On the theory of aspect and Chinese aspect systems

The aspectual meaning conveyed by a sentence basically consists of two major components: the eventuality type conveyed by the verb constellation and the information concerning which part of the eventuality is presented by an aspect marker. To account for these components, two subtheories are presented: the theory of eventuality types and the theory of presentation.The theory of eventuality types deals with the internal structure of eventualities. Relatively elaborate structures are assigned to eventualities. A State is an eventuality without structure. An Achievement is a complex of a change and a Result State. An Activity is a sequence of Achievements or Accomplishments. An Accomplishment is a complex of an Activity and a Result.The theory of presentation is concerned with how eventualities are introduced into the discourse domain. A Perfective marker presents an Initial Event with a contextually defined right-hand boundary. An Imperfective marker presents some middle part of an eventuality. The part presented can be a dynamic Subevent or a part of the Result State. Information conveyed by aspect markers, when introduced into the ever-changing discourse domain, can lead to entailments and implicatures of various kinds. These entailments and implicatures narrow down the possible interpretations of subsequent sentences.There are five aspect markers in Mandarin (the Perfective zero, -le and -guo and the Imperfective zai and -zhe) and six in Cantonese (the Perfective zero, -...