A Study Of The Aspect Category In French

The term "vid" originates from Russian grammatical studies.Its terminological concept travels far beyond Russia and represents itself in other languages.The dissertation investigates the definition,classification,essence and representative model of aspect category,with a focus on aspectual phenomena in French in order to provide the evidence for the existence of aspectual system in French.Besides Introduction and Conclusion,the dissertation consists of 5 chapters as follows:Chapter ? presents the notion of aspect and the category of aspect,and proposes the definition and classification for aspect at the level of general linguistics.According to theoretical presuppositions and research methodologies in general linguistics,it is proposed that aspect category exists in different languages and it is a linguistic category which represents the relationship between eventuality and time by linguistic means.This definition would be considered as a criterion for judging aspectual phenomena in a particular language.Furthermore,in the light of the complex relationship between linguistic forms and meanings,both formal and semantic criteria are applied to classify the aspect.In terms of form,the aspect could be classified into grammatical aspect,lexical aspect,syntactical aspect and textual aspect in accordance with different kinds of linguistic means used in aspectual phenomena.In terms of meaning,the aspect could be classified into 4 semantic groups in accordance with aspectual distinctions in aspectual phenomena.They are as follows:the 1st group is concerned with the duration of actions,including durative aspect and punctual aspect;the 2ed group is concerned with the stages and endpoints of actions,including prospective aspect,global aspect,cursive aspect,resultative aspect,retrospective aspect,inchoative aspect,secant aspect and terminative aspect;the 3e group is concerned with the repetition,frequency and number of occurrences of actions,including iterative aspect,frequentative aspect,habitual aspect and semelfactive aspect;the 4e group is concerned with the sequence of actions,including all kinds of sequential aspects.Therefore,it follows that the formal classification of aspect embodies the semantic classification of aspect,and the latter constitutes a semantic set of the former.Both of them would be considered as the criteria for classifying aspectual phenomena in a particular language.Chapter 2 constructs the theoretical framework in order to reveal the cognitive source of aspect and design a time-eventuality model to illustrate the category of aspect.In the light of cognitive linguistics,the dissertation bases its theoretical framework on image schema theory and conceptual metaphor theory proposed by Lakoff&Johnson,and supplements it with the viewpoints of such cognitive linguists as Langacker,Taylor and Talmy,using for reference the relevant studies of French linguists like Guillaume and Gosselin.In fact,the image schema is the basic cognitive pattern formed in human experiences and precondition for metaphorical projections,while the conceptual metaphor is the main cognitive mechanism rooted in human experiences and extension of image schemas.Both of them could be used to elucidate human language.Image schemas reflect fundamental cognitive rules of human beings,which comprise at least 6 facets,i.e.attention,motion&rest,boundary,granularity,ion and perspective.All of them are functioning as the common basis for human beings to understand entity,space and other cognitive objects.Conceptual metaphors project the internal structure of an image schema from one experiential domain onto another,making the cognitive rules that are related to the concept of vehicle equally applicable to the concept of tenor.In an ontological metaphor,the entity is a vehicle for the eventuality,including "an event is an object" and "non-event is substance" as two parts;in a spatial metaphor,the space is a vehicle for the time,i.e."time is space".Those metaphors are combined to form a new one,namely "the eventuality in time is the entity in space".In this compound metaphor,there are not only a projection from the domain of entity onto that of eventuality and a parallel one from the domain of space onto that of time,but also a mapping from the dialectic between entity and space to that between eventuality and time.The categories of tense and aspect in human language trace their cognitive source in the cognitive connection between eventuality and time.When an eventuality is included by time,it is significant that the eventuality occupies a certain position in time and it would maintain relatively temporal relations with another.These are what temporal values concern.When an eventuality includes time,it is significant that the eventuality contains a certain stretch of time,it might have bounds and a structure,and it would be among several eventualities similar to itself or different from one another.These are what aspectual values concern.Based on the cognitive source of aspect,a time-eventuality model is put forward as the cognitive model for illustrating the category of aspect.This model refers to the model proposed by Croft where double axes are perpendicular to each other,and takes the advantages of single-axis models and parallel-axes models,so as to have more representative modes and greater representative space.It is suited to represent the essence of aspect as well as its semantic classification,and available to describe aspectual phenomena in a particular language.Chapter 3 examines the grammatical aspect in French and classifies the aspectual phenomena on the grammatical level in French.The grammatical aspect in French is characterized by the union of explicit grammatical forms and definite aspectual values.In the inflection of a French verb,all the simple forms express non-resultative aspect,with global aspect and secant aspect as two cases,while all the compound forms express resultative aspect,with the derived meaning of global aspect in some contexts.Chapter 4 examines the lexical aspect in French and classifies the aspectual phenomena on the lexical level in French.The predominant feature of the lexical aspect in French resides in the fact that linguistic forms are less noticeable while aspectual distinctions are subtle.Verbs express different types of eventualities by their intrinsic meanings,affixes in verbs express iterative aspect,inchoative aspect,terminative aspect,etc.,and verbal periphrases express mainly stages related to the progress of an action,corresponding to prospective aspect,cursive aspect,retrospective aspect,inchoative aspect,secant aspect and terminative aspect.Action nouns and nominal syntagmas keep approximately a parallel relation with verbs and verbal periphrases in terms of aspectual distinctions.Adverbs convey mainly 4 types of information about actions,i.e.frequency and number of occurrences,intensity,time as well as sequence,corresponding to iterative aspect,intensive aspect,punctual/durative aspect and sequential aspect.Adjectives keep approximately a parallel relation with adverbs in terms of aspectual distinctions.Chapter 5 examines the syntactical aspect in French and classifies the aspectual phenomena on the syntactical level in French.The features of the syntactical aspect in French are the complexity of linguistic forms and the compositionality of aspectual meanings.In a clause,a verb is combined with an object,a subject or an adverbial to form a verbal syntagma,and its intrinsic meaning would be influenced by the semantic elements proper to the linguistic units serving as object subject or adverbial,which could change the global meaning of the clause;a verb adopts a particular grammatical form,whose aspectual value would cause the potential meaning of eventualities expressed by the verb or the verbal syntagma to convert into an actual meaning,which could equally change the global meaning of the clause.In conclusion,aspectual phenomena in French should be judged and classified on the definition and the double classification of aspect mentioned above.These aspectual phenomena are distributed on different language levels,using different kinds of linguistic means,and could be classified into grammatical aspect,lexical aspect,syntactical aspect and textual aspect;meanwhile,they express all kinds of aspectual distinctions,which could be embraced by the semantic classification of aspect.As regards the textual aspect in French,it is distinct from grammatical aspect,lexical aspect and syntactical aspect,and covers more complex aspectual phenomena,involving more influential factors.To sum up,these 4 types of aspectual phenomena in French are situated on a continuum from simplicity to complexity,with semantic connections and interactions between each other,they constitute the aspectual system in French,making the French aspectual system be in operation.For theoretical significance,the dissertation has provided an abstract and recapitulative definition of aspect at the level of general linguistics,put forward a complete and effective classification of aspect by formal and semantic criteria,and investigated the essence of aspect in the framework of cognitive linguistics.For practical significance,it has deepened the understanding of the aspect category,the aspectual phenomena in French as well as the French aspectual system,and contributed a lot in French teaching and translation.