Aspect or Manner? A Study of Reduplicated Adverbials in Mandarin Chinese

Aspect or Manner? A Study of Reduplicated Adverbials in Mandarin Chinese Siaw-Fong Chung Chu-Ren Huang Department of English National Chengchi University No. 64, ZhiNan Road Section 2 Wenshan District, 11605 Taipei, Taiwan Department of Chinese and Bilingual Studies The Hong Kong Polytechnic University AG522, Core A Hong Hum, Hong Kong sfchung@nccu.edu.tw churen.huang@polyu.edu.hk Abstract In this paper, we attested modifiers in Mandarin and their effects on the verbal complexes. In the past, the Aktionsart of verbs is often discussed within the verbal events. Here, we discuss how modifiers can change or modify the aspects of the verbal semantics by examining several (reduplicated) modifiers in Mandarin – [慢 慢(的)V] [mànmàn(de)V] ‘slowly’; [好好 (的)V] [hǎohǎo(de)V] ‘nicely’; and [快/趕 快(的)V] [kuài/gǎnkuài (de)V] ‘quickly’. We found that 快 快 kuàikuài ‘quickly’ highlights an endpoint, 慢 慢 mànmàn ‘slowly’ focuses on the iterative small segments of the activity. The results showed that these adverbials, among other linguistic units, that mark a viewpoint change, would also mark aspects – interative/stage and prospective. 1 Introduction Verbal aspects can be marked on the verb or by adjuncts such as durational phrase and endpoints (Dowty 1977, Smith 1997). The peripheral marking of verbal aspects seems to be well motivated in languages where verbs are already richly inflected with tense and agreement, as due to the need for other elements to share the information load (see examples in (1) from Smith (1997: 18; italic added)). However, what happens in a language where verbs are known to be marked with aspect only? Would it still be necessary for peripheral marking of aspects in such languages? And if so, why? (1) (a) Bill knew the truth. (Stative) (b) Suddenly Bill knew the truth. (Achievement) (a’) Mary coughed. (Semelfactive) (b’) Mary coughed for an hour. (Activity) (a’’) Kim played a set of tennis on Friday. (Accomplishment) (b’’) Kim always played a set if tennis on Friday. (Habitual Stative) Verbs in Mandarin are grammatically marked for aspects only. Aspects that are not marked by verbal complexes did not receive as much attention, other than the well-established cases involving durational phrases or measure of endpoint similar to English (Smith 1997). We observe, however, that there is an interesting collocational constraint between reduplicated adverbials and certain verbal aspects: For instance, 慢 慢 ( 的 ) mànmàn(de) ‘slowly’ can appear before semelfactive verbs, but not 好好(的) hǎohǎo (de)] ‘nicely’, or 快快(的) kuàikuài (de) ‘quickly’. An example is given in (2). (2) (a) 慢慢閃爍 mànmàn shǎnshuò ‘to blink slowly’ (b) ?好好閃爍 hǎohǎo shǎnshuò ‘to blink well’ (c) ?快快閃爍 kuàikuài shǎnshuò ‘to blink quickly’ We will thus investigate the role of adverbials in verbal aspects in Mandarin. The modifiers investigated in this work are mostly reduplicated, but we also included two similar forms of ‘quickly’ (快快 kuàikuài and 趕快 gǎnkuài). Apart from comparing the antonyms ‘slowly’ and ‘quickly’, we would also like to see the differences between ‘slowly’ (3a) and ‘nicely’ (3b), and the verbs that follow each one. (3) (a)在 我們 能 走 之前 ， 一定 zài wǒmen néng …

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