Making some progress on the progressive aspect zài in Mandarin Chinese

ABSTRACT: Taking into account data hitherto neglected, this article examines the progressive aspect zài 在 in Mandarin Chinese and related issues. We argue in favour of the constituency [AspP zài 在 [V- zhe 着]] and demonstrate important syntactic and semantic differences between the progressive aspect zài 在 and the durative aspect - zhe 着 . Importantly, unlike ‘ zài 在 V’, ‘V- zhe 着’ is only acceptable as the sole predicate in a root sentence when interpretable as a (derived) state. Otherwise, the presence of the progressive aspect zài 在 is required: ‘ zài 在 V- zhe 着’. This crucial role of zài 在 is often obscured by its phonological fusion ( haplology ) with the preposition zài 在 ‘at’ heading an immediately following prepositional phrase: NP [AspP zài 在 [VP [PP zài 在 NP] [V- zhe 着 NP]]] => NP ZÀI 在 NP V- zhe 着 NP. The presence/absence of an underlying progressive aspect zài 在 (having fused with the preposition zài 在) is reflected in the choice of negation. Since the progressive aspect zài 在 must be negated by méi 没, not bù 不, it follows that no underlying aspectual zài 在 is present when it is bù 不 that negates a VP with a zài 在 PP adjunct: NP bù 不 [VP [PP zài 在 NP] VP]. By contrast, when there is an underlying aspectual zài 在, the negation méi 没 is required, resulting in the surface sequence ‘NP méi 没 ZÀI 在 NP VP’. Finally, given that a subset of auxiliaries, some stative verbs as well as state-denoting ‘V- zhe 着’ are negated by méi 没, negation of ‘ zài 在 VP’ by méi 没 is compatible with the status of ‘ zài 在 VP’ as a state, hence able to be true at a moment. 摘要: 本文探讨迄今为止在汉语进行体标记“在”及相关研究方面被忽略的问 题。我们 赞成 进行体 “ 在 ” 和持续体 “ 着 ” 共现的句法结构为 [AspP 在 [V-着]]，并认为其体现了二者之间重要的句法和语义区别。不 同于“在 V”，当“V-着”表示派生的同质性状态时，它只在根句作为 主要谓词才会被接受。否则，进行体“在”需要出现。“在”的这一关 键性作用常常由于引导介词短语的与它语音融合的介词“在”的出现而 被掩盖。深层结构的进行体“在”的隐现反映在否定词的选择上。由于 进行体“在”必须被“没”否定，而非“不”，所以当“不”否定包含 “在 PP”附加语的 VP 时，进行体“在”不出现。相反，当进行体“在” 出现时，句子被否定时要求“没”出现，从而出现表层结构的顺序为 “NP 没 [[在 NP] VP]”。