut' unquestionably are single words, tuoniao «tuo-'camel' + niao 'bird') 'ostrich' andjengniao (<feng 'bee' + niao 'bird') 'hummingbird' may be conveniently considered complex or compound words. On the otherhand, in the case of shuiguo (<shui 'water' + -guo 'fruit') 'fruit', xiangjiao (<xiang'fragrant' + -jiao 'palm (tree)') 'banana' and such similar forms, are they complexor compound words? The problem is further complicated by differences betweencolloquial and written styles, between dialects and between plain and technical uses.(Cf. Tang, 1994:496) For all these reasons, we will only give compounds forillustrative purposes without harping upon the definition of what a compound wordis in Mandarin. The words in (IS) show a range of relationship between themeaning of the compound as a whole and those of its components. (Chu, 1983b:3)The meanings of some of the nouns in (IS) are not clearly related to those of thecomponents therein. The closeness of this semantic relationship, as a matter of factis in descending order from (a) to 0), i.e. it is closer on the top of the list andbecomes farther and farther apart as one comes down to the bottom. All this shows

that the distinction between compound words and non-compounds in Mandarin isindiscrete and the many degrees of difference may even form a continuum.

In the following, we give a few structural schemata to characterize differenttypes of compounds in modem Mandarin. Compound words may be made up ofcoordinate components. Under this category, there are several sub-types. All ofthem seem to apply mostly to nouns, sometimes to verbs, and occasionally toadjectives.

(a) Synonymous Compounds. As nouns, e.g. pengyou 'companion + friend= friend', shumu 'tree + wood = trees', jannao 'vexation + angry = vexation,worry', etc. As verbs, e.g. tiaoyao 'jump + leap = to jump', tingzhi 'stop + stop =

to stop', gongji 'charge + attack = to attack', etc. As adjectives, e.g. meihao'beautiful + good = good and beautiful', youliang 'excellent + fine = good,excellent', polan 'broken + rot = broken down', etc.

(b) Opposite Compounds. As nouns, e.g. maimai 'buy + sell = (commercial)business', kaiguan 'open + close = switch', daxiao 'big + small = size', etc. Asverbs, e.g. huxi 'exhale + inhale = to breathe', laiwang 'come + go = to socialize,have dealings (with)', etc.

(c) Category Compounds. As nouns, e.g. huacao 'flower + grass = plants',chema 'vehicle + horse = traffic,' jinliang 'catty + ounce = weight', youqi 'oil +paint = paint', etc.

(IS) Compound Word Component Meanings Gloss

a. xinfeng letter + seal 'envelope'

b. qiiinbf lead + writing-instrument 'pencil'

c. luguin travel + hall 'hotel'

d.sushe stay + lodge 'dormitory'

e. zidian word + concordance 'dictionary'

f. wentE ask + topic 'question, problem'

g. zazhi sundry + journal 'magazine'

h. gangbf steel + writing-instrument 'pen'

i. xiaoshuo small + speech 'novel'

(d) Half-Transliteration Compounds. As nouns, e.g.jipuche 'jeep + vehicle= jeep', luojixue 'logic + discipline = logic (as a field oflearning)' bingqilin 'ice+ ice cream = ice cream', Jiazhou 'Ca(lifornia) + state = California', etc.

Compound nouns can be made up of elements with specific semantic relations.These relations can vary widely and we only give a few of them: (cf. Li andThompson, 1981:49-53)

(a) The first noun denotes a location where the second noun is located orapplied, e.g. taideng 'table + lamp', hema 'sea + horse = hippopotamus', yagao'tooth + paste', mianshuang 'face + frost = facial cream', etc.

(b) The first noun denotes the source of the second one, e.g. niunai 'cow +milk',jengmi 'bee + honey', etc.

(c) The first noun denotes the material that the second is made of, e.g. caomao'straw + hat', yinbi 'silver + coin', etc.

As one can easily imagine, such semantic relations are in fact too numerous tobe listed exhaustively. Furthermore, they do not seem to be language specific, i.e.of the items in (a}-(c) above, most have quite natural semantic relations, which exitin other languages as well.

Another way of analyzing compounds is to look at the relations between their

components by analogy to syntactic structures. The following are some examplesfrom the syntactic viewpoint, many of which are cited from Chao (1968, Chap. 6)and Tang (1994). The unmarked basic word order of modem Mandarin is generally recognized as

SVO, e.g.(a) Subject-Predicate Compounds. The resultant form can be a noun, a verbor an adjective. As both nouns and verbs, e.g. dizhen 'earth + quakes =earthquake', touteng 'head + aches = headache', etc. As adjectives, e.g. mianshou'face + is familiar = familiar-faced', mingku 'destiny + suffers = ill-fated (in life)',etc.

(16) Wo maile (yiben) shu.I buy-PFV (a-M) book

'I bought a booklbooks.'

(b) Verb-Object Compounds. The resultant form can also be a noun, a verbor an adjective. As verbs, e.g. chucha 'go-out + errand = to go on a business trip',guanxin 'to be concerned + heart = to be concerned', touji 'to pitch + opportunity= to take chances', etc. As nouns or adjectives, e.g. zhiji 'to know + self= intimate(friend)', xingzheng 'to carry out + government affairs = administration', etc.

(17.a) Shu, wo maile.book, I buy-PFV

'I bought the book(s).'

(c) Verb-Complement Compounds. The resultant form is always a verb. E.g.kanjian 'to look + to see = to see,' suoxiao 'to shrink + small = to shrink', dadao'to beat + to tumble = to knock down,' shuopo 'to speak + to break = to break (asecret)', tingdong 'to hear + to underst~.nd = to hear and understand', maidao 'tobuy + to obtain = to buy and obtain', ducheng 'to read + to become = to read(something wrongly) as', etc. The semantic relation between the components of thistype can range from very close to very loose. The range is shown in the aboveexamples from the close to the loose in that order. As we go down from kanjian 'tosee' to ducheng 'to read wrongly as', the structures become more and more likephrases rather than words. There is again no clear-cut division between this verb-complement compounds and their corresponding phrases.

b) W0 shu maile.I book buy-PFV

'I bought the book( s).'

In both (17.a) and (17.b), the object shu 'book(s)' precedes the verb for itsdefiniteness.! For existential/presentative sentences, the basic order is VS, justlike that in English, e.g.

(18) Laile hen duo keren.come- PFV very many guest'There came many guests.'

(d) Modifier-Head Compounds. The resultant form may be a verb or a noun.As a verb or a noun, e.g. duli 'alone + to stand = independence or to beindependent', qingshi 'light (in weight) + to look = (to) dispise', dongmian 'winter+ to s!eep = 'hibernation or to hibernate', etc. As a verb only, e.g. xiangxin 'mutual+ belIeve = to trust, believe',jiazhuang 'false + to dress up = to pretend', etc.

Besides the affixation and compounding discussed above, there are of courseother interesting processes, such as reduplication and the addition of the particle defor other functions. But a sketch like this one just has to leave out many facts.

where hen duo keren 'many guests' is the subject but follows the verb laile 'came'.Word order becomes a little complicated when an additional object or a time

duration adverb is involved, e.g.

(19.a) Wo geile ta yiben shu.I give-PFV himlher a-M book'I gave himlher a book.'

b) Wo gei ta jile yifeng xin.I to himlher send-PFV a-M letter'I sent himlher a letter.'

In this section, we will briefly discuss word order, topic vs. subject and somespecial constructions.

c) Wo jile yifeng xin gei ta.I send-PFV a-M letter to himlher'I sent a letter to himlher.'

and there is no alternative word order for the sentence. Sentences (l9.b) and (l9.c)are alternative forms of each other when the indirect object ta 'himlher' follows thepreposition (or coverb) gei 'to, for'.

A time-duration adverb occurs after the main verb if there is no direct object,as in (20.a) below. When there is a direct object, the time-duration adverb mayoccupy either of two positions. It may occur after the object but the verb must berepeated before it, as in (20.b) below. Or it may occur between the verb and thedirect object with a -de following it, as in (20.c) below.

(20.a) Tamen chile liangge zhongtou Ie.they eat-PFV two-M hour LE

'The have been eating for two hours.'

b) Tamen chifan chile liangge zhongtou Ie.they eat-rice eat-PFV two-M hour LE

'They have been eating (meal) for two hours.'

c) Tamen chile liangge zhongtoude fan Ie.they eat-PFV two-M hour-DE rice LE

'They have been eating (meal) for two hours.'

The structural difference between (20.a) on one hand and (20.b) and (20.c) on theother is that the former doesn't have a direct object/an 'meal'. The time-durationadverb liangge zhongtou 'two hours' thus follows the verb chile 'ate' in (20.a)while it occurs after the repeated verb in (20.b) and between the verb and the directobject in (20.c). Furthermore, the direct object may occur at the beginning of thesentence, such as in (20.a). Then, the only possible position for the time-durationphrase is the one following the verb directly, e.g.

(20.d) Fan, tamen chile liangge zhongtou Ie.meal, they eat-PFV two-M hour LE'As for the meal, they have been eating it for two hours.'

Here, the object/an 'meal' is treated as a topic and thus the interpretation is quitedifferent. We will discuss the structure for 'topic' vs. 'subject' in the next sub-section.

1.6.3.2. 'Subject' vs. 'Topic'

Mandarin Chinese has been recognized as a 'topic prominent' language vis-a vis a'subject prominent' language, such as English. What this means is that while inEnglish 'subject' is a very important structural notion, in Chinese 'topic' plays anequally, if not more, important role in terms of structure. In order to see how theMandarin topic fimctions, it may be helpful to fIrst look at what a typical subject is

like in English. A typical subject in English may be characterized by threeproperties. That is, a nominal is considered a subject if it (a) bears a doing or beingrelationship with the verb/predicate, (b) agrees with the verb, and (c) occupies thepreverbal position. Thus, the subjects in the sentences in (21) below become lesstypical, going from (a) to (c).

(21.a) John runs three miles a day.b) The door opens from the outside.c) There are three people there.

The subject of (21.a), John, bears a 'doing' relationship with the verb run, agreeswith it, and is in the preverbal position. The one in (21.b) does not have a doing orbeing relationship with the verb, though it agrees with it and is in the preverbalposition. The one in (21.c) just agrees with the verb.

On the other hand, since there is no agreement in Mandarin, there are only twosubject properties for Chinese, e.g.

(22.a) Lao Zhang meitian paobu pao san yingli.Old Zhang everyday run-step run three mile'Old Zhang runs three miles a day.'

b) Zheshan men cong waimian kai.this-M door from outside open'This door opens from the outside.'

c) Ner you sange ren.there there-be three-M person'There are three people there.'

The noun phrase Lao Zhang 'Old Zhang' in (22.a) bears a doing relationship withthe verb paobu 'to run' and is preverbal. Its subject status is thus uncontroversial.The noun phrase zheshan men 'this door' in (22.b) is preverbal but does not beara doing or being relationship. Its subject status is quite controversial. The nounphrase sange ren 'three people' in (22.c) does not bear a doing or being relationshipnor is it in the preverbal position. It is therefore not recognized as a subject at all.

A noun phrase like zheshan men 'this door' in (22.b) is sometimes considereda topic. Pragmatically, a topic is something that the speaker brings up to be talkedabout. (But see Chapter 7 for more discussion.) If so, any nominal mentioned at thebeginning of a clause, including the subject, can unquestionally be treated as atopic, e.g. the sentence-initial nominals in (21.a), (21.b) and (22.a), as long as theyare followed up on by something else. Conceivable follow-ups for (21.a) and (21.b)are:

While the two nominals John and the door are subjects within the boundaries of thefirst clause, they serve as topics across the boundaries because they are what isbrought up by the speaker to be talked about. When a topic occurs in the secondclause, it is usually referred to by a pronoun, as in (21.b'), or by a zero anaphor, i.e.deleted as in (lO.a'). Similarly, sentences (22.a) and (22.b) can be expanded as(22.a') and (22.b'), respectively.

(22.a') Lao Zhang meitian paobu pao san yingli, suoyi shenti hen hao.Old Zhang everyday run-step run 3 mile, so body very good

'Old Zhang runs three miles a day, so (he is) in good health.'

(22.b') Zheshan men cong waimian kai, suoyi ni dei you yaoshi.this-M door from outside open, so you must have key'This door opens from the outside, so you must have a key (to open it).'

The nominals Lao Zhang 'Old Zhang' and zheshan men 'this door' are brought upfirst and then talked about. They are clearly the topics in (22.a') and (22.b'). As thetopic is what is brought up to be talked about, the rest of the clause that is used totalk about the topic is known as comment.

For the sole purpose of showing the differences between the topic and thesubject, most grammars of Chinese mainly discuss another kind of topic. This kindis what we will later call 'marked topics' in Chapter 7. They are marked byphonological, morphological and/or syntactic devices. For example,

(23.a) Women shi liangge nanhai, yige nilhai.we be two-M boy, one-M girl'As for us, there are two boys and a girl.'

b) Ren, zuihao bie tai tanxin.person, best don't too greedy'Better not be too greedy.'

c) Guanyu zuo maimai de jihua, women yihou zai tan.concerning do business DE plan, we later again talk'As to the plan of doing business, we will discuss (it) later.'

d) Zhe sanshige xuesheng, ershibage bu jige.this 30-M student, 28-M not pass'Of these thirty students, twenty-eight failed (the test).'

in (23.b) is phonologically marked by a pause, which is graphically represented bya comma. Zuo maimai dejihua 'the plan of doing (commercial) business' in (23.c)is morphologically marked by the preposition guanyu 'concerning, as to' and maybe optionally marked by a phonological pause. Zhe sanshige xuesheng 'these thirtystudents' in (23.d) is syntactically marked by being the first of two consecutivenominals in front ofthe verb and may also be optionally marked by a phonologicalpause. Example (23.a) is supposed to be an utterance by a parent. Then, a literaltranslation of 'We are two boys and a girl' doesn't make sense. Therefore, thesentence-initial pronoun women 'we (the parents)' has to be treated as a topic-i.e.'as for us'. Though this topic is not overtly marked, it is completely possible for apause to follow it. If a pause does follow it, it is then considered to be markedphonologically. In all cases, a pause may always be accompanied by the particlea/ya or ne to make the marking more prominent.

Mandarin Chinese is recognized as a topic-prominent language for the reasonthat there is a preponderance of occurrences of topics and that the subject is notrequired for a sentence. (Also see the discussion under 'Double Subject' and'Comparison' later in the following sub-section.) It is to be noted, however, that thesubject is a syntactic notion while the topic is mainly a discourse notion. For thisreason, we will discuss the notion oftopic in some detail in a separate chapter later.

1.6.3.3. Special Constructions

This sub-section discusses five special constructions: the ba-construction, the bei-construction, the 'double subject', verb-copying, and comparison.

where ba is the preposition (or coverb) under discussion and Comp stands for'complement of the verb', e.g. (Chu, 1983b:206-7)

(24.a) Women ba gongke zuowan Ie.we BA homework do-finish PFV'We have finished (doing) the homework.'

b) Qing ni ba yizi nachuqu.please you BA chair take-out-go'Please take the chair(s) out.'

c) Wo bu yuanyi ba zheme duo qian doujie gei ta.I not willing BA this much money all lend to him/her'I am not willing to lend him/her all this money.'

d) Haizimen ba jiali nong de luanqibazao.children BA house-in made DE in-a-big-mess'The children made a big mess of the house.'

(26.a) Qiaokeli tang dou bei (xiao didi) chiwan Ie.chocolate candy all BEl (little younger-brother) eat-fmish PFV'All the chocolate was/has been eaten up (by Little Brother).'

The complement may take various forms. It may be a state verb, e.g. wan 'finish'in (a), a directional complement, e.g. chuqu 'out(-go)' in (b), a prepositional phrase,e.g. gei ta 'to himlher' in (c), or a whole predicate introduced by the particle de, e.gde luanqibazao 'DE (be) in-a-big-mess' in (d). Other forms are also possible,though less frequently used. Besides, there are quite a few semantic restrictions. Thesubject must be an agent, the object must be a patient and the complement must bea result ofthe action indicated by the verb. Since the construction usually encodesa specific event, the object is generally interpreted as defmite or, at least, referential.Thus, the following sentence is not quite acceptable:

b) Neizhang hua bei (ren) banchuqu Ie.that-M Painting BEl (person) move-out-go PFV'That painting was/has been moved out (by somebody).'

c) Shu dou bei (ta) song gei bieren Ie.book(s) all BEl (himlher) give to other-people PFV'All the books were/have been given away (by him/her).'

d) Jiali bei (haizimen) nong de luanqibazao.house-in BEl (children) make DE in-a-big-mess'The house was/has been made a big mess (by the children).'(25) ?Women zuotian wanshang ba dianying kanle.

we yesterday evening BA movie watch-PFV'We watched a movie last night.' (intended meaning) As with the ba-construction, the complement can be of various forms. As far as the

semantic restrictions are concerned, the complement must similarly be the result ofthe action indicated by the verb. The semantic roles played by the subject and objectare, however, just the reverse of those of the ba-construction, i.e. the subject mustbe the patient and the object must be the agent, if present at all. As a result, thepatient subject is generally interpreted as definite or referential, though the agentobject mayor may not be so interpreted.

So far, the bei-construction may appear quite similar to the English action-passive (i.e. a passive that involves an action) except that there must be acomplement. But there is a major difference between the two: the Chinese bei-construction has a strong pejorative reading, i.e. the event is unfortunate. In thissense, it is very close to the get-passive in English. In some speakers, especially theyounger generations in Taiwan, the pejorative reading is less binding, i.e. the bei-construction in those speakers is not necessarily interpreted as having a pejorativesense.

The sentence is not readily acceptable just because no result generally comes outof watching a movie. But, some situations may sanction the use of (25). Forexample, we had wanted to see a movie for a long time and finally we got a chanceto see it last night. Then, (25) is interpreted as expressing a result of realizing along-cherished wish, even though the result is only implied by the perfective aspectmarker Ie. In this scenario, the object dianying 'movie' must be interpreted asdefinite.

This structure has been known as the 'disposal' construction and Thompson(1973) characterizes it as capable of answering the question 'What did X do to Y?'where X is the agent subject and Y is the patient object. Its pragmatic importanceis to indicate that some action is/was taken in regard to a specific thing, person ormatter and that a result has/had been produced due to the action. In technical terms,the construction is mainly to increase the 'transitivity' of the statement. (Cf. Hopperand Thompson, 1980; Sun, 1995.)

The Bei-Construction. This construction is known as the passive and takesthe following syntactic form:

The 'Double Subject'. This structure is characterized by two or morepreverbal nominals without any formal marking to relate them to each other.Sentence (23.d), which is repeated below, is an example ofthis so-called 'doublesubject'.

where the object is optional. In this construction, the subject is the patient and theobject is the agent, just like the English passive. The preposition bei is thereforeoften equated to the English counterpart by. The following examples are adaptedfrom Chu (1983b:216).

(23.d) Zhe sanshige xuesheng, ershibage bu jige.this 30-M student, 28-M not pass

'Of these thirty students, twenty-eight failed (the test).'

The term, however, is a misnomer because it recognizes both nominals as subjects,in this case, zhe sanshige xuesheng 'these thirty students' and ershibage 'twenty-eight (of them)'. In fact, as we have seen above, at least one of them must be treated

as topic instead of as a subject, although the other can be a genuine subject. In(23.d), zhe sanshige xuesheng 'these thirty students' is the topic and the rest of thesentence is the comment. The comment, however, is a full clause by itself. Itcontains the nominal ershibage 'twenty-eight (of them)' as the subject and bujige'not pass' as the predicate. There is a chance that ershibage may also be used as atopic at the same time. For example, (23.d) may very well be followed by anotherclause like the following:

other) ten years old'. In the third layer, which has two parallel topic-comment sub-structures, the first yige 'one' is a topic which takes basui 'eight years old' as itscomment, and the secondyige 'one' is another topic which takes shisui 'ten yearsold' as its comment.

We have so far illustrated a very interesting fact that the topic-commentstructure in modem Mandarin can in theory have an infinite number of layers, justas embedding in the syntactic structure of a sentence. But, of course, anything morethan three or four layers will be out of the reach of a regular speaker's cognitivedomain.(27) yiding dei bukao.

definitely must make-up-exam'(they) must take a make-up exam.' Verb-Copying. This structure involves the repetition of a verb in the same

clause under certain conditions:Strictly speaking, (23.d) has a structure of 'Topic + [com Subject + Predicate]',where the subscript com indicates a comment. But when it is followed by (27), thesubject in the comment performs the dual function of being a topic at the same time.The topic-comment structure of(23.d) plus (27) can be indicated by the following: Actually, we have already seen an example of verb-copying in (20.b), which is

repeated below.

The bold square brackets designate the first layer in the topic-comment structureand the regular square brackets designate the second layer. As indicated, the topicin the first layer is zhe sanshige xuesheng 'these thirty students' and all the rest isits comment. In the second layer, ershiba ge 'twenty-eight (of them)' is the topicand it has two comments: bujige 'fail (an exam)' andyiding dei bukao 'definitelymust take a make-up exam' .

It can now be seen that what has been called 'double subject' actually consistsof a topic and another nominal which may either be a subject or another topic orboth.

In fact, more than two preverbal nominals can occur in a clause, e.g.

(2o.b) Tamen chifan chile liangge zhongtou Ie.they eat-meal eat-PFV two-M hour LE

'They have been eating (meal) for two hours.'

In this example, the verb chi 'to eat' is copied (i.e. repeated) after the object -fan'meal' so that a time-duration phrase can follow it directly. This is a typical case ofwhen the verb needs to be copied. There are other circumstances where verb-copying is necessary. E.g.

(31.a) Ta fuqin xiezi xie de haojile.he father write-character write DE good-extremely-LE

'His father writes characters extremely well, i.e. is a goodcalligrapher. '(29) Women, liangge nanhai, yige basui, yige shisui.

we, two-M boy, one-M 8-year-old, one-M ten-year-old'We (have) two boys~ne (is) eight years old, the other ten.' b) Women zhege libai malCal maile sanci Ie.

we this week buy-groceries buy-PFV three-times LE'We did grocery-shopping three times this week.'

(30) [top women] [com [top liangge nanhai] [com (top yige) (com basui)][com (top yige) (com shisui)]]

c) Nimen song huo tongchang song dao naxie difang?you deliver goods generally deliver to what-PL place

'What kind of places do you deliver (goods) to?'There are three layers in the topic-comment structure in (30). They are designatedby bold square brackets, regular square brackets and parentheses, respectively. Inother words, women 'we' is the topic ofthe top layer and the rest of the utteranceis its comment. In the second layer, liangge nanhai 'two boys' is the topic, whichhas two comments:yige basui 'one (is) eight years old' andyige shisui 'one (i.e. the

In (31), the verbs are copied after the direct objects in order for the complementsto follow them directly. The verbs, direct object and complements are: xie 'towrite', zi '(Chinese) character(s)' and haojile 'extremely well' in (a); mai 'to buy',cai 'groceries' and sanci 'three times' in (b); and song 'to deliver', huo 'goods' and

dao naxie difang 'to what all places' in (c). The complements are of different kinds.Haojile 'extremely well' is a manner/result adverbial, sand 'three times' is afrequency adverb, and dao naxie difang 'to what all places' is a directional phrase.It is to be noted that with the latter two kinds of complements, i.e. frequency anddirectional, verb-copying is optional.

Another interesting fact about verb-copying is that if there is a need for anaspect marker, it is affixed to the copied verb rather than to the fIrst one. Comparethe following pairs.

without an adverb are used to represent three types of comparative expressions. The'more than' type in (32.a) only uses the comparison word bi 'compared with', the'less than' type in (32.b) uses the comparison word meiyou 'not have' with anoptional adverb neme 'that (much)', and the 'same as' type in (32.c) uses thecomparison word gen 'with' plus the obligatory adverb yiyang 'same'.

There is, however, one property that distinguishes the comparison structure inMandarin from its counterpart in other languages. That is, only topics can becompared. In other words, anything in the non-topic position cannot enter into thecomparison structure. For example, English may compare direct objects: He speaksEnglish better than (he does) French. A corresponding Mandarin sentence is thefollowing:

(20.b) Tamen chifan chile liangge zhongtou Ie.b') *Tamen chilefan chi liangge zhongtou Ie.

(31.b) Women zhege libai maicai maile sanci Ie.b') *Women zhege libai mailecai mai sanci Ie.

(33) Ta shuode Yingwen bi (ta shuode) Fawen hao.he speak-DE English compared-with (he speak-DE) French good

What this means is that the portion of the structure containing the copied verb (i.e.chile liangge zhongtou Ie 'ate for two hours' or maile sand Ie 'bought three times'in our case) is actually the main predicate rather than just a copied image of the fIrstverb. And the other portion containing the frrst verb (i.e. tamen chifan 'their eating(meal)' or women zhege libai maicai 'our grocery shopping this week' in our case)is the topic to be commented on. An interpretation of this kind naturally explainswhy the aspect marker must be attached to the second form of the verb.

where Yingwen 'English' and Fawen 'French' are made into topics. It literallymeans 'The English he speaks is better than the French (he speaks).' Furthermore,if what is being compared cannot be made into topics, such a comparison has to beexpressed in a round-about way. The Chinese version of the English sentence I lovetruth more than I love my teacher is (34) below:

(34) Wu ai wu shi, wu geng ai zhenli.I love my teacher, I even-more love truth

'I love my teacher, (but) I love truth even more.'Comparison. Li and Thompson (1981:564) give the following as the basicpattern of comparative sentences in Chinese:

It cannot be expressed by a comparison sentence. This is perhaps one of the reasonswhy Mandarin Chinese is felt to be topic-prominent.

In this section, we have presented a very short sketch of modem MandarinChinese. For a more complete description of the language, the reader is referred toChao (1968), Li and Thompson (1981) and Chu (1983b). A short introduction ofthe writing system is to be found in Appendix B.(32.a) Tamen bi ni congming.

they compare-with you intelligent'They are more intelligent than you.'

b) Tamen meiyou ni (neme) congming.they not-have you (that) intelligent

'They are not as intelligent as you are.'1. The word 'sentence' is used here as a pre-theoretical term for Mandarin

Chinese, as there has not been any rigorous defmition for it in the literature ofChinese linguistics. We will attempt to defme what a sentence is like in Mandarinin more tangible terms than just 'expressing a complete thought' in Chapter 9. Untilthen, the term will be used in a very loose sense.

2. Liushuyu is meant to denote a sentence structure where clauses are lineallyarranged without a hierarchical structure. It is said to be the characteristic way ofcombining Chinese clauses into sentences. (See, for example, Shen, 1988:447.)This view is based on the preoccupation that Chinese is non-inflectional and

c) Tamen gen ni yiyang congming.they with you same intelligent

'They are as intelligent as you are.'

The X and Y that are being compared in the examples are tamen 'they' and ni 'you'.The dimension is congming 'intelligent'. Three different comparison words with or

therefore any notion expressed by inflection in Western languages is not applicableto Chinese. We will have more comments on such views in Chapter 9.

3. The term 'discourse grammar', from now on, will be used in the sense asdefmed at each progressive stage. As far as I know, the term has not been utilizedby any other author with a specific definition. I have used it as the title of agraduate linguistics course at the University of Florida and the National ChengchiUniversity in Taipei to designate an area of study delineated here.

4. Of course, there is a dilemma when modality is considered. Althoughmodality (which is speaker attitude and, sometimes, a guess on the hearer attitude)is explicitly expressed by sentence particles and modality adverbs in Mandarin,there is a lot more than those structural signals.

5. But see Chen (1986 and 1987).6. The term 'theme' is being used in its loose sense to show 'what is being

talked about as the main idea.' We will defme terminology of this kind as we goon.

7. One of my students and Liu and Chu (1993) have found that one of the majordifferences between Chinese and English in grammar and discourse is that manydiscourse markers in Mandarin are not as much grammaticalized as theircounterparts in English.

8. 'Grounding' is here used to designate certain ways of relating one term orproposition to another in a given discourse. Fox and Thompson (1990:300)recognize three central kinds of grounding: anchoring, main-clause grounding andproposition-linking. It is to be distinguished from the term 'grounding' inconnection with foreground and background in narrative structure.

9. Cf. Sanders and Wirth (1985:9).10. There is certainly some pioneering work done in this area, such as by Liao

Qiu-Zhong in the 1980s, which can be considered purely discourse. Most of hispublications reappeared in Liao (1992). Other works such as by Tsao, Li &Thompson, and Chen Ping mostly deal with syntactic problems seeking discoursesolutions.

11. Phonetic changes in the root due to the addition of the -er suffix are notaccounted for in this list.

12. We here ignore the different character used in orthography for the manneradverbial in some styles of writing.

13. This suffix has a different graphic representation from the durative aspect-zhe. Furthermore, it is accented and carries the third tone: zhe.

14. Defmiteness, of course, has to do with given information and topicality. Buthere we only present the syntactic structure of a sentence in the traditional manner.

VERBAL AFFIXES:ASPECT AND DISCOURSE FUNCTION

Verbal affIxes in Mandarin Chinese have, in the past thirty years or so, been treatedmostly as aspect markers. The prefix zai- has been recognized as the progressiveaspect marker and the suffixes -guo, -Ie, -qilai and -zhe have been regarded asmarking experiential, perfective, inchoative and durative aspects, respectively.)As aspect markers, the affixes have been given quite a bit of attention ingrammatical studies, especially in the past decade. Most of the treatments aresemantically based, largely within the theoretical model of Western aspectualsystem. Beginning in the mid-70s, works like Chu (1978), Tai (1984), Szeto (1989),He (1992) and Smith (1993) have made some effort to develop a framework toaccommodate the peculiarities of the Chinese system. More recently, as thepragmatic notion of 'point of view' is incorporated in the theory as a means forarriving at a better understanding of the aspectual functions in general, MandarinChinese researchers have also taken advantage of this development and followedthe two-component theory of 'viewpoint' and 'situation type' in their study of theaspectual system. (E.g. see Smith, 1993.)

In this chapter, we will first summarize some of the recent aspectual studies ofthe Mandarin verbal affixes. Many issues are found to either remain unsolved orhave been unsatisfactorily treated in those studies. We then try to look at theproblems from a different perspective-a discourse one. We hope to show that fromthe viewpoint of discourse, some of the unsolved issues can be given a head startand some others may find a more natural explanation than before. Finally, we tryto construct a network within which the Mandarin Chinese aspect markers interactto produce discourse cohesion.

2.1. Situation Types: Verbal Meaning

Since grammatical aspects are viewed in terms of two components: situation type(verb semantics) and viewpoint (pragmatic perspective), it is admittedly impossibleto attain a thorough understanding of the workings of aspect without an accurateknowledge of either component. We will thus review the semantics of MandarinChinese verbs before the discussion of their aspectual consequences. In our review,we mainly follow Smith (1993), which is ultimately based on Vendler (1967).

Chinese verbs may be categorized into five situation types: State, Activity,Semelfactive, Achievement, and Accomplishment. They are defmed on the basis of

therefore any notion expressed by inflection in Western languages is not applicableto Chinese. We will have more comments on such views in Chapter 9.

3. The term 'discourse grammar', from now on, will be used in the sense asdefmed at each progressive stage. As far as I know, the term has not been utilizedby any other author with a specific defmition. I have used it as the title of agraduate linguistics course at the University of Florida and the National ChengchiUniversity in Taipei to designate an area of study delineated here.

4. Of course, there is a dilemma when modality is considered. Althoughmodality (which is speaker attitude and, sometimes, a guess on the hearer attitude)is explicitly expressed by sentence particles and modality adverbs in Mandarin,there is a lot more than those structural signals.

5. But see Chen (1986 and 1987).6. The term 'theme' is being used in its loose sense to show 'what is being

talked about as the main idea.' We will define terminology of this kind as we goon.

7. One of my students and Liu and Chu (1993) have found that one of the majordifferences between Chinese and English in grammar and discourse is that manydiscourse markers in Mandarin are not as much grammaticalized as theircounterparts in English.

8. 'Grounding' is here used to designate certain ways of relating one term orproposition to another in a given discourse. Fox and Thompson (1990:300)recognize three central kinds of grounding: anchoring, main-clause grounding andproposition-linking. It is to be distinguished from the term 'grounding' inconnection with foreground and background in narrative structure.

9. Cf. Sanders and Wirth (1985:9).10. There is certainly some pioneering work done in this area, such as by Liao

Qiu-Zhong in the 1980s, which can be considered purely discourse. Most of hispublications reappeared in Liao (1992). Other works such as by Tsao, Li &Thompson, and Chen Ping mostly deal with syntactic problems seeking discoursesolutions.

II. Phonetic changes in the root due to the addition of the -er suffix are notaccounted for in this list.

12. We here ignore the different character used in orthography for the manneradverbial in some styles of writing.

13. This suffix has a different graphic representation from the durative aspect-zhe. Furthermore, it is accented and carries the third tone: zhe.

14. Defmiteness, of course, has to do with given information and topicality. Buthere we only present the syntactic structure of a sentence in the traditional manner.

VERBAL AFFIXES:ASPECT AND DISCOURSE FUNCTION

Verbal affixes in Mandarin Chinese have, in the past thirty years or so, been treatedmostly as aspect markers. The prefix zai- has been recognized as the progressiveaspect marker and the suffixes -guo, -Ie, -qUai and -zhe have been regarded asmarking experiential, perfective, inchoative and durative aspects, respectively.)As aspect markers, the affixes have been given quite a bit of attention ingrammatical studies, especially in the past decade. Most of the treatments aresemantically based, largely within the theoretical model of Western aspectualsystem. Beginning in the mid-70s, works like Chu (1978), Tai (1984), Szeto (1989),He (1992) and Smith (1993) have made some effort to develop a framework toaccommodate the peculiarities of the Chinese system. More recently, as thepragmatic notion of 'point of view' is incorporated in the theory as a means forarriving at a better understanding of the aspectual functions in general, MandarinChinese researchers have also taken advantage of this development and followedthe two-component theory of 'viewpoint' and 'situation type' in their study of theaspectual system. (E.g. see Smith, 1993.)

In this chapter, we will first summarize some of the recent aspectual studies ofthe Mandarin verbal affixes. Many issues are found to either remain unsolved orhave been unsatisfactorily treated in those studies. We then try to look at theproblems from a different perspective-a discourse one. We hope to show that fromthe viewpoint of discourse, some of the unsolved issues can be given a head startand some others may find a more natural explanation than before. Finally, we tryto construct a network within which the Mandarin Chinese aspect markers interactto produce discourse cohesion.

2.1. Situation Types: Verbal Meaning

Since grammatical aspects are viewed in terms of two components: situation type(verb semantics) and viewpoint (pragmatic perspective), it is admittedly impossibleto attain a thorough understanding of the workings of aspect without an accurateknowledge of either component. We will thus review the semantics of MandarinChinese verbs before the discussion of their aspectual consequences. In our review,we mainly follow Smith (1993), which is ultimately based on Vendler (1967).

Chinese verbs may be categorized into five situation types: State, Activity,Semelfactive, Achievement, and Accomplishment. They are defmed on the basis of

temporal semantic features of'telic' vs. 'atelic', 'durative' vs. 'instantaneous' and'static' vs. 'dynamic'. Table 1 gives the feature composition of each ofthe verbalcategories. Notationally, [-Dynamic] replaces 'State', [-Telic] replaces 'Atelic', and[-Durative] replaces' Instantaneous'. It is quite clear from the feature specificationsthat the general distinction of State Verb vs. Event Verb is made on the basis of thefeature [+Dynamic] vs. [-Dynamic] and that Event Verb is further categorized intoseveral sub-types.

'fall asleep', etc.2

(v) An Accomplishment Verb represents an event that happens (i.e. [+Dynamic])and lasts for some time (i.e. [+Durative]). The event itself involves some change orresult (i.e. [+Telic]). E.g. gai yisuo fangzi 'build a house', zou huijia 'walk backhome', etc.

With this semantic picture of the verbs in mind, we are ready to discuss the'point of view' component of the aspectual system of Mandarin Chinese.

Before going into the discussion of 'point of view', we must mention anotherimportant work, i.e. He (1992), on the aspects and situation types of Mandarinverbs. It is a culmination of research done through early 1990s in this area. Itcontains a detailed classification of Mandarin verbs and explains how they do or donot fit into the conventional situation types. Its main theme is the interactionsbetween the aspetual meanings and the classes and sub-classes of verbal situationtypes. The major difference between this work and our present study is one ofapproach and focus. He (1992) takes a semantic approach and its focus is on theinterpretation of the structure ofa clause/sentence. We take a discourse approachand our focus is on discovering relationships between clauses. In spite of thedifference and some overlapping, the two works often complement rather thanconflict with each other. The reader is therefore strongly advised to refer to He(1992) whenever more detail about verb classification and situation type isdesirable.

The situation types may thus be characterized in the following way. Examplesare given at the end of each type.

(i) A State Verb represents a state that simply exists (i.e. [-Dynamic]) over aduration oftime (i.e. [+Durative]) with no change or result involved (i.e. [-Telic]).E.g. you 'have, exist', zhidao 'know', gaoxing 'be happy', hao 'be good" xihuan'like', etc.

All other types represent events that happen (i.e. [+Dynamic]).(ii) An Activity Verb represents an event that happens (i.e. [+Dynamic]) and

lasts for some time (i.e. [+Durative]). The event itself does not involve any changeor result (i.e [-Telic]). E.g. pao 'run', kan 'look', shuo 'talk', gaosu 'tell', chi 'eat',etc.

(iii) A Semelfactive Verb represents an event that happens (i.e. [+Dynamic]) butdoes not last for any discernible stretch of time (i.e. [-Durative]). The event itselfdoes not involve any change or result (i.e. [-Telic]). E.g. ti 'kick', qiao 'knock',fang 'put', etc.

(iv) An Achievement Verb represents an event that happens (i.e. [+Dynamic])but does not last for any discernible stretch of time (i.e. [-Durative]). The eventitself involves some change or result (i.e. [+Telic D. E.g. dapo 'break', shuizhao

The 'point of view' component of the aspectual system is a complex device forpresenting a situation or event as the speaker/writer views it. A situation (i.e. a state)may be viewed as existing at present (e.g. I am busy), having existed in the past(e.g. I was busy), or to be existing in the future (e.g. I will be busy). Similarly, anevent may be viewed as happening at present (e.g. I am walking), having happenedin the past (e.g. I walked/was walking) and to be happening in the future (e.g. I willwalk/be walking). Though a situation generally lasts for some time, thespeaker/writer may still want to make an explicit statement about its existence overa duration of time (e.g. I have been busy). On the other hand, some events may bynature last for some time (e.g. those expressed by activity and accomplishmentverbs), others start and terminate instantaneously (e.g. those expressed bysemelfactive and achievement verbs). The former may thus be viewed as continuing(e.g. I am walking; I am writing a letter) or as having continued for some time (e.g.I have been walking, I have been writing a letter). The latter may not be viewed ascontinuing over time. If the verbs expressing semelfactive and achievement occurin the 'continuing' form at all, they take on various interpretations (e.g. They arearriving late 'Predicting that they will arrive late'; They have been arriving late'Stating that they have repeatedly arrived late'). Furthermore, a situation or eventmay be viewed at its beginning point (e.g. I began/will begin to be busy; I

began/will begin to read) or at its end point (e.g. I stopped/will stop being busy; Ifinished/will finish reading).

From the brief sketch above, it is clear that, in English, points of view are mostoften expressed by varying the forms of the verb and/or the auxiliaries associatedwith it. But some viewpoints, such as the beginning and end points, are expressedby additional verbs. The Mandarin aspectual system works under the sameprinciple, as far as form is concerned.

Aspects in Mandarin Chinese, as in all other languages, are subject to constraintson the basis of the semantics of the verb. For example, English state verbs areknown to be incompatible with the progressive aspect in English (e.g. *He isknowing me). Ifany such form occurs at all in a specific context, it is interpreted astaking on some dynamic sense, i.e. 'He is beginning to know me'. (Cf. Binnick,1991 :282ft) Similarly, Chinese state verbs typically do not occur in the progressiveor durative aspect, e.g. *Wo zai dong/dongzhe zhege wenti 'I am understanding thisproblem'.

In this section, we will look at some of the previous analyses of the meanings ofeach of the aspect markers in Mandarin, explain some of the constraints, and decidewhat residual problems there are in the treatments.

The following examples illustrate the main characteristics and constraints of theexperiential aspect marked by -guo in Mandarin: (In some of the examples,adjustments are made for easy reading and comprehension.)

(2.a) Ni chi-guo yuchi meiyou? (Chao, 1968:251)you eat-EXP shark's-fin not'Have you ever eaten shark's fin?'

b) Lao Zhangjie-guo hun meiyou? (L&T, 1981:226)Old Zhang marry-EXP marriage not'Has Old Zhang ever been married?'

c) Wo shuaiduan-guo tui. (L&T, 1981:227)I fall-break-EXP leg'I once fell and broke my leg.'

2.2.1. The Experiential -Guo and the Inchoative -Qilaid) Bill qu-guo Meiguo.

Bill go-EXP U.S.'Bill has been to the U.S.' (to be distinguished from 'Bill has gone/wentto the U.S.')

The suffixes -guo and -qilai are treated in the same section here not because theyare semantically or pragmatically similar, but because there is less controversy ontheir analyses. The suffix -guo is generally recognized as 'experiential' or'indefinite past' and the suffix -qilai is generally recognized as 'inchoative'. Notonly is the terminology widely accepted, but its interpretation is alsouncontroversial. Though -guo may be better discussed together with the perfective-Ie for their similarities, it is presented here in its own right and is to be followed bya comparison with -Ie.

It is clear from the translations that 'experience' is generally denoted by the presentperfect in English, though there may be some variations.

B. The experiential -guo is incompatible with the perfective -Ie: (Chao,1968:439)

(3.a) Ta qu-guo (*-Ie) Xianggang. (L&T, 1981:204)she/he go-EXP (-LE) Hong Kong'She/He has been to Hong Kong.'2.2.1.1. Experience as a Viewpoint

The suffix -guo has been acknowledged as marking the experiential aspect (Smith1993; Mangione and Li, 1993) or the indefmite past (Chao, 1968:251). We choosethe term experiential' for its brevity and ease of comprehension.

In general, an experience is a prior event or events (rarely a state or states) thatis/are relevant to the present or speech time. Linguistically, an experiential aspectis the viewpoint of 'specifYing the occurrence of a situation as one of a class ofoccurrences' (Smith, 1993:10).3 This characterization can be more plainly statedas specifYing that an event happened at least once prior to a reference time (Li andThompson, 1981 :228-9; Mangione and Li, 1993:83-86). The happening of theevent, however, is viewed as stative rather than dynamic (Smith, 1993:13). It isperhaps due to this last view that the aspect is used to refer to an experience.

b) Ni zou-guo-Ie neitiao qiao jiu dao Ie.you walk-past-LE that-M bridge then arrive LE'When you walk past that bridge, you are there.'

There is, however, another -guo which almost always occurs with -Ie. Fang(1992:458-9) distinguishes it from the experiential aspect -guo by its inability tocooccur with the adverb cengjing 'once; ever'. E.g.

c) Guangju kan-guo-Ie xin, ba Lao Yang Tongzhi rang dao gongsuo.Guangju read-GUO-PFV letter, BA Old Yang Comrade let-in to office'After Guangju read the letter, he asked Comrade Yang into the office.'

d) Yingwen wo hui shuo-guo, keshi xianzai wangle.English I can speak-EXP but now forget-LE'I used to be able to speak English, but have forgotten it.'

This -guo seems to have the same meaning of 'past' but its scope is over the eventrather than over any physical object as in (b) above. Together with the perfective-Ie it helps strengthen the temporal sequencing of the events.

L&T claim that (5.a & b) are not acceptable because dying and being old are notrepeatable. However, the following utterances actually occurred in speech andwriting:

C. The experiential -guo differs from the perfective -Ie in that the formerexplicitly claims that the state of being associated with the happening is over:(L&T, 1981 :228-9)4

(6.a) Wo si-guo haojici.I die-EXP quite-a-few-times'I died quite a few times.'

(4.a) Ta qunian dao Zhongguo qu-Ie.shelhe last-year to China go-LE'She/He went to China last year.'

b) Women dou cengjing nianqing-guo.we all once young-EXP'We all were young once.'

b) Ta qunian dao Zhongguo qu-guo.shelhe last-year to China go-EXP'She/He went to China last year.'

Sentence (6.a) occurred in a personal story of several brushes with death. Thoughit seems like a counter-example of(5.a), si 'death' actually is used in a metaphoricalsense. But (6.b) is a real counter-example ofL&T's explanation, because nianqing'young' is not anything repeatable, either. What underlies the acceptability ofsentence like (5.a & b) and (6.a & b) is whether the situation still pertains. If it does,it cannot be taken as an experience. Once one is old, one cannot become 'not old'any more. But one is no longer young after youth and thus being young can be takenas an experience. These examples in fact supports the statement that the -guo formexplicitly states that the happening is over.

Chao thinks that (5.c & d) are rare examples where -guo occurs with a stativeverb (hao 'good') and a stative predicate (hui shuo 'able to speak'). As a matter offact, there is no reason why it is hard for the experiential -guo to occur with anystative verb or predicate. The problem may also be whether the state still exists ornot at the speech time.

Sentence (4.b) says that herlhis going to China happened at least once last year andthat the state ofherlhis being in China is over now. On the other hand, (4.a) saysthat herlhis going to China last year happened but it doesn't say whether the personis still in China or not. Thus, only (4.a) may be followed by hai meiyou huilai 'hasnot come back yet'. (See further discussion under Section 2.2.1.2. below.)

D. The experiential -guo has restricted occurrence with certain verbs:(Chao, 1968:668; L&T, 1981:230)

(5.a) *Ta si-guo.shelhe die-EXP

'*Shelhe died before.'

b) *Ta lao-guo.shelhe old-EXP

'*She/He has been old before.'

Smith (1993: 13) claims that experiential sentences are stative in situation type. Shegives the following to characterize the nature of -guo.

c) Tamen dui wo conglai mei zeme hao-guo.they to me ever not so good-EXP'They have never been so good to me.'

She further maintains that as such, experiential sentences don't advance discourse.In contrast to event, they don't take time. She doesn't give any clear-cut examplesto support her claim. Whether or not it advances discourse and takes time, we willevaluate it in terms offoreground vs. background in Section 2.3. But the issue ofthe experiential sentence being stative in situation type is immediately relevant to

what has been said in the preceding subsections.Comrie (1978:58) also describes the experiential perfect as indicating that 'a

given situation has held at least once during some time in the past leading to thepresent.' [boldface added by C.C.C.] It seems reasonable then to interpret theMandarin experience marker -guo as a device for turning a previous event orrepeated events into a situation/state that, though no longer existing at the speechtime, is relevant to the topical entity involved in the event. 5

This interpretation reasonably explains why (5.a & b) are not acceptable undernormal circumstances: Once one is dead, one remains dead; and once one is old,one stays old. It also explains why sentences like (5.c & d) have restrictedoccurrence: Stative verbs and stative predicates represent states by nature and don'tneed to be further turned into states by -guo. In other words, with stativeverbs/predicates, -guo can only be partially utilized: its function of turning an eventinto a state becomes vacuous though the other function to indicate that the state nolonger exists remains in force. And, of course, its main function has to beperformable in all cases to indicate that this past state is relevant to the topical entityat the speech time.

In the same vein, we take another look at sentences (4.a & b), repeated below:

b) Wo kan-guo neiben shu.I read-EXP that-M book'I read that book.'

Both of them imply that the event of reading that book is over at the speech time.As the act of reading a book does not have any necessary result, neither of thesentence can say or imply anything about such a result. Therefore, there is very littlediscernible difference in interpretation between (8.a & b) in isolation.

Similarly, there is very little difference between the members of the pair in (9)below in terms of the fact that the event is over:

(9.a) Wo mai-Ie baoxian.I sell-LE insurance'I sold insurance.'

b) Wo mai-guo baoxian.I sell-EXP insurance

(4.a) Ta qunian dao Zhongguo qu-Ie.shelhe last-year to China go-LE'She/He went to China last year.'

(lO.a) Wo mai-Ie baoxian.I buy-LE insurance

'I bought (some) insurance.'b) Ta qunian dao Zhongguo qu-guo.

shelhe last-year to China go-EXP'Shelhe went to China last year.'

b) Wo mai-guo baoxian.I buy-EXP insurance

'I bought (some) insurance.'L&T's explanation (1981:229) for the difference between the -guo and -Ie abovegoes like this: Sentence (4.b) 'assumes that slhe went to China and claims that thistook place at least once during last year and is over now; this is why (b), but not (a),implies that slhe is now back from China. The subject's return is not part of themeaning of -guo, but it is the message of the -guo sentence because we can inferit from the meaning of -guo: if something has been experienced, it is over.' In fact,the event ofherlhis going to China is implied as over in both statements (a) and (b).What may not be over in (a) but must be over in (b) is not the event itself; it israther the necessary result of the event: herlhis being in China.

Let's look at some other examples:

While (lO.a) implies that the insurance policy might still be in force, (lO.b)definitely says that the policy is no longer in force. Here, we note that daoZhongguo qu 'to go to China' and m;Ii baoxian 'to buy insurance' are of theaccomplishment event type while kan shu 'read (a book)' and mai baoxian 'to sellinsurance' are of the activity type.

From the examples and their discussion above, it can be safely concluded:

(11) The experiential marker -guo indicates that (a) a prior event (whichoccurred at least once) is being viewed as a state, (b) this state includeswhatever necessary result the event may entail, (c) the state existed at a priortime but is no longer existent at a reference time or the speech time, and (d) thestate is relevant to the topical entity involved in the event, i.e. as an experience.

(8.a) Wo kan-Ie neiben shu.I read-LE that-M book'I read that book. '

Mangione and Li's analysis (1993) seems to support (b) and (c) above. Thepragmatic implications and the discourse consequences of this conclusion will be

(19.a) Zhezhong shuiguo wen-qilai hen xiang, chi-qilai hen suan.this-kind fruit smell-start very sweet, eat-start very sour'This fruit, if you start to smell it, is sweet; but, if you start to eat it, it issour.' (i.e. it smells sweet but tastes sour.)Very few grammarians have treated -qilai as an aspect marker. Among the few that

have done so, Fang (1992:493-499, 526-533) has probably the most detaileddiscussion.6 Though he does not call it an inchoative aspect marker, the meaningsthat he gives for the suffix all converge on the beginning of an event or state. Theonly exceptions to this general observation are expressions with 'directional'(quxiang in Chinese) verbs, where the suffix -qilai 'up' is generally considered aresultative or directional complement, e.g. zhanqilai 'stand up', baoqilai 'hold(something or someone) up',juqilai 'lift up', etc. He states that for most 'non-directional' verbs, -qilai indicates the beginning and continuation of an action.These verbs, according to him, consist of 58.2% of the 1,000 most frequently usedverbs; they furthermore make up 71.6% of all non-directional verbs. He thenmentions the following seven meanings, each illustrated with a group of verbshaving something in common. Thus, -qilai indicates

b) Zheliangge zi, ting-qilai, jiu kepa.these-two-M word, listen-start, then frightening

'These two words, if you start to listen, are frightening.' (i.e. they soundfrightening. )

(12) An action or state that has developed and changed: biatihua 'change',chengshou 'ripe', haipa 'be frightened', xiguan 'be used to', xihuan 'like', etc.

And 'to start to' is exactly what inchoative means. (Cf. Comrie, 1967:15).The difficulty with this suffix seems to lie in the same form occurring as a

complement and as a verbal suffix. But, this difficulty pertains to the writtenlanguage only; in the spoken form, a distinct stress may be heard on thecomplement.

A complication for this form is that the two syllables of the suffixes areseparable from each other by a grammatical object:

(13) An action that has realized through progress:jianli 'build', choubei 'planand organize', zhong 'plant', etc.

(19.c) Ni zeme chang-qi-ge-Iai Ie?you how sing-QI-song-LAI LE'Why did you start singing?'

(14) An action that has realized and come into a state of being opened up: buzhi,'decorate', shenzhan 'extend', zhanlan 'exibit', etc. 2.2.2. The Progressive Zai- and the Durative -Zhe

(15) An action that has realized and come into a state of convergence: jihe'collect', zuzhi 'organize', luanjie 'unite', etc.

(17) An action that has realized and produced a result: kongzhi 'control', liyong'utilize', huixiang 'recollect', etc.

The prefix zai- was perhaps the last of all Mandarin aspect markers to berecognized for its aspect-marking function. As an aspect marker, it is often lumpedtogether with -zhe under the same name of 'durative,.7 In this subsection, we willtreat them as two distinct ones, designating -zhe as the durative marker and zai- asthe progressive marker. Reasons for taking this approach will become clear as wecomment on some of the previous analyses ofthem. When examples are cited fromthe authors, some slight modifications may be made for easy comprehension.Abbreviations and notations follow either the general practice or the particularauthor if no confusion arises.

(16) An action that has realized and come into a state of covered up: cang 'tohide', maifu 'ambush', zhegai 'to cover', feng 'to seal', etc.

(18) An inference or estimate that has been made through one's senses: chi 'eat',kan 'look', ling 'listen', mo 'feel', wen 'smell'.

It is easy to see that, except perhaps those in (18), the types of the verbs actuallycontribute to the different meanings that -qilai is said to have with each group of theverbs. One single meaning may suffice to provide an appropriate interpretation foreach of the groups: 'to start to'. In fact, this interpretation applies to group (18) as

Chao (1968) does not consider zai- a verbal prefix. He only treats it as a verb (pp.312 & 337) and as a preposition (p. 754). He regards -zhe as a progressive suffix(pp. 248-251), as in Ta da-ZHE dianhua ne 'He is talking on the phone'.

(20) in a special intensive form -zhe ne, as in Wo xiang ni-ZHE NE 'I miss youterribly'.

(21) in a command, as in Ji-ZHE! 'Remember!'

(22) in fIrst position as a subordinate form to the second verb, as in Ta qi-ZHEma zhao ma 'He looks for a horse riding a horse'.

(27.a) Zai menkoude bolishang xie-zhe sige zi.at door-mouth-DE glass-top write-DUR four-M character'On the glass in the doorway are written 4 characters.'

b) Wo wen ta qian dou zai nali ge-zhe.1 ask himlher money all at where put-DUR'I asked himlher where all the money was kept.'

(23) in the meaning of 'so far as V-ing is concerned', as in Zhe juzi wen-ZHExiang, chiqilai suan 'This tangerine smells sweet but tastes sour' (i.e. as far assmelling is concerned ...).

(24) where a few verbs require it, as in tuo-ZHE 'to hold up on the palm', xiang-ZHE 'to favor (the side 00', chong-ZHE 'to face (the direction 00'.

(28) Neige fangjian hei-zhe ne.that-M room dark-INT NE'That room is pretty dark.'

Li and Thompson (1981 :217-226) treat both zai- and -zhe as 'durative aspect'markers. They seem to distinguish between the two markers mainly by the differentconstraints under which each of them occurs. Below are some oftheir examples forthe meanings, uses and constraints:

E. In a complex sentence, the verb with -zhe signals that the event is adurative background for another event.

(29.a) Xiao gou yao-zhe weiba pao Ie.small dog wag-DUR tail run LE'The small dog ran away wagging its tail.'

(25.a) Zhangsan zai-da Lisi.Zhangsan DUR-hit Lisi'Zhangsan is hitting Lisi.'

b) Ta nao-zhe yao mai dayi.shelhe fuss-DUR want buy coat.'She/He made a fuss about wanting to buy a coat.'

b) *Zhangsan zai-pang.Zhangsan DUR-fat

We supply the following pair to contrast the difference between the two markersin this environment:

B. Verbs of posture may occur with the durative aspect marker -zhe tosignal an on-going posture or physical disposition of an entity at a location.8

(30.a) Ta ting-zhe shouyinji shuizhao Ie.shelhe listen-DUR radio sleep-achieve LE'She/e fell asleep listening to the radio.'

(26.a) Ta zai fangzili zuo-zhe.she at house-in sit-DUR'She's sitting in the house.'

b) ?Ta zai-ting shouyinji shuizhao Ie.shelhe DUR-listen radio sleep-achieve LE

b) Chezi zai waimian ting-zhe.car at outside park-DUR'The car is parked outside.'

Sentence (30.b) is dubious in its grammatical status in spite of the fact that Ta zaiting shouyirifi 'She/He is listening to the radio' is completely acceptable inisolation.

Another grammarian, Chu (1983:92-95), treats the two markers separately,calling zai- the progressive marker and -zhe the concomitative marker. He defInes'progressive' as 'indicating an action going on at a given point of time' and

'concomitative' as 'referring to an action or event existing or occurring concurrentlywith or accompanying what is denoted by the main verb in the sentence'. Thereason for his reluctance to lump them together under either 'progressive' or'durative' is obvious when he cites the following examples:

(f) If both markers are for durative aspect, why can't zai- be used for thedurative background?

With regard to the question posed in (a) above, obviously it is not quite feasibleto find a universal definition for each of the notions and apply it to MandarinChinese without any difficulty. (Cf. Binnick, 1991, specifically, Chaps. 5, 6 and 7.)Our strategy is therefore to adapt the most basic defmitions available and try toapply to Chinese. In the process, we also try to make a distinction between what issemantic and syntactic in nature and what is discourse in function.

The most plain and basic defmition of 'progressive' seems to come from Comrie(1978: 12): ' ...progressiveness is the combination of continuousness withnonstativity.' That is, when an event is viewed as continuing, it is basicallyexpressed by a progressive form of the verb. In our terms (cf. Table I above), anevent is [+Dynamic] and continuousness is [+Durative]. Ifwe recognize zai- as aprogressive-aspect marker, then it should be compatible with semantically[+Dynamic, +Durative] verbs. The following examples bear out this designation:

(31.a) Na-/Man-/Deng-zhe!take-/slow-/wait-ZHE'Hold (on to it)/Hold it/Wait (up).'

b) Taiyang xie-zhe ne.sun slant-ZHE NE'The sun is at a slant.'

Neither of them can be comfortably accommodated within the general definition ofeither 'progressive' or 'durative'.

Other treatments of the two aspect markers include: Su (1974), Chung-yu Chen(1986, 1987a, 1987b), Ma (1985), Chu (1987), and Magionne (1987). Some ofthem will be discussed in Section 2.2.3. on the discourse functions of the aspectmarkers.

(32.a) Ta zai-paobu.shelhe PROG-run'She/He is running.'

Reviewing the past writers on zai.- and -zhe, especially Chao (1968), Li andThompson (1981) and Chu (1983), we find the following general questions:

b) Tamen zai-gai fangzi.they PROG-build house'They are building a houselhouses.'

(a) Do the notions 'progressive', 'durative', and 'concomitative', as defined bythe authors, adequately apply to the facts being described?

where pao(bu) is an activity verb and gai(fangzi) is an accomplishment verb, bothof which are [+Dynamic, +Durative].

On the other hand, 'durative' is usually defmed in opposition of 'instantaneous'(Binnick, 1991:144). Another term for the same notion is 'continuous', which issubdivided into 'progressive' and 'non-progressive' (Comrie, 1978:25). In otherwords, 'durative' or 'continuous' is actually a cover term for both 'progressivedurative' and 'non-progressive durative'. Now that we have identified zai- as aprogressive (and durative) marker, is it possible that -zhe is just its non-progressivecounterpart in the durative family? If so, -zhe should be semantically compatiblewith all [+durative] verbs:

(b) How can zai- and -zhe be made more distinct, without neglecting theirsimilarities in the description of the facts related to them?

(c) While L&T recognize the occurrence of zai- with activity verbs, no mentionis made of -zhe in this connection, i.e. whether it occurs with activity verbs only orit occurs with other types of verbs as well. If both of them are durative, whatprecludes -zhe from occurring in that same environment? (33.a) Ta xihuan-zhe ni ne.

shelhe like-DUR you NE'She/He likes you very much.'

(e) There is some similarity between L&T's Band C. Can they be generalizedto cover a wider range of facts in a more natural way?

b) Xiaohaizi xihuan pao-zhe shang xue.children like run-DUR go-to school'Children like to run to school.'

where xihuan is a state verb and pao is an activity verb, both of which are[+Durative].

There are, however, two problems with this semantic account. One is that -zhedoesn't normally occur with state verbs like xihuan. If it does, there is a specialinterpretation: it serves as an intensifier. An explanation can be offered like this.Since [+Durative] is the only positive feature of a state verb, there is no need for thespeaker/writer to explicitly indicate such a viewpoint. However, if a speaker/writerchooses to do so, she/he means, 'I want you to pay special attention to thisviewpoint even though it is the only possible one.' This then is no longer asemantic issue but a pragmatic one. (Cf. Chu, 1978.) The second problem is that-zhe does not seem to occur with accomplishment verbs very easily. Perhapsbecause accomplishment verbs by and large have their focus of information on theresult rather than on the process, it is then discoursally infelicitous to impose adurative viewpoint over the result. E.g.

(34.a) ?Tamen gai-zhe neisuo fangzi....they build-DUR that-M house

b) Tamen gai neisuo fangzi, gai-zhe gai-zhe, jiuthey build that-M house, build-DUR build-DUR, then

daoxialai Ie.fall-down-come LE

'When they were building the house, as the construction was going on, itcollapsed. '

According to Smith (1993), gai neisuo jangzi 'to build that house' is anaccomplishment verb. But in (34.a), there doesn't seem to be a context that couldaccept the form. On the other hand, in (34.b) where 'building that house' is madea topic, the durative aspect of the building process (i.e. the construction) can beexpressed as the speaker/writer's viewpoint. Therefore, the problem is again not asemantic one, but one of discourse perspective.

The third notion is 'concomitative'. This term is actually functional rather thansemantic in nature. We will comment on it in Section 2.2.3.

Having looked at the definitions of 'progressive' and 'durative', we feel readyto state our position on the two aspect markers. On the basis of the linguistic factsand semantic considerations, it is justified to designate the two aspect markers bydifferent names in order to indicate not only their differences but also theirsimilarities. The prefix zai- is a 'progressive durative' and can be designated bythe name 'progressive' for short; the suffix -zhe is a 'non-progressive durative'and can be designated by the name 'durative' for short. 9 With theunderstanding that they are both durative, it is easy to see why they behave similarly

when only the semantic feature 'durative' is in question. This is where most oftheconfusion arises in the literature. On the other hand, they may act differently whenthe semantic feature 'progressive' is also at issue. Our decision above is reached,however, on the basis of the semantics of verbs and the viewpoints of the aspectsonly. When pragmatic factors such as focus and topic are considered, there will becomplications. We will discuss such complications in Section 2.2.3.

Another point that must be clarified is the functions that zai- and -zhe serve incomplex sentences. Zai- tends to be temporally oriented while -zhe tends to bemanner-oriented. We will fully discuss this issue with the other discourse andpragmatic problems later in the next section.

At this juncture it may be appropriate to stress a fact about the relationshipsbetween aspectual marking and verbal affixes in Chinese as well as in otherlanguages. While aspect is by and large marked by verbal forms, the markingrelationship is not necessarily exclusive. In other words, the verbal affixes may verywell perform other functions than marking aspect and, conversely, some aspectualmeanings may not necessarily be expressed by varying the form of the verb. Wehave seen above that -zhe may be used for some pragmatic purposes. On the otherhand, the attemptive aspect is expressed by try to in English, i.e. I tried to call youlast night.

In the preceding section, we tried to explore the similarities and differences of theaffixes -zhe and zai-. It was found that they are similar in terms of being durativebut are different in terms of being progressive. As a result, it was decided that zai-should be designated as a progressive-aspect marker and -zhe as a durative-aspectmarker to reflect their nature, leaving the descriptive terms 'durative' and 'non-progressive' out of the names for short, respectively. There remain, however, manyproblems in interpreting some of the uses of zai- and -zhe. We will try to accountfor those problems in this section from the perspective of discourse.

One of the main differences between the two affixes is a discoursal one-one thatgoes beyond the boundaries of a sentence: zai- indicates that the clause with theprefix in it is temporal in nature while -zhe indicates that the clause with the suffixin it is treated as a manner adverbial (cf. Ma, 1985). Evidence can be found in thefact that a zai- clause is more naturally used to answer a 'when' -question than a -zheclause is.

(35.a) Ni shenmo shihou tingdao zhege xiaoxi de?you what time hear this news DE'When did you hear this news?'

b) Wo zai-kan dianshi de shihou.I PROG-watch TV DE time

'When I was watching TV. '

(38.a) Ta zai-baifang pengyou de shihou bing Ie.shelhe PROG-visit friend DE time sick LE'Shelhe got sick during herlhis visit with a friend.'

c) Wo kan-zhe dianshi de shihou.I watch-DUR TV DE time

'When I was watching TV ... .'

b) ?Ta baifang-zhe pengyou (de shihou) bing Ie.shelhe visit-DUR friend (DE time) sick LE

As an answer to the question in (35.a), the (b) sentence is natural while (c) is not.Moreover, the latter sounds unfinished regardless of whether as whether it is usedan answer or otherwise.

On the other hand, the claim that the -zhe clause behaves like a manner adverbialfmds evidence in the following fact: a 'how'-question rather than any other type ofquestion is used for clarification if a verb with a -zhe is not clear to the hearer. A'how'-question asks about the manner in which something is done.

where 'visiting a friend' cannot be interpreted as the manner in which one gets sickand therefore (38.b) is questionable.

While the usage of the zai- clause seems straightforward (except, perhaps, forits relation with the locative preposition zai); that of the -zhe clause is quitecomplex. Simply put, its semantic import is 'durative' with a stativizing effect, itssyntactic function is 'subordination', and its discourse function is 'backgrounding'.Yet it interacts with the semantics of the verb and the pragmatics of an unfinishedutterance to produce a variety of possible interpretations. Below, we summarize therecent research on this suffix, mainly following Chu (1987).

(36.a) Xiaomao changchang V-zhe yanjing kan wookitten often V-DUR eye look-at me'The kitten often looks at me, V-ing its eyes.'

2.2.3.1. Semantic Interpretation of -Zhe and Verb Type

b) Xiaomao zenmo-zhe yanjing kan ni?kitten how-DUR eye look-at you'How does the kitten look at you?'

Chu (1987:2-13) recognizes the suffix -zhe as basically 'durative' in meaning: It'largely indicates an on-going act in a simple sentence and a simultaneousoccurrence of two acts in a complex sentence.' But this durative meaning interactswith different types of verbs to produce different effects on the meanings of theverbs. He differentiates four types of verbs: action, posture, placement and state.(The first three are all event verbs in our present framework. Roughly, actioncorresponds to activity; and both posture and placement are subclasses of thesemelfactive verb.) The most typical durative interpretation of the suffix is with theaction verb. For example: (adapted from Ma, 1985)

The verb with -zhe is blurred in (36.a) and the hearer wants the speaker to clarifywhat the verb is by asking (36.b). Note that the verb slot is filled by zenmo how'rather than any other question word. The same principle applies to simple sentencesas well:

(37.a) Xiaomao zai ner V-zhe.kitten at there V-DUR'The kitten is V-ing there.'

(39.a) Henduo ren zaijieshang zou-zhe.very-many person at street-on walk-DUR'Many people are walking on the street.'

b) Xiaomao zai ner zenmo-zhe?kitten at there how-DUR'What's the kitten doing there?'

b) Huanghe de shui riyede liu-zhe.Yellow-River DE water day-night-DE flow-DUR'The Yellow River flows day and night.'

Just like in (36), the verb with -zhe in (37.a) is blurred and the hearer asks for aclarification by using azenmo 'how' question (37.b). This fact pretty much reflectsthe manner adverbial nature of the -zhe clause. (But see Section 2.2.3.2. below.)

The following pair provides a sharp contrast between the two affixes: (Ma,1985:42)

c) Ta jiao-zhe kouxiangtang shuohua.shelhe chew-DUR chewing-gum talk

. 'Shelhe talks/talked while chewing gum.'

The verbs in (39), zou 'walk', liu 'flow' andjiao 'chew', are all action verbs and thedurative marker -zhe indicates in all cases either an on-going act or a simultaneous

occurring of two acts.With posture and placement verbs, the interpretation of the suffix is a little

skewed because the event represented by the verb is non-durative itself. Tovisualize a non-durative act as durative, one has to incorporate its resultant state intothe event. This is exactly the effect of the durative aspect marker with non-durativeposture and placement verbs in Mandarin. E.g. (from L&T, 1981; and Ma, 1985)

(40.a) Tamen zai menkou zhan-zhe.they at doorway stand-DUR

'They are standing in the doorway.'

b) Ta zai dishang gui-zhe.shelhe at floor kneel-DUR'She/He is kneeling on the floor.'

c) Qian zai yinhangli cun-zhe.money at bank deposit-DUR'The money is deposited in the bank.'

d) Zazhi zai shujiashang fang-zhe.magazine at bookshelf-on place-DUR'The magazine(s) is/are placed on the bookshelf.'

The verbs_zhan 'stand' in (40.a) and gui 'kneel' in (40.b) are posture verbs and theverbs cun 'deposit' in (40.c) andfang 'place' in (40.d) are placement verbs. All ofthem are semelfactive, i.e. once the act occurs, it ends instantaneously. To interpretthem as durative, the only way is to incorporate their resultant states. When this isdone, the durative aspect is perceived as having a stativizing effect on these verbs,i.e. an effect that makes non-state verbs appear stative. This same stativizing effectis also exhibited in the verbs like kai 'open' and guan 'close' (as in Men kai-/guan-zhe 'The door is open/closed'); chuan 'wear' and dai 'wear' (as in Tamen douchuan-zhe hong yifU 'They are all dressed in red.'), gua 'hang', etc. Some oftheseare neither posture nor placement verbs but they are semelfactive ones.

With state verbs, the suffix -zhe doesn't generally occur, as state verbs are bydefmition already durative. If it occurs, then its function is not to impose a specificaspectual viewpoint or to make the verb more stative. It is rather used for syntacticand pragmatic reasons. We discuss this problem in the following sections.

2.2.3.2. Syntactic Interpretation of -Zhe

Chu (1987:14-22) maintains that the main syntactic function of the suffix -zhe issubordination. This claim is well accepted for complex sentences with -zhe. For

simple sentences-those with only one verb and the verb is suffixed with -zhe-thereobviously is a problem: How can a simple sentence be subordinated to anythingelse? The key lies in the fact that a simple sentence with -zhe almost always soundsunfinished or incomplete, (even though we have been giving complete Englishsentences in translation by following the usual practice). Chu believes that it isexactly this subordinating force that makes them sound unfmished or incomplete.For example:

(40.a) Deng-zhe!wait-DUR'Wait (and) ... .'

b) Zuo-zhe!sit-DUR'Be seated (and) ....'

c) Na-zhe!'take-DUR'Hold on to it (and) ... .'

The utterances in (40) all imply that if you wait, be seated, or hold on to it,something else will happen. (That is why the -zhe form is often used to express athreat, warning or advice.) The implication can not be derived from anything butthe interpretation that -zhe is a subordinating suffix.

The recognition of -zhe as a subordinating suffix accounts for quite a few otherissues which would otherwise appear to be unrelated. We will discuss the followingproblems pertaining to -zhe as a subordinating suffix: (i) its use with state verbs, (ii)its optional nature with other verb-like words, (iii) its interpretation as a manneradverbial marker, (iv) its backgrounding function, and (v) its emphatic use inconjunction with ne.

We will first look at the use of -zhe with state verbs:

(42.a) Ta mang-zhe dao chao (Chen, 1986:9)shelhe busy-DUR pour tea'She/He is busy serving tea.'

b) W0 fanzheng xian-zhe ye mei shi.I anyway in-Ieisure-DUR also not-have work'I am not doing anything anyway.'

The verbs mang 'busy' and xian 'in leisure' are stative. The reason for them tooccur with -zhe can hardly be to focus on their durative nature. The onlyexplanation for this use is to subordinate the predicate in question to another

(43.a) Bie dang-zhe haizide mian chaojia. (Chen, 1986:11)don't in-front-of child's face quarrel'Don't fight in front of (the) child(ren).'

It was mentioned above that a main difference between zai- and -zhe as aspectmarkers is that the latter functions to mark the clause as a manner adverbial and theformer, as a temporal clause. The manner adverbial function of -zhe, however, is notone of its fundamental characteristics but a derived one. It is derived from the factthat the clause is subordinated to another and that the verb in the main clause ismost often an activity verb. An action subordinated to another is very easy to beinterpreted as 'manner'. E.g. (Adapted from Ma, 1985)

predicate.The next few examples illustrate the optional -zhe with some verb-like words:

b) Shun-zhe zheitiao lu zou.follow-DUR this-M road walk'(Go by) follow(ing) this road.'

(45.a) Ta chuan-zhe gaogen xie pa shan.she wear-DUR high-heel shoe climb mountain'She mountain-climbed in high heels.'

c) Ta dui-zhe jingzi zai-zuo guilian.shelhe toward-DUR mirror PROG-make devil-face'She/He is making faces before the mirror.'

b) Dajia dou chang-zhe ge tiao wu.everybody all sing-DUR song dance dance'Everybody danced while singing.'

d) Zhao-zhe wode hua zuo.follow-DUR my word do'Do as I tell you to.'

c) Ta mang-zhe dao chao (Same as (42.a»shelhe busy-DUR pour tea'She/He is busy serving tea.'

(44.a) Xiao gou yao-zhe weiba pao Ie. (Li & Thompson)small dog wag-DUR tail run LE'The puppy ran away wagging its tail.'

While chuan-zhe gaogen xie 'wear-DUR high heels' in (45.a) can be interpreted asa manner adverbial; the other two, chang-zhe ge 'sing-DUR song' in (b) and mang-zhe 'busy-DUR' in (c) can hardly be interpreted in the same way. 'Singing' cannotbe said to be the manner of 'dancing' and 'being busy' cannot be said to be themanner of 'serving tea'. 'Singing' is actually used to denote an activity going on atthe same time as another, but is less important than the other. 'Being busy' is usedto describe the state in which the person is. As a matter of fact, there is anotherinterpretation for (45.c): 'She/He hurried to serve tea', which is even farther fromhaving a manner adverbial. Therefore, the -zhe clause being a manner adverbial,though a very prominent identifying feature, is not a primary characteristic by whichthe function of the suffix can be defmed. The following example defmitely does notinvolve a manner adverbial:

The suffix -zhe in (43) may be deleted without affecting the acceptability in allcases. A closer examination reveals that all the words having the suffix arecoverbs-words that play an indeterminate role between verb and preposition.10

Treated as verbs, they need some marking for subordination; treated as prepositIons,they don't. That seems a good explanation why the suffix is optional.

The next group of sentences illustrate backgrounding by the suffix -zhe: (fromLi and Thompson, 1981:233-4 and Dou, 1983:163)

b) Ta xie-zhe yan xiao-zhe kan woo (Li & Thompson)shelhe slant-DUR eye smile-DUR look I'Smiling, shelhe looked at me out of the comer ofhislher eyes.'

(46) Van kan-zhe fangzi jiu shaoguang Ie. (Chu, 1987:28)eye look-DUR house at-once bum-up LE'The house got bumt up in no time, as (we) watched.'

c) Tamen shuo-zhe shuo-zhe xiao-qilai-le. (Dou)The talk-DUR talk-DUR laugh-INCHO-LE'As they went on talking, they started laughing.'

The emphatic use of -zhe, usually accompanied by a clause-final ne will bediscussed in the next section.

The backgrounding function is derived from the predicate being subordinated to themain predicate. (For more detail, see Chapter 6.)

interpretation of simple-predicate sentences with -zhe and the emphatic meaning of-zhe in conjunction with ne.

The simple-predicate -zhe sentence has been independently treated and regardedas a progressive form, implicitly or explicitly, by many grammarians. Itsincompleteness has thus been ignored. Once it is recognized as incomplete orunfinished, a natural link may be established between the syntactic function ofsubordination by -zhe and the incomplete reading of such a sentence: A subordinateclause by itself is not complete. The next task then is to take care of theinterpretation of the incompleteness in each and every case. Let us look at somesimple cases:

c) Na-zhe!take-in-hand-DUR'Hold (on to it)!'

we fmd that (48.b) says a lot more than (49). While (49) is a plain straightforwardanswer without any implication, (48.b) has a variety of possible implications: 'Youshould know that'; 'How can it/they be anywhere else?' 'Why are you asking?', etc.All such possibilities may be attributed to the incompleteness of the sentence.12

The emphatic use of -zhe has long been noted but has not often been linked toits fundamental functions of durative aspect marking, subordination, andbackgrounding. (Cf. Section 2.2.2.1, Item D, above.) Chu (1978) tries to findrelations between the pragmatic emphatic force of the -zhe...ne form and the aspectmarker's syntactic functions of subordination and its semantic function ofstativizing an action verb. He further explored them in another article (1987). Here,we synthesize the previous fmdings and try to conclude on the inner workings of theemphatic use of -zhe in non-technical plain language.

The fact that -zhe in this use often cooccurs with ne warrants a look at thefunction of the latter. King (1985:27) justifiably claims that ne 'is used by thespeaker as a device for highlighting or evaluating certain portions of backgroundinformation in the discourse and bringing them to the attention of the hearer in thespeaker/hearer world. Utterances with ne are of particular relevance to the point thespeaker wants to make. In using ne the speaker is making a metalinguistic commentand, by extension, expressing his attitude toward the content of the utterance.' Inother words, by using ne, the speaker is saying, 'You are familiar with what I amsaying, though it may have slipped your mind. But, anyway, this is relevant to thediscourse and I want you to pay attention to it.' Chu, therefore, calls ne a particleof continuation (1983) and of relevance (1985b). This discourse interpretation ofne seems to fit very well with its frequent cooccurrence with -zhe for an emphaticexpression.

Let's look at some of the examples that have been cited many times bygrammarians:

(47.a) Deng-zhe! (Same as (41))wait-DUR'Wait (up)!'

b) Zuo-zhe!sit-DUR'Sit (down)!'

(48.a) Ni ke xiaoxin-zhe.you however careful-DUR'You'd better be careful.'

b) Shu zai shujiashang fang-zhe.book at bookshelf-on put-DUR'The book(s) is/are on the shelf.'

(50.a) Tang re-zhe ne. (Chao, 1968:248)soup hot/heat-DUR NE'The soup is awfully hotlbeing heated.'

The reason that the utterances in (47) can be interpreted as commands is preciselybecause they are unfinished. The implication is, 'Do as you are beinr told to andsomething else will (or will not) happen, which you can figure out.' I Utterance(48.a) is a piece of advice also because of what is unsaid: Something might happenif you weren't. The sentence in (48.b) is not usually considered incomplete becauseit can stand alone, for example, as an answer to the question Shu zai nar? 'Whereis/are the book(s)?' But when we consider an alternative form as an answer to thequestion:

b) Neige fangjian hei-zhe ne. (Li & Thompson, 1982:222)that-M room dark-DUR NE'That room is pretty dark.'

c) Wo xiang ni-zhe ne. (Chao, op. cit.)I think you-DUR NE'I miss you terribly.'

(49) «Shu) fang) zai shujiashang.«book) put) at book-shelf-on'(They are) on the bookshelf.'

According to Chu (1987 :31), there are three forces working together here tocontribute to the emphatic or intensifying effect of the construction -zhe ...ne: '(a)the use ofa subordinating suffix to signal the unfmished nature of the utterance, (b)

the employment of ne to indicate the topical relationship to the unmentionedcontext, linguistic or otherwise, and (c) the addition of a durative aspect marker toa stative verb which is intrinsically durative, to begin with.' We have discussed thefirst two in Section 2.2.3.2. and above, respectively. Why should © also contributeto the intensifying effect? Chu (op. cit.) further invokes Grice's Maxim of Relationto explain the durative aspect marker with a state verb, i.e. the redundant [andintentional] use of the durative marker must also be relevant.

Putting the three forces together, we obtain a complex message like this: (a)figure out what is not mentioned but strongly implied, (b) take the informationexpressed here as topical to the missing piece of information, and (c) mind that thestate of being durative is specifically relevant. Translating these three forces intoeveryday language by fitting the three examples in, we get:

(51.a) Let me remind you that the soup is hot/being heated and you know whatto do with it.

b) Let me remind you that the room is dark and you know what to do aboutit.

c) You know all along that I will miss you and I am just telling you onceagain that I do miss you (and you figure out what's next). 13

In this section, we have tried to distinguish between the syntactic functions of theprogressive zai- and the durative -zhe. The former is found to be temporal in natureand the latter is found to perform the role of a manner adverbial. This distinction iseasy to detect, yet -zhe being a manner adverbial is not its primary function. It isderived from the one for subordination.

While the progressive marker appears quite straightforward in its usage andinterpretation, the durative marker is surprisingly complex. We have explored thefunctions of -zhe on three levels: semantic, syntactic, and pragmatic. We find thatthe functions may interact with each other and with other grammatical structures toproduce many different interpretations of the suffix -zhe in usage.

In particular, -zhe is found to be basically durative in semantic terms. Thisdurative meaning, however, is typical only with activity verbs ('action verbs' inChu, 1987). With semelfactive verbs, the durative meaning does not pertain to theevent itself, but is extended to the resultant state of the event. This accounts for theinterpretation of the so-called 'posture' and 'placement' verbs (L&T, 1981; Ma,1987; Chu, 1987). As a matter of fact, the extension is valid with many other typesof semelfactive verbs as well. It is this extended function that has been recognizedas a stativizing effect. With state verbs, the addition of -zhe is primarily for syntacticor pragmatic reasons rather than for semantic purposes.

Achievement and accomplishment verbs are not discussed because they are telicin nature (i.e. their focus is on the end product of an event) and are not directlyrelevant to the durative meaning.

Syntactically, -zhe functions to indicate subordination. This subordinatingfunction accounts for a host of issues that would otherwise appear to be unrelated.It accounts for (a) the general incomplete reading of a simple clause with -zhe, (b)the possible occurrence of -zhe with a state verb despite of semantic redundancy,(c) the optional use of -zhe with coverbs and other similar words, (d) theinterpretation of the -zhe clause as a manner adverbial, though it is not its basicfunction, (e) the source of backgrounding by -zhe, and (f) the emphatic use inconjunction with ne.

The interpretation ofthe incompleteness of a simple clause with -zhe, however,has to come from pragmatics. The intentional use of a dangling subordinate clauseusually means that the speaker /writer wants the hearer/reader to complete it by him-/herself Similarly, the emphatic interpretation of the -zhe...ne construction finds itsroot in pragmatics, too. Three forces converge to make the emphatic meaning: (a)incompleteness, (b) topical nature of the information contained in the utterance, and(c) the double signaling of durativeness by the state verb and the suffix. These threecombine to produce a complex message of what is usually regarded as 'emphatic'.

What is obvious in this section is the complex interface of the suffix -zhe withthe different types of verbs on the semantic level and the interaction of the functionsof -zhe between all three levels-semantic, syntactic and pragmatic. Theseinterrelations work together to move the grammar from the sentential domain to thediscourse world.

The perfective -Ie has been a source of great interest for linguists, but it also hasbeen one of tremendous puzzlement and confusion for language teachers andstudents. It behaves sometimes like the past tense and other times like the presentperfect in English; but it is not quite the same as either of them. Especially intricateand puzzling is the non-use of -Ie where the theory predicts otherwise. Recentresearch has discovered that the interpretation of -Ie is not only closely interwovenwith the situation types of verbs, but it is also affected by discourse and pragmatics.In this section we will summarize the most recent research on -Ie as an aspectmarker, point out problems and try to solve some of them. Many of them, however,will have to find answers beyond the semantic and viewpoint model.

It has been recognized that -Ie is mainly used for indicating a bounded situation,focusing on the endpoint of the situation. Thus, Shi (1991 :95) states that'perfectivity is the result of bounded situations viewed as relatively anterior, ... 'Smith (1993 :6) makes a similar claim that 'the perfective morpheme -Ie presentsclosed, non-stative situations ....the perfective spans the single point of instantaneousevents, and the initial and terminated fmal endpoint of durative events.' A bounded

or closed situation is usually understood as one that is viewed in its entiretyregardless of time.

In spite of the different wordings used by Shi and Smith, their analyses areconsistent with Li and Thompson's interpretation of the aspect marker and itsrelationship with boundedness (1981:185fi): 'An event is viewed in its entirety ifit is bounded temporally, spatially or conceptually. There are essentially four waysin which an event can be bounded.'

(55.a) Wo kanwan-Ie bao, jiu shui.I read-finish-PFV paper, then sleep

'When I finish reading the paper, I will go to sleep.'

b) Ta kai-Ie men, m JIll jinqu.shelhe open-PFV door, you then enter-go'When shelhe opens the door, you go in.'

A. By being a quantified event: (The event is quantified by the underlinedphrase following -Ie.)

We note here that while the sentences in (52)-{53) all represent boundedevents-events viewed in their entirety, their boundedness does not necessarily comefrom the quantification, definiteness or specificity of the event. For example:

v (52.a) Wo zai nali zhu-Ie liangge yue.I at there live-PFV two-M month'1 lived there for two months.'

I; (56.a) Wo zai ner zhu liangge yue, jiu huilai Ie.I at there live two-M month then return-come LE'I stayed there two months and came back.'

b) Diandeng liang-Ie henduo.electric-light bright-PFV very-much'The electric light got a lot brighter.'

v b) Wo zuotian pengdao Lin Hui. Ta shuo mingtian lai.I yesterday ran-into Lin Hui she said tomorrow come'I ran into Lin Hui yesterday. She said she would come tomorrow.'

B. By being a definite or specific event: (The event is made defmite or specificby the underlined phrase following -Ie.)

b) Wo xiangchulai-Ie neige zi.I think-out-PFV that-M word'I remembered that character.'

Compare (56.a) with (52.a). Both of them contain the quantifying phrase lianggeyue 'two months', but one is interpreted as a bounded event by the presence of -Ieand the other is not. Similarly, both (56.b) and (53.a) contain the defmitizingpersonal name Lin Hui, but only one ofthem is presented as a bounded event by thepresence of -Ie. It thus seems that while there is some correlation betweenboundedness on the one hand and quantification and defineness/specificity on theother, the use of the perfective aspect marker -Ie does not completely depend on thepresence of the latter. The relationship between the three-boundedness, thepresence of expressions for quantification, definiteness and specificity, and the useof the perfective-aspect marker -Ie-is not as straightforward as it has usually beenpictured. It will be further discussed in Section 2.2.5. below.

For the sentences in (54), the meaning of the verb certainly plays a part indetermining the boundedness of the event, i.e. wangle lade dizhi 'forget herlhisaddress' has to occur in its entirety as an event. But, that's not the whole story. Ifwang 'forget' is replaced by a synonym wangji in (54.a), the verbal suffix -Iebecomes optional, espceially when the sentence ends in a final k: Wo wangji ladedizhi Ie 'I forgot herlhis address.' Again, there is something other than the meaningof the verb that contributes to the determination of the boundedness of the eventand, thus, that of the use or non-use of -Ie.

The 'first event in a sequence' condition illustrated by (55) works well, but itcan perhaps be better described in Shi's notion ofanteriority. This notion, however,needs to be extended from semantics to discourse (cf. Chang, 1986). We will notfurther comment on this point until we discuss the other two problems in more

, (53.a) Wo pengdao-Ie Lin Hui.I bump-into-PFV Lin Hui'I ran into Lin Hui' (where the important information in the content iswhom I ran into).

C. By containing verbs with inherent bounded meanings: (The verbs areunderlined.)

v (54.a) Wo wang-Ie tade dizhi.I forget-PFV herlhis address.'I forgot herlhis address.'

b) Ta shuizhao-Ie ma?shelhe sleep-succeed-PFV Q'Did shelhe fall asleep?'

It is very interesting to note that in each of the three studies that we will review boththe verbal suffix -Ie and the sentence-fmal particle ~ are treated at the same time.The reason is perhaps that sometimes it is hard to tell one from the other. Ourdiscussion here, however, will concentration on the verbal -Ie only.

Chronologically, Spanos (1979) is the first systematic study of -Ie for itspragmatic functions. His approach is one of speech act. Andreasen (1981) analyzesthe use and non-use of -Ie in terms of foreground vs. background in narrativediscourse. Chang (1986) integrates the previous research and sets up a frameworkto account for the various possibilities of -Ie as a discourse marker beyond aspect.

Spanos conducted a survey of 62 native speakers of Mandarin in order to'determine how native speakers employ LE when constructing sentences andparagraphs involving the variety of meanings associated with LE' (p. 34). Chang(1986:55) summarizes his major findings as follows:

(58.a) Use of LE is subject to a principle of non-redundancy, i.e. LE tends to beomitted in contexts where the time, aspcet, phase, or modality of action,process or state of affair is already specified.14

b) A rule of consistency appears to operate for some speakers. That is, if LEis used in a specific structure, it will always be used in that structureregardless of redundancy.

c) In instances where the context is insufficient to determine the time, aspect,phase or modality of an action, process or state of affairs, a rule of cautionappears to increase the likelihood that LE will be used.

Spanos then uses Grice's maxims of conversation to justify the rules that he hasformulated on the basis of the statistical figures obtained in the survey. While thenumbers are reliable and the formulations are consistent with the facts, he doesn'tgive due consideration to the linguistic properties of both the perfective aspect -Ieand the sentence-fmal particle Ie. (Cf. critique by Chang, 1986:55-65.) Inparticular, he jumps directly from morphology into pragamtics without looking atany consequences that syntax, semantics and discourse may have on the use and

non-use of the two particles.15

Andreasen (1981) claims that the perfective-aspect in Mandarin has theadditional function of marking foreground in narrative discourse. In the study heshows that certain foregrounded clauses are marked with -Ie. There is a verydisturbing fact, however. At least as many, ifnot more, forgrounded clauses occurwithout -Ie. He resorts to L&T's principle of perf ectivi zing phrases preempting the

use of -Ie. Unfortunately, he falls into the same trap as we pointed out above. Oneexample suffices:

(60.a) Hua Laoshuan huran zuoqi 0 shenHua Laoshuan suddenly sit-up body

b) ca-zhaol6 huochaistrike-light match

c) dianshang 0 bian-shen youla de dengzhanlight-on whole-body grease DE oil-lamp

d) chaguan de liangjian wuzi-li bian miman-Ie qing-bai de guang.tea-house DE two-M room-in then fill-PFV green-white DE light

'Hua Laoshuan suddenly sat up, struk a match, and lit the completely grease-covered lamp. The two rooms in the tea-house then were filled with agreenish white light.' (From Lu Xun, fao'Medicine')

Following Chang (1986:88), we have indicated two positions with 0 where a -Iecould potentially occur in (60). Andreasen's explanation (1981:66-72) why -Ie doesnot occur in those positions goes as follows. Clause (60.a) contains the directionalcomplement -qi 'up' and the temporal phrase huran 'suddenly', both of which makethe event 'perfectivized' and 'viewed as an unanalyzable whole'. Thus, the non-useof -Ie. Clause (6Q.c)c211tains another perfectivizing complement -shang, which issufficient to signal the endpoint of the event and makes the use of -Ie unnecessary.On the other hand, (60.d) needs the -Ie because there is a highly qualified objectqing-bai de guang 'greenish-white light'.

The explanation seems reasonable enough. But Chang (1986:90) raises thiscrucial question: Ifthe highly qualified object qing-bai de guang requires a -Ie forits verb, why is it that an equally highly qualified object bianshen youla dedengzhan 'oil lamp completely covered with grease' in (60.c) does not demand thesame? To solve contradictions of this kind, Chang proposes to look at the problemof use and non-use of -Ie from the discourse perspective. His conclusions are basedon a careful examination of written texts from both Taiwan and mainland China andare verified by extensive surveys of native speakers.

Sections 2.2.5.2 throgh 2.2.5.5 below are largely based on Chang's view on thediscourse functions of the perfecitve -Ie in Mandarin Chinese.17 Comments andadditional examples are contributed by the present author.

importance within a segment.,18 A segment, according to Hinds (1979), is aconsituent which stands between a paragraph and each individual sentence. Withineach segment there is typically one sentence that is functionally more prominent.This sentence Hinds calls a peak. In Japanese procedural discourse, a peakrepresenting the culminating event is marked with a fmite verb whereas non-peaksrepresenting preliminary events are marked with either a stem or a particle (ga orto). Chang goes on to claim that 'one of the discourse functions -Ie serves inChinese narrative is to [overtly] mark the peak clause of a segment, much like theuse of a finite verb form in Japanese procedural discourse.' Thus,

wel-xlang-se-mei de Beijing kaoya Ie.taste-sweet-Iook-pretty DE Beijing roast-duck LE

(From Beijing Kaoya 'Beijing Roast Duck')

'Recently, along with cultural exchanges between China and other countries,the Beijing roast duck and the store name Quan-Ju-De went abroad, crossingthe seas and oceans. This made it possible for more people to (be able to)

taste the delicious and splendid-looking Beijing roast duck.'

(6 1.a) Yushi Mingdi bian paiqian 0 Caiyin he Qinjing lianggeconsequently Ming-emperor then send Caiyin and Qingjing two-M

In (61) and (62) above, the positions indicated by 0 are all potential slots for aperfective -Ie. The reason that they are not filled, according to Chang, is that theyare in non-peak clauses. On the other hand, the appearence of -Ie in (61.c) and(62.d) is exactly for the purpose of overtly marking the peak event in each series ofevents.

The discovery of this discourse function based on factual data effectively solvesmany of the problems that have been raised here and elsewhere concerning the non-use of -Ie in a potentially possible position. For example, the passage in (60) fro~Lu Xun may be evaluated by this 'overt peak-marking principle' without going intothe complicated explanation of Andreasen's or incurring any self-contradiction: Thepotential -Ie positions are not filled because they are not peak events while -Ieoccurs in the final clause because it represnets a peak event.

This same principle may also apply to cases where quantification,definiteness/specificity, and perfectivization by other phrases are involved in L&T'sclaim. We repeat some of their examples and our counter-examples below:

guanyuan dao Yindu qu qiuqu fojing.official to India go search Buddhist-sutra

b) taman zoudao 0 xianzai Afuhan de yige difangthey walk-to now Afghanistan DE a-M place

c) dedao-Ie fojing he foxiang.acquire-PFV Buddhist-sutra and Budda's-statue

(From Bai Mai Si 'The White Horse Temple')

'Thereupon, Emperor Ming sent two officials, Caiyin and Qinjing, to Indiato search for the Buddhist sutra. When they came to a place known todayas Afghanistan, they found the Sutras and the Statues.' (52.a) Wo zai nali zhu-Ie liangge yue.

I at there live-PFV two-M month'I lived there for two months.'(62.a) Jinnian lai suizhe Zhongwai wenhuajiaoliu Shiye

recent-year come follow-DUR Chinese-foreign culture exchange business

de fazhanDEdelopment

(56.a) Wo zai nar zhu-O liangge yue, jiu huilai Ie.I at there live two-M month, then return-come LE'I lived there for two months and came back.'

b) Beijing kaoya he 'Quanjude' dianhao ye piao 0 yang guo 0 haiBeijing roast-duck and Quanjude store-name also float Ocean cross sea

Rather than saying that the presence of the quantified noun phrase liangge yue 'twomonths' in (52.a) makes the event bounded so that the verb requires a -Ie (whichdoesn't occur in the other example), we can now claim that the verb zhu 'live' in(52.a) is in a peak clause but the one in (56.a) is in a non-peak clause. There is apiece of strong evidence for the claim that the first clause in (56.a) is a non-peakone: Invariably, native speakers feel that without a second clause, a portion like wozai nar zhu liangge yue doesn't sound fmished. The incompleteness comes from thefact that the clause is treated as non-peak. If so, the hearer/reader naturally expectsa peak clause to follow. Some grammarians attribute the incompleteness to theindeterminacy of time. But even when a past time such as qunian 'last year' is

c) chuandao 0 guowaitransmit-arrive country-outside

d) zhe jiu shi gengduo de ren changdao-Iethis then make even-more DE people taste-reach-PFV

added, it still sounds unfmished. A counter-argument might be offered, 'Of course,it doesn't sound fmished. It lacks a perfective marker to indicate its boundedness.'The argument is circular in itself. Why is it then that it becomes complete whenjiuhuilai Ie is added to it? Until there is a better explanation, the theory stands firmthat the perfective -Ie serves to mark a peak event in Chinese narrative discourse.;

Another pair of previously discussed sentences illustrate the same point:

peak-marking is necessary at all, ban rather than bang is more likely to get marked.Nevertheless, the statuses and relative positions of the two verbs do not necessarilyprevent bang 'help' from becoming the peak as long as there is a discourse need.E.g.

(64) Shangxingqi tamen bang-Ie wo ban xingli, jintian wo qing tamen chilast-week they help-PFV I move baggage, today I invite then eat

(53.a) Wo pengdao-Ie Lin Hui.I bump-arrive-PFV Un Hui'I bumped into Un Hui.'

wanfan.dinner

(56.b) Wo zuotian pengdao-O Lin Hui, ta shuo mingtian laLI yesterday bump-arrive Un Hui, she said tomorrow come'I bumped into Lin Hui yesterday. She said she would come tomorrow.'

'Last week they helped me with my baggage and I am inviting them to adinner tonight. '

The absence of -Ie in (56.b) can be similarly explained by the overt peak-markingprinciple. Note that the same degree of incompleteness would be felt by nativespeakers for (56.b) if the second clause is left out. The presence or absence ofzuotian 'yesterday' is inconsequential.

Finally, the peak-marking function of -Ie also serves to answer a naggingquestion posed by Lu and Ma (1985:3) in their insightful discussions ofa numberof function words: Why is it that Sentence (a) below cannot take -Ie after the verbbang 'help' while Sentence (b) must take one after the same verb?

where 'helping' is the main event that constitutes the reason why 'I am invitingthem to a dinner.' Pragmatically, (63.a) as a whole doesn't serve the peak (Le.foreground--ef. Section 2.3) function in a narrative. It usually sets up a backgroundor circumstance where a narrative is to take place.

On the other hand, (63.b) is obviously a commentary on a past single event. Asa single event and nothing else is to follow, the event verb must be marked with aPFV marker.

In addition to observing and analyzing such facts as discussed in (61) and (62),Chang (1986) also provides rationales for why there is a need for an overt peakmarking device in Mandarin and why there are exceptions to the rule. Three factsare advanced as related to the overt peak-marking principle and other uses: iconicityof word order, lexcial collocation, and the semantic nature of Chinese action/eventverbs.

Tai (1985) convincingly argues that Mandarin Chinese utilizes word order toexpress temporaVlogical sequence extensively. In other words, juxtaposition ofphrases or clauses almost always means temporal sequencing, if not otherwiseindicated. If so, then a series of events verbally represented one after another wouldbe signaling their occurrence in that order without singling out which of the eventsis the culminating one. This extensive use of word order for temporal and logicalsequencing, therefore, makes it necessary for Mandarin Chinese to employ an overtpeak-marking device. The selection of -Ie for this use is perhaps because of itsforegrounding function as a perfective aspect marker.

The other two facts will be presented in connection with some other discoursefunctions of -Ie in the next two section.

(63.a) Wo xia che yihou, Zhongguo tongxue reqingde bang-Ol*-IeI get-off vehicle after, Chinese school-mate warmly help-Ol*-PFV

wo ban xingli.I move baggage

'When I got off (the train), some Chinese school-mates helped me withmy baggage.'

b) Zuotian nimen zhenshi bang-Iel*-O wo hen da de mangoyesterday y'all really give-PFV/*-O I very big DE help'Yesterday you guys really gave me a big help.'

There are two reasons why (63.a) cannot t~ke -Ie. One is structural, the otherpragmatic; but both of them are based on the peak-marking function of theperfective marker. Structurally, the verb phrase bang wo ban xingli 'help me movebaggage' consists two verbs: bang 'help' and ban 'move'. The first verb bang isless dynamic semantically and less prominent positionally than the second verb banand therefore is less likely to serve for a peak event than the second verb. So, if a

Halliday and Hasan (1978) point out lexical cohesion as one of the najor cohesiveties in English. Lexcial cohesion has three types: repetition, synonymy and

collocation. The same devices work in other languages as well, including MandarinChinese. Chang argues that in order for events to form a genuine event line, theremust be lexical cohesion. In (62) above, for example, the verb phrases piao yang'float the ocean', guo hai 'cross the seas' exhibit synonymy. Futhermore, the verbspiao 'float', guo 'cross', and chuan 'transmit' all involve motion and direction,exhibiting lexical collocation. When no lexical cohesion is evident in a series ofverbal expressions, something other than a sequential order is needed to make theirrelation explicit. Oddly enough, -Ie is again called upon for this job. This time it isfor its function for marking 'anteriority' that -Ie is given the job.

The following examples illustrate this point:

'When I was luckily admitted into a Taipei municipal high school, my folksset off a string of firecrackers and we were completely immersed inhappiness for several days.'

(67) Jiali sui qiong, ye henxiaxin chou-Ie shikuaihome-in though poor, yet cruel-decide-mind pull-together-PVF ten-M

qian, gei mai-Ie shuang biejiao de pixie.money for buy-PFV pair cheap DE leather-shoe

(65.a) Wo chiwan-Ie fan jiu lai.I eat-finish-PFV rice then come'I'll come when I dinish eating.'

'Although we were poor, (my parent) nevertheless came to the difficultdecision. (They) pulled together ten bucks and bought me a cheap pair ofleather shoes.'

b) Ta zai ner zhu-Ie liangge yue cai zou de.she/he at there live-PFV two-M month then leave DE'She/he stayed there for two months before she/he left.'

In (66), the first two -Ie's are for marking anteriority, i.e. kaoshang 'be admittedinto' and ranfang 'set off' are explicitly marked as temporally and logicallypreceding the third verb gaoxing 'happy'. The third -Ie, however, serves the peak-marking function, as the event is a culminating one in the series. In other words, thethree events didn't just happen to have occurred one after another; they ratheroccurred in a cause-effect relationship. 'To be admitted into a high school' is thecause for 'setting off a string of crackers'. Furthermore, 'to be completely immersedin happiness for several days' is both the effect of 'to be admitted into a highschool' and the culmination of the celebration activities.

Similarly, in (67), the -Ie after chou 'pull together' marks the anteriority statusof this verb in relation to the next verb mai 'buy'. The -Ie with mai, however, marksthe peak-the culmination of the events.

The fact that the perfective aspect marker -Ie is used for two entirely differentfunctions might seem to be puzzling. In fact, there is a very good explanation forit. The peak-marking comes from the fact that the event is the final stage of a seriesof related events and that, as such, it is the finale of this portion of narrativediscourse. Recall that the perfective aspect is defined as 'indicating a boundedsituation with a focus on the endpoint of the situation' above. The peak-markingfunction is obviously derived from the notion of perfectivity by taking the wholeseries of events as a single event. On the other hand, the anteriority-markingfunction is derived from the same notion, but by a different route. Here, each of theevents in the same sentence is taken separately first, but together they areinterpreted as 'one doesn't begin until the end of another'. That is, the end of thefirst event is marked by -Ie as anterior to the next event.

Support for -Ie marking relative anteriority can be found from semantic studiesof the aspect, too. Shi (1990:107-109) states: 'Since completion is the result ofabounded situation marked as relatively anterior, the verb LE can be identified as amarker of relative anteriority.' Also see Huang and Davis (1989).

In (65), neither chiwan 'fmish eating' and lai 'come' nor zhu 'live' and zou 'leave'exhibit any lexical collocation. Their sequential word order would only denote thatone happens or happened after the other. There is a need for some marking toexplicitly indicate that they are not just some unrelated events which happen tooccur or have occurred one after the other in time. They are in fact closely related.The perfective -Ie comes in here to perform the function, which Chang calls'anteriority'. By 'anteriority' he doesn't just mean that one event precedes the otherbut also that the first one holds a cause-effect to the one that follows. Note that theconjunctive adverbsjiu 'then' in (65.a) and cai 'then' in (65.b) are used for thesame purpose of relating the two events. Leaving out either the conjunctive adverbor -Ie in the sentences in (65) would result in an odd-sounding though acceptablesentence, whereas omitting both would make the two sentences downrightunacceptable.

Here are some longer discourse fragments originally cited by Chang (1986: 100and 113, respectively):

(66.a) Dang wo jiaoxing kaoshang-Ie Bei-shi yisuo shiH gaozhongwhen I luckily admit-PFV Taipei-city one-M municipal high-school

b) jiali ranfang-Ie yichuan bianpaohome-in set-off-PFV one-string firecracker

c) zuzu gaoxing-Ie haoji tian.completely happy-PFV several day

Besides marking the peak: and relative anteriority, the aspect marker -Ie is involvedin some other non-syntactic issues. One ofthem is the priority for -Ie to occur witha past event expressed in a monosyllabic activity verb.

Chang (1986: 1Oland 114-116) observes that there is a strong tendency for theperfective -Ie to occur with a monosyllabic activity verb for a past event despiteother conditions ..

(68.a) Ni Sanshu YIJmg dao-Ie Guilin, wo yao ba ni songdaoyou third-uncle already arrive-PFV Guilin, I want BA you send-arrived

Guilin quoGuilin go

'Your Third Uncle has already arrived in Guilin and I want to send youthere.'

b) Zhege cun qunian hua-Ie sanwan duo yuan, gai-Iethis-M village last-year spend-PFV 30,000 more dollar, build-PFV

shijian fang banqi xueqian ban he xiaoxue ban.ten-M room run-start pre-school class and primary-school class

'Last year this village spent more than 30,000 dollars, built ten rooms,and started (running) pre-school and primary school classes.'

The -Ie's with monosyllabic verbs in (68) are almost mandatory in spite ofthe factthat they represent non-peak: events. Of course, with some changes in the context,some of them may become deletable: e.g. a clause-fmalle may be added to the endofthe first clause in (68.a), then the perfective -Ie mayor may not be used. Thisoption will be discussed in Chapter 4.

The reason that there is such a strong tendency for -Ie to occur with amonosyllabic activity verb for a past event can be found in the semantic nature ofMandarin Chinese verbs. Chang cites Chu (1978) as stating that Chinese action [Le.activity] verbs don't even express an active attempt without a -Ie or any resultativecomplement. Now, consider monosyllabic activity verbs. They are by nature verbswithout any resultative complement. Therefore, the only way for them to express 'an event having actually taken place is at least to have a -Ie affixed to them. Thisrequirement is so strong that it cannot be waived except in one case where there isanother Ie at the end of the clause. This exception is not surprising since theperfective -Ie and clause-final Ie are related to each other, both historically andsynchronically.

2.2.5.5. The Non-Occurrence of -Le: Verbs of Saying andVerbs with a Classical Flavor

Two other non-syntactic issues that involve the perfective aspect marker -Ie are itsnon-occurrences with verbs of saying when a quote follows and with verbs havinga classical flavor.

The following examples are from Chang (1986:104-105):

(68.a) Heizi de niang shaoshao chenmo-Ie yihuer, ba kuangdeng digeiHeizi's mother a-little silent-PFV a-while, BA mine-lamp hand-to

zhanggu, you zhufu shuo(*-Ie): 'Mingtian ling bu linghusbadn, then mindingly say tomorrow receive not receive

mianfen, dou zao diar huilai. 'flour, all early a-little return

'Heizi's mother remained silent for a while. She handed the miner's lampto her husband and remindingly said, "Whether or not you get the flourtomorrow, (try to) come home early.'"

b) Di-er tian Mingdi wen(*-Ie) dachen zhe shi zenmo yihuisecond day Ming-Emperor ask(*-PFV) minster this be how one-M

shi, yiwei dachen shuo(*-Ie), na shi fo de fali.matter, one-M. minister say, that be Buhha DE power

'The next day, Emperor Ming asked (his) ministers what that was all about.One of them said that it was Buhhda showing his power.'

(69) Jige yue hou, wo sui Sanshu quan jia zi Hainansome-M month after, with Third-Uncle whole family from Hainan

Dao ru(*-Ie) TaLIsland enter-PFV Taiwan

'A few months later, I went to Taiwan from Hainan Island with (my) ThirdUncle's family.'

The excerpts in (69) illustrate that a -Ie after a verb of saying (or asking) wouldrender the clause unacceptable ifthere is either a direct or indirect quotation.

While it is easy to see the non-occurrence of -Ie in this position, it is not so easyto explain what motivates such a constraint. Chang (1986: 117-118) thinks that

since the message is contained in a quotation, direct or indirect, the quotationcarries more important information than the verb of saying does. As a result, thequotation rather than the 'main' verb of saying is interpreted as the peak orculminating clause in Mandarin. This explanation is quite reasonable despite thefact that in English only the direct quotation is construed as in coordinateconstruction with the verb of saying or asking (Halliday, 1986:227-234). Theargument can be further strengthened by apparent exceptions:

entirety with a focus on the endpoint of this event.A monosyllabic activity verb demands a -Ie if it represents a past event because

of its inability to express an actual occurrence of the event without such acomplement. Verbs of saying and asking are NOT suffixed with -Ie if they arefollowed by a direct or indirect quotation, i.e. if they don't carry the main messageof the discourse. Another non-use of -Ie is with an activity verb that has someclassical flavor.

(71) A: Ni bu qu, yinggai xian gen tamen shuo yisheng.you not go, should first to them say one-M'If you are not going, (you) should let them know first.' We have examined the verbal suffix -Ie on different levels. Semantically, it signals

the boundedness ofan event (Li and Thompson, 1981); pragmatically, it indicatesfore grounding (Andreasen, 1981); and in terms of discourse, it marks peak eventand relative anteriority (Chang, 1986). All these functions are derivable from thebasic notion of perfectivity and they complement each other in their contribution tothe communicative mechanism of the language. While each of them serves somespecific purpose(s) at a given level, together they carry out the complex mission ofexpressing the complete idea of what 'perfectivity' means in Mandarin Chinese.The implication here is that the analyst can not just look at the verbal suffix -Ie fromone perspective without considering the ramifications from the other perspectives.Otherwise, the understanding of the Mandarin 'perfectivity' would not be complete.To show why it is so, we take another look at an earlier example in (66).

B: Wo gen tamen shuo-Ie wo bu qu, keshi tamen yiding yao wo quoI to them say-PFV I not go, but they certainly want me go'I told them I wasn't going, but they insisted that I go.'

The mini-dialog in (71) may seem to be a glaring counter-example to the claim, butin fact it only shows that the non-occurrence of -Ie with verbs of saying is certainlynot a hard and fast rule on the basis of any syntactic formulation. In (71) SpeakerA suggests that the listener tell the people involved that she/he is not going. SpeakerB gives a response where he/she presupposes that Speaker A has already knownshe/he is not going. Therefore, the main message in the response is not what thespeaker told the other people involved but whether the speaker did the telling. Asa result, the verb shuo 'to tell' gets marked with -Ie. On the other hand, the messagewo bu qu 'I wasn't going' is almost incidental, and it is there just to provide acontrast with the next clause tam en yiding yao wo qu 'they insisted that I go'. In thiscase, the use of -Ie, instead of its non-use, contributes to the cohesion of the dialog.

Indeed, the mini-dialog in (71) demonstrates that the same principle for -Ie tomark the most salient message in a discourse underlies both the use and non-use of-Ie with verbs of saying/asking.

The excerpt in (69) shows that a classical verb like ru 'to enter' is notcompatible with the perfective -Ie. This constraint is again very reasonable owingto the late emergence ofthe affix. (Cf. Mei Tsulin, 1981.) Further evidence for theclassical flavor of the verb lies in its object: Instead of Taiwan, the shorter form Talis used.

(66.a) Dang wo jiaoxing kaoshang-Ie Beishi yisuo shili gaozhong,when I luckily admit-PFV Taipei-city one-M municipal high-school

b) jiali ranfang-Ie yichuan bianpao,home-in set-off-PFV one-string firecracker

c) zuzu gaoxing-Ie haoji tian.completely happy-PFV several day

'When I was luckily admitted into a Taipei municipal high school, my folksset off a string of firecrackers and we were completely immersed inhappiness for several days.'

As we mentioned above, Chang (1986:100) accounts for the three occurrences of-Ie by saying that the first two mark 'anteriority' and the last one marks 'peak'.While his account is sufficient for the purpose of the discourse organization of thepassage, it has to be complemented by analysis at the other levels for a total viewof the structure. The verb gaoxing 'happy' in (c) is a state verb, which doesn'tusually permit the coocurrence of the perfective aspect. (For example, theappropriate translation of 'He/She was very happy yesterday' is Ta zuotian hen

In this section, we have claimed that the main discourse functions of the perfective-aspect marker -Ie are (a) to indicate the peak event in a sequence of related eventsviewed as sub-events, and (b) to mark anteriority of an event in a temporal seriesof events that would otherwise be regarded as unrelated. The seemingly oppositefunctions are actually derived from the same notion of viewing an event in its

gaoxing without a -Ie following the verb.) But with the following duration phrasehaoji lian 'several days', the predicate is made to express a bounded event andbecomes eligible for the suffix -Ie for perfectivity. On the other hand, the -Ie afterkaoshang 'to be admitted through an entrance exam' in (a) is more likely to be leftout than the other two because the conjunction dang 'when' indicates that the clauseis in some sense a subordinate one and is thus more of a background than the othertwo clauses. A background clause may not have the overt marking of the perfective-Ie. The optional use of -Ie in this case may certainly be accommodated by one ofSpanos' principles, Le. the principle of non-redundancy in (59.a).

The example above illustrates that a full understanding of the suffix -Ie can notcome from any single perspective but it must cover consist in all the functions thatit performs at different levels. Though 'perfectivity' has mostly been associated withaspect-the viewpoint superposed over the verb semantics, its pragmatic anddiscourse functions must also be viewed as part and parcel of the total system. Morerecently, Zhang (1996) reiterates this view ina an aptly argued article on Mandarinaspect in general.

2.3. Aspects and Foreground/Background

As far as I know, there has been no wcrk done on the discourse functions of theexperiential-aspect marker -guo and inchoative-aspect marker -qilai. It is possible,however, to figure out their relative strengths vis-a-vis other aspect markers in termsof foregroundinglbackgrounding force. 19 Hopper and Thompson (1980) claim thatthe higher a clause is in transitivity, the more likely it serves the foregroundfunction. Of the ten features of transitivity that Hopper and Thompson give, wediscuss three that are relevant to the evaluation of the aspect markers in this chapter:

(a) Kinesis: -Le and -qilai are positively associated with this feature as they areused to indicate the actual happening of an event. -Guo, zai- and -zhe are negativelyassociated with it because they are not for indicating the actual happening of anevent, but for viewing an event as an experience (-guo) and for its duration (zai- and-zhe).

(b) Telicity: Only -Ie is positively associated with this feature as it expresses theendpoint of an event. All the others are negatively associated with it.

(c) Punctuality: -Le, -qiali and -guo are capable of occurring with punctualverbs and they are positively associated with punctuality; but zai- and -zhe are bydefinition incapable of doing so and are therefore negatively associated with it.

To the three features, we could add 'subordination' as a fourth one forbackground. But, because foregrounding features have been used above, we willadd 'independence' as a feature in opposition to 'subordination'. Since -zhe always

occurs in a subordinate structure, it is negatively associated with 'indpendence'. Theothers are all positively associated with it. They are listed in (72) below.

-Ie + + + +

-qilai + + +

-guo + +

zai- +

-zhe

The result of the evaluation is tabulated in (72) above. It is clear from theconfigurations of the feature specifications that the perfective-aspect marker -~eisthe highest of all in its fore grounding power. The others can be ranked ill adescending order: -qilai, -guo, zai-, and -zhe. Thus, a scale of the degree offoreground/background for the aspect-markers in Mandarin Chinese can beestablished as follows:

('-------------)

Foreground Background

With this scale as a point of reference, we will sketch a discourse network of theaspectual system of Mandarin Chinese in the next section.

2.4. The Discourse Network of Aspect Marking

The discourse functions ofthe Mandarin Chinese aspect markers are recapitualtedbelow in Section 2.4.1, together with their basic semantic features.

2.4.1. Summary of Aspectual Functions

endpoint; (b) indicates a peak event and therefore appears in foreground; and (c),due to its focus on the endpoint, also serves to explicitly express temporal andlogical sequence of events which would otherwise be less obviously so related. (74.a) Dang wo fu-zhe menba xiangwai zou shi,

during I hold-DUR door-knob toward-out walk timeB. -Qilai: (a) marks the beginning of an event; (b) introduces new information;

and (c) thus, appears in the foreground. Since it views the event only in its initialstage, it usually has to be followed by something else to bring the larger scene to afinish.

b) zong hui chuanlai yizhenzhen niu jiao sheng ...,always will transmit-come one-M-M cow call sound

C. -Guo: (a) marks a past occurrence or past occurrences of an event viewed asan experience; and (b), since an experience is by defmition related to the presentis more likely to supply background information for the discourse. '

c) niubeishang qi-zhe yige fangniuwa.cow-back-on ride-DUR one-M cowherd-child

d) Ta jiao Acong,he be-called Acong

D. Zai-: (a) marks an event viewed in its progression, and (b) as such, is time-dependent. When reference time is the present or the discourse time (which is thedefault time), zai- appears to be time-independent and thus may appear inforeground. Otherwise, it appears in background.

e) shi wojia yige yuanqinde haizi.be my-family one-M distant-relative-DE child

E. -Zhe: (a) marks an event with a focus on its duration and viewed as a state'(b) is dependent on the occurrence of another event; (c) thus, indicate~subordination and often serves as a manner adverbial; and (d) appears inbackground.

'When I walked out holding the doorknob, there always came some cow-mooing ...on the back of the cow was riding a child-cowherd. He was Acong,the child of a distant relative of our family.'

We give some statistical data and a few longer discourse excerpts to furtherillustrate the discourse network of the aspectual system. Further justification anddetailed discussion will be found in later chapters.

The two instances of -zhe in the excerpt are in background:juzhe 'holding' in (74.a)serves as a manner adverbial for the predicate xiangwai zou 'walk toward theoutside' and qizhe 'riding' in (74.c) provides a background by introducing the child-cowherd in anticipation ofa fuller description of him in the next two clauses. Theperiod at the end of(74.c) is a little misleading: it makes the clause look like theculmination of a series of events. In fact, the first sentence, (a)-(c), just introducesthe cowherd in order for him to be talked about. The switch from the full nounphrasefangniuwa 'child cowherd' at the end ofthe first sentence to the pronoun fa'he' at the beginning of the second sentence is a clear indication of continuationfrom what has just been introduced by adding new information. The same narrativecould very well be coded in English as ' ...riding on the cow was a child-cowherdwhose name was Acong, the child of a distant relative of our family.' The Englishrelative clause at the end is by no means subordinated to the other predicate. (Forfurther detail of relative clauses as subordinate structure, see Fox and Thompson,1990 and Section 6.1.2.1.1. of this volume.)

Next, we look at another passage for -guo:

Fang (1992:493-499) gives a total of 109 examples to illustrate the use of -qilai.~n27 out of the 109 cases, the predicate with -qilai is followed by another predicateIn the same sentence; in II others the predicate has either a perfective -Ie or aclause-fmalle. The rest of them end with the -qilai predicate having no indicationof whether it is the peak or not. The fact can be stated in another way: While in themajority ofthe examples it is not clear whether or not the -qilai predicate is in thefo.reground, it is nevertheless obvious that in II cases it appears in the foregroundWith the help of -Ie or Ie and in 27 others it appears in the background with anotherpredicate following each. This confirms our claim that the inchoative aspect marker-qilai is capable of occuring in the foreground.

The following excerpts (74)-(76) are taken from Zhu (1984:106-8). They areparts of a composition written by a junior high student. The composition is used ason~ ~f ~he samples in the section on 'Comment and Improvement on (Student)Wntmg . The suggested changes have been incorporated in the following but they

(75.a) Kexi wo hen pa niu,it's-a-pity I very fear cow

b) suoyi yizhi meiyou qi-guo ta.so all-the-time did-not ride-EXP it

t) Zheshi, Acong pao-Ie guolai,this-time, Acong TUO-PFVover-come

It is interesting to note that the English translation has to code the predicate with-guo in a subordinate clause. A closer look at the Mandarin conjunctive adverb kexi'it's a pity' reveals the same structure: it actually takes the whole sentence as itsdomain and should likewise be interpreted as the main predicate. It becomes clearerwhen we consider what goes before the sentence. It is a long passage where the girl-writer admires the young cowherd so much that she implicitly wishes she had hadmore chances to be with him. Finally, she regrets that she didn't have the courageto ride on the cow of the cowherd. The culminating statement cannot be that shedidn't ride on the cow, but it has to be her regret that she didn't. A possibleparaphrase of (75) is (75') below, which gives a better indication of what is theforeground and what is the background:

g) kanjian wo ku,see I cry

h) jide zhi nao ta de naodai.worry-DE straight scratch he DE head.

'The little fish swimming back and forth looked very lovely. I liked themvery much. Mom promised to catch some for me; but she failed to catchany, so I started crying. At this time, Acong ran over and, seeing I wascrying, was so worried that he just scratched his ...head.'

(75'.a) Wo hen pa niu,I very fear cow

The clause with -qilai in (e) above can certainly be taken as the culminating event,but at the same time it can also be treated as the casue of a following event. It istherefore appropriate to rank it higher in foregrounding than -zhe and -guo.

The next excerpt is from Xie (1992:24). The discourse is a story told by a nativespeaker of Chinese on the basis of a pitcure about a man coming home.

b) suoyi yizhi meiyou qi-guo ta,so all-the-tie did-not ride-EXP it

c) zhen kexi.real pity

(77.a) ...na shi tade muqin,...that be his mother

'(That) I was afraid of cows and never rode on the cow was a real pity.'

This excerpt, therefore, serves to demonstrates that the -guo predicate appears in thebackground.

Next we look at another passage for -qilai:

b) taitai he haizi dou zai ner deng ta ne.20

wife and child all at there wait him NE

c) Tade nu'er zheng zai nabian gen nainai yiqi kan yibenhis daughter just at there with grandma together read a-M

(76.a) Xiao yu youlaiyouqu, feichang ke'ai.little fish swim-come-swim-go, very lovely

huace.picture-book

b) Wo hen xihuan ta,I very like it/them

d) Nainai jiao ta nian shu,gmadma teach her read book

c) Mama daying gei wo nongjitiao lai,Ma promise for me get some-M come

e) taitai zheng zai-da dianhua,wife just PROG-call telephone

d) keshi meiyou zhuodao,but didn't catch-hold

t) xunzhao you meiyou geng-duo de gongzuo jihui,look-for have not-have more DE job opportunity

e) wo jiu da ku-qilai.I then big cry-INCHO

g) wen ta jintian zenmoyang,ask him today how

h) zhaodao shenme ...shi you-Ie ma.find what...work have-PFV Q

' ...that's his mother, (his) wife and (his) child, (are) all there waiting forhim. His daughter is there reading a picture book with her grandma.Grandma is teaching her to read. His wife is making a phone call (to) lookfor some more job opportunity. (She) asks him how the day was and ifhefound any ...ifthere is some work.'

Clauses (b) through (t) above all serve to provide a descriptive background for thestory .. The peak e~ent in the narrative is the wife's inquiry of her husband uponreturnmg home. It IS therefore clear that the zai- predicate in (e) is the backgroundrelative to the -Ie predicate in (h).

Shen (1987: I) cites the following passage to illustrate the relationships betweenthe three original 'sentences': clauses (a)-(c), (d)-(g) and (h).

(78.a) Song Bingbing shuo-zhe,Song Bingbing say-DUR

b) han-zhe leihold-DUR tear

c) qidaide wang-zhe Shen Yawei.eagerly look-at-DUR Shen Yawei

d) F~ngr chuidong-zhe ta rousi yiyangde chang fa,wmd blow-move-DUR she soft-silk same-DE long hair

e) xiang yuese yiyang cangbai de lianjia shang gua-zhe liangkelike moon-color same pale DE cheek on hang-DUR two-M

liangliangde leizhu,bright-bright-DE tear-pearl

f) na gei ren yi rougan de hong chun weiwei he-zhethat to person with flesh-feel DE red lip slightly c1ose-DUR

g) angqide lian shi Shen Yawei xiudao-Ie ta wenxintilt-up-DE face cause Shen Yawei smell-get-PFV she warn-sweet

fenfanf de bixifragrant DE nose-breath

h) Zai zhe yi shunjian, Shen Yawei bei dadong-Ie.at this one moment, Shen Yawei BEl move-PFV

'Song Bingbing, talking with tears in eyes, looked at Shen Yawei eagerly.The breeze wasc aressing her silk-like long hair. Twinkling tear dropshanging on her cheeks as pale as the moonlight, the pink fleshy lips slightlyopen, the tilted-up face pushed her warm and sweet breath toward ShenYawei. At this moment, Shen Yawei was moved.'

Shen believes that the three original 'sentences' are linked by their meanings. Thefirst one, (a)-(c), 'vaguely tells that Song Bingbing was eagerly looking at ShenYawei.' The second one, (d}-{g), 'specifically describes how eager she was.' Thethird one, (h), 'points out the result.' Therefore, 'the first and the second sentencesare linked by a general-specific relationship and the third one has an activity-resultrelationship with the other two.' Regardless of whether Shen is right in hisdescription of the meaning relationships, the ties between the three 'units' can bemade much clearer by the formal markers of -zhe and -Ie. All the instances of thedurative marker -zhe are for background through subordination, though theirinterpretations may be different from one another in terms of specific discoursefunctions. Both the first and the second occurrences of the perfective marker -Ie arefor indicating foreground through a peak event, though the second one may also beregarded as marking the end of discourse. (See Section 4.3. I for the latter function.)We will take up this passage again in our discussions of subordination in Chapter6 and of the definition of the Chinese 'sentence' in Chapter 9.

The passages in (74}-{78) illustrate the relative strengths of the aspect markersfor marking foreground and background in discourse. This function of theirs,however, is not independently performed; it is achieved through their syntactic andsemantic functions such as subordination, peak-marking, temporality, etc. Theyseem to be intervowen into a network that relates all levels of the language in termsof interpretation and usage. What we have done in this chapter is to extend from thetraditional syntactic and semantic studies of the aspects in Mandarin to the study oftheir discourse (and some other pragmatic) functions. By doing so, we hope that wehave made some contibution to the better understanding of this intricate andintriguing portion of the language.

I. There is another form which may be considered an aspect marker: thereduplication of some event verbs, e.g. kankan 'try to look'. This form is sometimesrecognized as marking the tentative aspect. But because of its similarity in form tothe syntactic construction of 'verb + cognate object', e.g kan(yi}kan 'take a look'and its dissimilarity from the other aspect markers, it is not always recognized for

its grammatical function. (Cf. Chao, 1968:204-5)2. Situation types (iv) and (v) are actually a verb plus a complement of some

sort. The verbs without a complement, i.e. da, shui, gai, and zou, should probablybe better categorized under 'activity'. On the other hand, an activity or semelfactiveverb may shift into another type when a complement (including an object) is addedto it: tingjian 'hear' and tihuai 'kick (and) damage' as semantic units may beviewed as achievement verbs.

Single achievement and accomplishment verbs in English generally find theirChinese counterparts in the form of 'V + COMP'. (See Chu, 1976; He, 1992.) Thisis one of the peculiarities that deserves serious consideration in applying atheoretical model to the description of Chinese. It seems that the Chinese verbalsystem may simply have three situation types: State, Activity and Semelfactive. Theother two types are expressed by the combination of a single verb plus acomplement, though some of such combinations have already been lexicalized, e.g.kanjian'see'.

3. The quote is originally from Robert Iljic (1987) L 'Exploitation Aspectuelledeja Notion de Franchissment en Chinois Contemporain. Paris: L'Harmattan.

4. L&T's original wording is: 'Sentence ...assumes that s/he went to China andclaims that this took place at least once during last year and is now over', wherewhat is over is obviously an event. We think that the event is over in both theperfective and the experiential sentences. The difference is that the experientialsentence explicitly claims that the state associated with the event is over. In theexample in (19), the state of being is the result from going to China, i.e. being inChina. There will be some more discussion on this problem in Section 2.2.2.2.

5. A topical entity is an animate or inanimate discourse participant presented asthe topic of the discourse.

6. Some others who have discussed the suffix as an inchoative aspect markerare Su (1974) and Chu (1983).

7. As far as I know, Su (1974) was the first to treat zai- as the progressivemarker. Some PRC scholars do recognize zai as having a progress meaning, but itis usually treated as a variant of an adverb (zheng)zai 'in progression'. (Cf. Lu andMa, 1985:1 16-117; Beida, 1982:529.)

On the other hand, -zhe is considered a progressive-phase marker in Li et al(1984:329).

8. Verbs of posture, according to L & T (1981:219), are ones that 'denotepostures or physical dispositions of an entity at a location.' They include: zuo 'tosit', zhan 'to stand', dun 'to squat', xie 'to rest', gui 'to kneel', tang 'to lie', ting'tostop', shui 'to sleep', etc. While the defmition may exclude others likejang 'to put',gua 'to hang', na 'to hold in hand', /iu 'to save or stay', cun 'to save or deposit',etc.; they behave the same way as the other group with regard to the aspect marker-zhe. In fact, these are exactly the ones that L&T address in another subsectionunder the title 'Activity Verbs Signaling States Associated with Their ActivityMeanings'. The use of the term 'posture' thus appears less justifiable syntactically

than semantically.9. Smith (1993) calls -zhe the stative-imperfective. In a theoretical sense, the

term is more descrpitive than '(non-progressive) durative'.10. For more detail about the indeterminate nature of coverbs, see Chang (1977).11. Chu (1987:31) attributes the possibility of such an implication to the Maxim

of Quality of Paul Grice's Cooperative Principle in specch act.12. I was told by some northern speakers that they are not very keen on the

perception of this difference between (68.b) and (69), though southern speakersseem to be more aware of it. Thus, there may be some change going on with thesubordinating function of -zhe.

13. The plain paraphrasing here is a little different in wording from Chu(1987:32).

14. LE represents the form Ie without differentiating between the perfectivesuffix and the sentence-final particle.

15. I owe this comment to one of the anonymous reviewers of an earlier versionof this book manuscript.

16. In Andreasen's transliteration, the zhao is rendered as the druarive suffix-zhe, for which the same grapheme is used as for zhe. With zhao, there can also canbe a potential -Ie after cazhao.

17. For a summary view of the same theme, see Chu and Chang (1987), whichis based on a joint paper at the 1985 CLTA meeting.

18. The term 'sentence' apparently is used in a loose sense. As we know, thenotion 'sentence' in Chinese is not as well defmed as in English or any otherWestern languages. One of the ultimate aims of writing this book is to morerigorously define a Mandarin Chinese structural unit that is closely similar to theWestern sentence. See Chpater 9 for more detail.

19. For detailed treatment offoregrounding and backgrounding, see Chapter 6.20. The status of the two instances ofzai in (b) and (c) is unclear as to whether

they should be considered prepositions or the progressive aspect markers. Butwhichever way, they don't affect our point that these predicates are in thebackground.

Modality Adverbs in Discourse

Mandarin adverbs have largely been studied for their modifying function. Many ofthem, however, also function as connectives. Li and Thompson (1981:635ff &653ft) attribute two connective functions to a few dozen movable adverbs: Forwardand backward linking. As movable adverbs, their linking function is quitetransparent and they are generally recognized as conjunctions at the same time.There are, however, other adverbs, mostly non-movable monosyllabic ones, whoseclause-linking function in discourse is not as obvious because of their non-initialposition in the clause. Until recently they have always been treated in terms of theirmodifying capacity only. Such a treatment, from our viewpoint, is at bestincomplete. To remedy this shortcoming in Chinese grammar, we will try to lookat the clause-linking function of those adverbs in this chapter.

There are some other noteworthy facts about the non-movable monosyllabicadverbs that perform linking functions in discourse. Many of them are used toexpress modality and they often form sets whose members are usually similar incertain ways but are quite different in other ways. Those facts may seem to beirrelevant to their discourse function at first glance. But, upon closer examination,they can be considered one of the sources for their discourse function. We willtherefore examine some modality adverb sets (which are commonly used butinsufficiently understood) to better understand their behavior as connectives.

3.1. Modality, Modality Adverbs and Connectives

In this section, we try to explain what is meant by modality in general, why someMandarin adverbs are called modality adverbs, and how they serve the connectivefunction in the language.

Lyons (1977:787-849) distinguishes between two main categories of modality: 'epistemic and deontic. The former has to do with the truth of the proposition, whichis mainly realized in factual vs. counter-factual expressions (e.g. subjunctive vs.indicative); the latter is concerned with obligation and permission, which are mostlyexpressed by modality verbs in English (e.g. must for obligation and may for

(l.a) I wish I had been in Shanghai. (subjunctive)b) I remember I was in Shanghai. (indicative)

(2.a) You must fmish the homework in three hours. (obligation)b) You may leave now. (permission)

As a result, modality has often been said to be expressed by verbal morphology ormodal verb under the grammatical category 'mood' in English and in many otherWestern languages. In fact, however, modality can also be expressed by othermeans. One of them is by particles, which we will discuss in the next chapter. Stillanother is by adverbs. Lyons (1977:451-2) also recognizes as part of modality somesentential adverbs that express the speaker's opinion or attitude 'towards theproposition that the sentence expresses or the situation that the propositiondescribes.' The following examples are taken from Lyons (1977:451).

(3.a) Frankly, he doesn't stand a chance.b) Fortunately, no one was hurt.c) Possibly, it will rain.d) Wisely, he said nothing.

Palmer (1986:2) also believes that though 'the notion of modality ...is much morevague [than that of mood] and leaves open a number of possible definitions,...something along the line of Lyons' "opinion or attitude" of the speaker seemspromising. '

The treatments of both authors confirm that adverbs genuinely constitute a mainportion of modality that expresses the speaker's opinion or attitude. We will thusexamine some Mandarin adverbs' linking function in discourse on the basis of themodality that they express.

Mandarin Chinese has many adverbs that express modality. The following examplesare adapted from Chu (1983:46ft):

shi: For emphatic assertion. E.g. Wo shi yao quo 'I DO want to go.'zhenshi: 'really'. E.g. Zhege ren zhenshi bu xianghua. 'This man is REALLY

impossible. 'keshi: For contrast on the nominal immediately preceding it. E.g. Women

keshi xihuan zai haibian dujia. ' ...but WE like to have our vacations at thebeach.'

b) Adverbs of Evaluation:

ke(shi): 'but; however'. E.g. Ke(shi) Ribenhua gen Zhongguohua yiyangnanxue. 'BUT, Japanese is as hard to learn as Chinese.'

jiu(shl): For contrast on the predicate following it. E.g. Wo jiu(shl) bu xihuanzheyangde mafan. 'I ruST don't like this kind of trouble.'

ye: 'necessarily' in a negative context. E.g. Alasijiaye bu tai leng. 'Alaskaisn't very cold (AS YOU MIGHT THINK).'. .. .

dou: 'even'-often used with /ian. E.g. Zheyang rongyl de wentl (han) sansUlde xiaohai dou hui. 'An easy question like this, EVEN a 3-year-oldknows how (to solve it).'

you:'again'-for disapproval. E.g. Ni zuotian cai kanle yichang dianying,zenmo you yao qu kan Ie. 'You just saw a movie yesterday and you aregoing to see one AGAIN.' ... . .

juran: 'unexpectedly'-with disapproval. E.g. Dlanymg mmgxm Jurandangle zongtong. 'Wow, a movie actor became the President! (Could youbelieve it?)'

ben/ai: 'in the fIrst place; to begin with. E.g. Wo ben/ai jiu bu xihuan chiniupai. 'I don't like to eat steaks, TO B~~IN 'YITH.' .. , . .

jianzhi: 'downright; just'. E.g. Zhezhong shlpanzhl buke Slyl. ThIS kmd ofthing is DOWNRIGHT incredible.'

guoran: 'just as expected'. E.g. Kelindun ~oran danxuan Ie. 'ruST ASEXPECTED, Clinton was elected (President).'

qishi: 'as a matter offact. E.g. Qishi, Mai-a-mi ye hui xiangdang leng. 'ASA MATTER OF FACT, Miami can be pretty cold.'

c) Adverbs of Judgment:

yiding: 'defmitely; surely'. E.g. Mingtian yiding hui xiayu. 'It DEFINITELYwill rain tomorrow.'

juedui: 'absolutely'. E.g. Nijuedui dei kanwan zheliangben shu cai ne~gjige.'You ABSOLUTELY must fmish reading these two books (otherwIse youwon't be able) to pass (the course).'

yexu: 'perhaps; maybe'. E.g. Xiage xingqi tianqi yexu hui hao yidiar. 'Nextweek the weather will PERHAPS be better.'

Though the adverbs listed above are labeled differently, they all expressmodality. Those in (a) assert the truth of the propositions; those in (b) express thespeaker's opinion or attitude, and those in (c) signify necessity/obligation. orpossibility. This list, of course, is illustrative in nature rather than an exhaust~velisting. For example, in the same semantic fIeld as yexu 'perhaps' are others hkedagai 'probably' and keneng 'possibly' and disjunctives like huozhe 'or' and haishi'( either) ...or'. . .

We have given a relatively large number of 'adverbs of evaluation', WhICh

express the speaker's opinion or attitude, because it is this kind of adverbs that mostprominently perform the discourse function of linking clauses and even sentences.

3.1.3. The Connective Nature of Modality Adverbs

The modality adverbs listed in (4) are mostly illustrated with single sentences. Insome cases, it is obvious that single sentences can not satisfy what is needed toshow the gist of the adverb. Thus, additional meanings are given in parentheses inthe translations, e.g. for ye andjuran. But, even in other cases where no additionalmeanings are explicitly given, it is quite clear that some implications are present.For example, a sense of disapproval is implicit in you as well as in its Englishtranslation 'again'. The example for ben/ai clearly cannot serve as a completestatement in itself; it must either follow from some other remarks or be followed bya further statement. It is in this sense that the adverbs serve as connectives.

It seems obvious that restrictions on the use of connectives should form animportant portion of the grammar. As a matter of fact, while restrictions on theChinese connectives that may be easily equated to English conjunctions have beentreated to some extent, 1 those on others like the ones listed in (4) have not beenstudied until very recently. 2 We will thus illustrate a few of the restrictions thatmust be imposed on some of the adverbs in order to understand them properly.

The adverb keshi, which may occur either clause-initially or between subject andpredicate, is examined in the following:

(5) Wo xiang mingnian xuan Riwen, keshi Riwen tai nan Ie.I think next-year take Japanese, but Japanese too hard LE'I want to take Japanese next year, but it's too hard.'

The utterances in (5) and (5') differ only in the position of the adverbial connectivekeshi, but one is felicitous while the other is not. One explanation might be thatthere is no need to mention the topic Riwen after it has just been introduced. But theexplanation is refuted by the presence of the two instances of the noun Riwen in (5).Another explanation might be that the repeated forms are too close to each other in(5'). It might be so. But there can be other reasons why (5') is infelicitous. Let uslook at some more examples.

(6) A: Wo xiang mingnian xuan Riwen.'I want to take Japanese next year.'

B: (i) Keshi Riwen hen nan ou!but Japanese very hard OU'But Japanese is very hard (let me warn you)!'

(ii) ?Riwen keshi hen nan ou!'Japanese, however, is very hard (let me warn you)!'

The mini-dialog in (6) shows that the two consecutive occurrences of Riwen are stillunacceptable even when they occur in two separate speakers. The mini-dialog in (7)below may clarify the problem.

(9) A: Zhejia guanzi de niupai hen hao, ni jiao yike ba.this-M restaurant DE steak very good, you order one-order BA'This restaurant has very good steaks; why don't you order one?'

(7) A: Wo xuele yixueqi de Xibanyawen, hen meiyisi; suoyi xiaI study-LE a-semester DE Spanish, very boring; so next B:?Wo benlai jiu bu xihuan chi niubai; tai gui Ie, wo bu

I to-begin-with just not like eat steaks; too expensive LE, I notxueqi xiang xuan Riwen.semester think take Japanese xiangjiao.

think order'I took Spanish for a semester and it was boring; so I want to takeJapanese next semester.' '?I don't like steaks, to begin with. (Theirs) are too expensive for me to

order one.'B: (i) Keshi Riwen hen nan ou!

(ii) Riwen keshi hen nan ou! The dialogs above contrast with each other. In (8), Speaker A assumes that B is nottaking any action about the steaks and Speaker B follows up on it by using thestatement with benlai. In (9), however, Speaker A doesn't assume anything aboutSpeaker B's action or non-action towards the steaks and B doesn't have anythingofthat kind to follow up on. Thus, the use of benlai is inappropriate.

In order for the use of benlai to be appropriate, it seems that the speaker mustagree with something that has been said or implied. Furthermore, benlai does notonly indicate an agreement but also serves to follow up on the point by supplyingfurther facts or reason for it. Negative evidence can be deduced by omitting theclause with benlai in B's rejoinder in (9). As soon as it is left out, what remainsbecomes an appropriate response to A's suggestion. As a matter of fact, just the frrstportion of response without benlai jiu would also be a felicitous answer to thesuggestion. Speaker B could even retain the use of benlai by choosing to follow upon Speaker A's assumption of 'the restaurant having good steaks.' All thesepossibilities are illustrated below in (10).

The responses ofB in (7) are the same as those in (6), yet (i) and (ii) are equallyacceptable here. The real explanation here is that A provides a contrast in (7) whileno such explicit contrast is available in (6). Contrast on the preceding nominalseems to be exactly what the non-clause-initial keshi is supposed to express.

From the examples, we conclude that, to understand the real differences betweenthe clause-initial and the non-clause-initial keshi, it is not sufficient just to use thestructural term 'movable' to describe their different positions. Nor is it sufficient totranslate one as 'but' and the other as 'however' in the fashion of English grammar.It is rather the presence or absence of contrast on the nominal in the context thatcalls for the use of one or the other. It is, therefore, the discourse context thatdistinguishes them from each other.

Below are some more discourse segments to illustrate the connective nature ofanother adverb benlai 'to begin with'.

(8) A: Zhejia guanzi de niupai hen hao, ni zenme bu jiao yike?this-M restaurant DE steak very good, you how not order one-order'This restaurant has very good steaks; why aren't you ordering one?'

(l0) A: Zhejia guanzi de niupai hen hao, ni jiao yike ba.'This restaurant has very good steaks. Why don't you order one?'

B: Wo benlai jiu bu xihuan chi niupai; zheme gui, wo dangranI to-begin-with just not like eat steak; this expensive, I of-course

B: (i) Tai gui Ie, wo buxiang jiao.too expensive LE, I not-think order'They are too expensive for me.'

bu jiao Ie.not order LE

(ii) Wo bu xihuan chi niupai.3

I not like eat steak'I don't like to eat steaks.'

(iii) Zher de niupai benlai hen youming; keshi tai guihere DE steak to-begin-with very well-known; but too expensive

Ie, wo bu xiangjiao.LE, I not think order

'I know the steaks here are well-known; but they are too expensiveforme.'

It should be clear by now that the adverb benlai serves to match the presentclause to a previous assumption by both agreeing with it and adding further supportto it. Any simple translation like the ones in (4) or any purely semantic explanationwill not able to do justice to its connecting function between clauses and sentences.

In this section, we have discussed several topics: (i) What is meant by modality, (ii)How modality is expressed, (iii) Adverbs as a means of modality expression, and(iv) Chinese modality adverbs having the tendency to link clauses. In the discussion,an illustrative list of modality adverbs is introduced and a few detailed examples aregiven to show how important the analysis of discourse context is in understandingsuch adverbs.

The next section will discuss some sets of modality adverbs in terms of theirlinking function in discourse.

3.2. Modality Adverbs and Their Discourse Function

In this section, we will discuss in detail the discourse functions of three sets ofmodality adverbs. They are: (i)jiu and cai; (ii) bing, dao andye; and (iii) you, haiand zai. No translation is given for any of them because the best one can do is apartial translation. Set (ii) might be glossed 'on the contrary' and Set (iii), 'again'.But, the glosses only show some of the similarities among the members and nodifference is revealed between them. This non-distinction of the differences betweenthem has been one of the main difficulties of treating modality adverbs in Mandaringrammar, especially in grammars for foreign learners. The situation with Set (i) iseven worse. It simply defies any translation without specific contexts. This isperhaps the main reason why quite some attention has recently been given to thisset. Representative work can be found in Biq (1987) and Mei-chun Liu (1991 &1993).

The following descriptions are mostly adapted from previous researchers citedwherever appropriate.4 Reanalysis in terms of discourse is added by the presentauthor.

Before starting our discussion, there are a few disclaimers to make. The numberof adverbs to be treated are minuscule in comparison with the total number in thelanguage. Beida (1982) lists 466 main entries for adverbs. Our treatment only servesas a demonstration for what can be better done with such adverbs. The reason weput the adverbs in sets is that we can limit our treatment to the similarities anddifferences between the members of the sets. Some of the adverbs may have othermeanings and functions, which are not treated or even mentioned unless they arerelevant to our discussion of the relations between the members. For example, yeis not treated for its function to connect two events/situations for their categorialsimilarity.

The most intriguing aspect of this pair of adverbs is, as Biq (1988:72) puts it, thatthey sometimes appear synonymous with each other and sometimes antonymous.In her analysis, Biq unravels the puzzle by treating both as 'quantification adverbswhich place four types of focus on some element involved in speech: parametric,limiting, emphatic and temporal.' The examples below (from Biq, 1988) serve toexplain her analysis.

(a.i) Zhangsan lai, Lisi cai quoZS come, LS CAI go'Only if Zhangsan comes will Lisi go.'

ii) Zhangsan lai, Lisijiu quoZS come, LS nu go'IfZhangsan comes, Lisi will go.'

(b.i) Zhangsan chi sange pingguo cai bao.ZS eat three-M apple CAI full'Only after eating three apples does Zhangsan get full.'

ii) Zhangsan chi sange pingguo jiu bao.ZS eat three-M apple JIU full

'When he eats (as few as) three apples, Zhangsan gets full.'

(c.i) Zhangsan mingtian cai zou.ZS tomorrow CAI leave'Zhangsan won't leave until tomorrow.'

ii) Zhangsan mingtian jiu zOU.ZS tomorrow nu leave

presupposed fact while jiu emphatically confirms it as such. This differenceexplains the unacceptability ofjiu in (a) and cai in (b).

Recall the analysis of ben/ai in Section 3.1.3, where it is recognized as anadverb for agreeing on a previous assumption and adding further information tosupport the assumption. We noticed that it conveniently cooccurs withjiu. Whenit is deleted, the followingjiu has to be deleted as well. The reason that they comeand go together, though redundantly, is that they share the function of confirminga previous assumption/presupposition. That way, they reinforce each other.

In (11), both cai andjiu are said to be used for 'focus on condition'. In (a), Lisi'sgoing is conditioned on Zhangsan's coming; in (b), Zhangsan's getting full isconditioned on eating three apples; and in (c), Zhangsan's leaving is conditioned onthe time 'tomorrow'. The difference between the (i) and (ii) sentences is that caiindicates that the condition is necessary while jiu indicates that the condition issufficient.

(a) Zhangsan cai/jiu kanwanle diyi zhang.ZS CAIIJIU read-finish-LE first chapter'Zhangsan only fmished reading the first chapter.'

(a) A: Wanfan shenme shihou hao de?dinner what time ready DE'When was the dinner ready?'

(b) Cai/Jiu sange ren lai canguanle huazhan.CAIIJIU 3-M person come visit-LE painting-exhibit'Only three people came to (visit) the painting-exhibit.'

B: (Wanfan) cai/*jiu hao.(dinner) CAI/*JIU ready'It was ready just now.'

In (12), both cai andjiu are said to serve the function of putting a focus on a'limited set of choices within a specific domain' and they are synonymous. Thistranslates into the English adverb 'only'.

(b) A: Wanfan shenme shihou hao?dinner what time ready'When will dinner be ready?'

B: (Wanfan) *cai/jiu hao.(dinner) *CAIIJIU ready'It will be ready soon.'(a) A: Women mingtian qu kan neige dianying, zenmeyang?

we tomorrow go see that-M movie, how-about'How about going to this movie tomorrow?' In (14), both cai andjiu assert about an inunediacy between the speech time and the

time of the narrated event in the sentence. But cai points to a PAST time andjiupoints to a FUTURE time.5

Looking through the examples in (lIHI4), we find that, with a few apparentexceptions, the use of cai andjiu has to do with the linking of clauses. They link'one person's coming' to 'another person's going' in (lO.a), and 'a person's beingfull' to 'hislher eating three apples' in (lO.b). They link the present statement to aprevious one in a conversation by confirming or denying an assumption present inthe previous statement in (13) and by focusing on the immediacy of the event timerelative to the speech time in (14).

The apparent exceptions are (lI.c) and (12). Though they are simple sentencesin structure, they all involve some expectation. In (I2.c) cai expresses a time laterthan expected andjiu expresses one sooner than expected. Both cai andjiu in (12)indicate that the number mentioned is smaller than expected. In other words, thosesentences must occur in a context where an expected time/number/quantity exists,explicitly or implicitly.

What we have seen in the above examples and their discussion is the fact that

B: Zhezhong dianying wo cai/*jiu bu kan ne!this-kind movie I CAI/*JIU not see NE'This kind of movie, I (for one) won't see it!'

(b) A: Women dou qu kan dianying, ni weishenme bu qu?we all go see movie, you why not go'We are all going to a movie. Why aren't you going?'

B: Wo bu guano Wo *cai/jiu bu quoI not care I *CAIIJIU not go

'I don't care. I am just not going (as you well know).'

In (13), both cai andjiu put a focus on the proposition of the sentence where theyoccur. The difference is that cai emphatically denies the proposition as a

the two adverbs do not just occur within the context of a simple proposition. Theymust follow from some condition, assumption, or expectation. Conditions areexplicitly mentioned in the same sentence, as in (II). Assumptions may beexplicitly expressed, as in (l3.b) and (14), or less explicitly expressed, as in (B.a).Expectations seems to be a default explanation, as in (12).

On the basis of the contexts, generalizations can be arrived at concerning theinterpretations of the two adverbs. When a default expectation is involved, both caiandjiu carry the meaning of 'less than expected', though there are a few caseswhere only jiu can be used.6 They are largely synonymous. (But, see examples in(17) below.) When either a condition or an assumption is involved, cai andjiu areantonyms. If the condition is non-temporal, cai asserts that the condition isnecessary whilejiu asserts that it is sufficient, as in (I I.a & b). When the conditionis temporal in nature, cai means 'later than the expected time' and j iu means 'soonerthan the expected time', as in (I I.c). If the assumption is non-temporal, caiindicates a strong disagreement with the assumption while jiu indicates a strongconfirmation, as in (13). Finally, if the assumption is temporal, cai means animmediacy between the event time in the past and the speech time (or a referencetime) whilejiu means an immediacy between the future event time and the speechtime (or a reference time), as in (14). For this reason, cai is strongly compatiblewith gangang 'just now' andjiu is strongly compatible with mashang or like 'atonce'. What is noteworthy here is that, except the default meaning, all theinterpretations are contingent on their contexts, whether linguistic or non-linguistic.

Summarizing our discussion of the meanings of the two adverbs, we give thechart in (15) below:

Some more examples are cited from Beida (1982) to further verify theinteractions between the contextual environment and the semantic interpretationsof the two adverbs. (The number after each example indicates the page numberwhere it is found in Beida.)

(a) Chabuduo chile ershi nian de ku, cai ba tamen daidao zhemealmost eat-LE 20 year DE suffering, CAI BA they bring-to this

da. (110)big

'Only through nearly 20 years' suffering, did (i) bring them (i.e. thechildren) up.'

(b) Ta biyele, jiu dao biede difang qu gongzuo. (292)he/she graduate-LE, JIU to other place go work'He/She will leave for work after graduation.'

The cai in (16.a) indicates that only after nearly 20 years of suffering did (i) bringthem uIJ---:-anecessary condition. Thejiu in (l6.b) indicates that upon graduation,he/she wIll leave for work-a sufficient condition. But, if the conditions are~te~ret.ed as tem~or~l, then (l6.a) wi~1be t~en to mean 'nearly 20 years is a longtime -I.e. the bnngmg up of the chIldren IS accomplished later than one wouldlike. Likewise, (l6.b) will be interpreted as 'his/her leaving will soon happen aftergraduation' .

Expectation:(See Note 6)

less than expected, as in (12):scalar contrast

less than expected, as in (12):simple contrast (a) Wo yujian yige qingnian zhanshi,jinnian cai/*jui ershiyi-sui. (109)

I meet a-M young soldier, this-year CAI/*JIU 21-years-old'I came across a young soldier, who was only 21 years old.'

sooner than expected, asin (11.c.ii)sufficient, as in (I I.a.ii)& (I I.b.ii)

(b) Guniang, erzi, guye dou zoule, *cai/jiu shengxia wo zhege laodaughter, son, son-in-law all leave-LE *CAI/JIU remain I this-M old

gui. (290)ghost

Temporal: immediate past, as in (l4.a)Non-Temp: strong disagreement, as in (B.a)

immediate future, as (l4.b)strong confirmation, as in(l3.b)

'(My) daughter, son, and son-in-law are all gone, (and) there remains onlythis wretched old me.'

interchangeable. The expectation in (17.a) is that an average soldier is perhaps inmid- or late-twenties. Thus, the range of ages provides a scale of contrasts and cai,rather thanjiu, indicates such a scalar contrast. On the other hand, the expectationin (17.b) is for the family to be together. The contrast is between togetherness andseparation-which is a simple one. Thus,jiu, instead of cai, is used to indicate sucha contrast.

(a) Lao Bao jielijieba shuoshang lao bantian, cai shuochu tade daoli.Old Bao mumblingly talk-up quite long-time, CAI talk-out his reason

'Lao Bao mumbled a long time before he made clear his reason why.'(109)

(b) Liang sui de shihou, wojiu chengle gu'er. (189)two year-of-age DE time, I 1IU become-LE orphan'I became an orphan at the age of two. '

As 'Old Bao's mumbling' is quantified by a time-duration adverb lao bantian 'quitea long time', (18.a) is interpreted as containing a temporal condition. The cai takeson a 'later/longer than expected time' meaning. But, of course, the sentence mayjust as well be interpreted as containing a non-temporal condition. Then, the cai willtake on the 'necessary condition' meaning and the translation will become 'Onlyafter Old Bao mumbled for a long time did he make his reason clear.' In (18.b), thetime connective de shihou rules out the non-temporal condition interpretation andthejiu can only be viewed as indicating a 'sooner than expected' condition-i.e. 'Atthe young age of two, I became an orphan.'

(a) Ni cai xia shuo. (111)you CAI blind talk'You (not anybody else) are telling lies!'

(b) Wojiu zhidao ta bu ken lai. (292)I 1IU know he/she not willing come'I know he/she wouldn't come.' (Didn't I tell you that?)

The remark in (19.a) is a retort following an accusation that someone (mostly likelythe present speaker) is telling lies. The cai serves to deny the assumption. Thestatement in (19. b) confirms either that he/she would not come or that the speakerknows that he/she would not come. The jiu indicates such a strong confirmation.

As Beida (1982) does not provide dialogs like those in (13), no examples canbe found for illustrating the 'temporal assumption' category.

In this section, we have discussed in detail the contextual implications for theset of modality adverbs cai and jiu. If most of the interpretations of the adverbsdepend on the context in which the clause occurs, there can be no denial that theadverbs are mostly used for discourse cohesion/coherence. It is no wonder then thatgrammars generally fail to capture the important uses of the adverbs by trying todescribe them within the confines of isolated sentences ..

Finally, we give a graphic representation of the discourse functions of cai andjiu in the following. The numbering corresponds to that of the examples used above.Each formula represents the propositions linguistically realized in that order.Parentheses enclose what is implied but not physically present. The arrow with caiorjiu in the middle means that the two propositions are linked by that adverb, whichis understood to occur in the second proposition.

a) Necessary Condition -cai-> resultb) Sufficient Condition -jiu-> result

a) (Expectation) -cai-> scalar contrastb) (Expectation) -jiu-> simple contrast

a) Condition -cai-> later-than-usual realizationb) Condition -jiu-> sooner-than-usual realization

a) (Assumption) -cai-> strong disagreementb) (Assumption) -jiu-> strong confirmation

a) Past time -cai-> immediate pastb) Future time -jiu-> immediate future

The direction of the arrow indicates that the proposition on the left is linked by theadverb to the one on the right. The implication here is that the first proposition issubordinated to the second one. Clause order and subordination will be taken up inChapter 5.

The reader is also referred to Shao (1997) for an insightful analysis of thesemantic and syntactic ramifications ofthe adverb cai.