A Contrastive Analysis Of Tense And Aspect Between Persian And Chinese ——A Perspective From Persian Temporality And Chinese Spatiality

The tense and aspect categories have been one of the constant concerns of the linguistics field.The essential characteristics and differences of the Persian and Chinese tense and aspect categories have not yet been fully revealed,and thus call for further and urgent academic attention.As an Iranian,I deeply feel the importance of this research.The present study,by taking the view of "the temporality of English and spatiality of Chinese"（Wang Wenbin 2013a,2013b,2019）,aims to probe into the differences between temporality and spatiality existing in the Persian and Chinese languages.With the object of the study in view,we try to observe the similarities and differences of the Persian and Chinese tense and aspect categories and their behaviors by referring to the mutual translation of a Persian novel and a Chinese one,with our special attention focused on the differences between them.There are three main questions being brought up here:First,what are the characteristics of the predicates（tense and aspect）in the Chinese translation of the Persian novel The Blind Owl（（?））.Second,what are the characteristics of the predicates（tense and aspect）in the Persian translation of the Chinese novel Running Through Zhongguancun（《跑步穿过中关村》）?Third,what are the similarities and differences of the tense and aspect categories between Persian and Chinese languages showing up in the original novels and their translations and What are the main hidden reasons for these similarities and differences that can demonstrate the Persian and Chinese national attitudes and cognitive elements lying behind?The data of this research is obtained from a Persian novel（?）and its corresponding Chinese translation《瞎猫头鹰》and a Chinese novel《跑步穿过中关村》and its corresponding Persian translation（?）（?）.With the above three questions in mind,we use a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods to explore the tense and aspect categories in Persian and Chinese languages.First of all,starting from the literature review,we define tense and aspect and classify them in the two languages.What this study finds is that the two languages both have tense and aspect categories,but each has its own characteristics.The tense and aspect of Persian are mainly reflected in the predicate verbs of sentences through grammatical means and morphological changes,but the tense and aspect of Chinese are not necessarily displayed in the predicate verbs of sentences.The tense category has not yet reached a high level of grammaticalization in Chinese,and its classification remains unclear so far,but this study discovers that image schema is one of the main means to designate the aspect category in Chinese.Then,based on the data analysis,this study attempts to reveal the characteristics of the Persian and Chinese tense and aspect categories.There are four main findings of this study:First,there are five main features of Chinese translation of predicates in the Persian novel（s）:（1）Persian predicate verbs may not appear in the Chinese translation.（2）Persian predicate verbs can change their sentence structure in the Chinese translation,whose details are presented as follows:1)Turn into a "shi"（是）sentence;2)Change to the word 有);3)Change to the word"zai"（在）;4)Change to the words to "shi"（使）,"rang"（让）and "ling"（令）.（3）Persian predicate verbs can convert verbs into nouns.（4）Persian predicate verbs can be expressed by idioms in the Chinese translation.（5）Sentences with the perfect or non-perfect subjunctive in Persian can be converted into verb-complementary structures in the Chinese translation.Second,there are also five main features of the Persian translation of predicates in the Chinese novel（s）:（1）Chinese non-predicate verbs can be converted into the predicate verb structure（s）in the Persian translation,whose details are shown as follows:1)Noun predicate sentences or adjective predicates are converted into verb predicates.2)The word "是" is converted into a new general verb.3)The word "有" is converted into a new general verb.4)The word "在" is converted into a new general verb.（2）The Chinese verb-complement structure is converted into a new verb.（3）Chinese predicate verbs can be converted into verb infinitives or the structure of preposition+verb infinitives as the object of a sentence in the Persian translation.（4）Turn verbs into conjunctions or preposition.（5）The phenomenon of changing semantics and supplementing the Persian translation of Chinese verbs by the translator’s sense of language.Third,this study notices that based on the analysis of 9189 predicates,including 4172 Persian predicates and their corresponding Chinese translations and 5017 Chinese predicates and their corresponding Persian translations,there are both similarities and differences existing in the tense and aspect systems of the Persian and Chinese languages.Tense and aspect systems in the two languages have more differences than their similarities.The two languages have both tense and aspect categories in common,but the linguistic waysfor expressing the tense and aspect in each language are different from each other,exhibiting the idiosyncratic features of the Persian and Chinese languages.87.51%of the Persian predicates and 72.33%of the Chinese predicates can be directly translated into the corresponding language,and the structure of the predicate verbs remains unchanged.Data analysis shows that the predicates in the Chinese novel in the process of Persian translation change more than the predicates in the Persian novel in the process of Chinese translation.This is because when the Chinese sentences with noun predicates or other structures of predicates are translated into Persian,a verb with its tense and aspect markers must be obligatorily added to the translation to fulfill the meaning of sentence and shows its tense and aspect.However,verbs in Chinese sentences are not obligatory,and Chinese tense and aspect can be expressed through context or other elements in the sentence.This study believes that strong temporality will reflect a high degree of grammaticalization in some aspects of the language,especially in the tense and aspect categories,while strong spatiality will reflect a low degree of grammaticalization in some aspects of the language,especially in the tense and aspect categories.Fourth,Persian has strong temporal characteristics,while Chinese has strong spatial characteristics.This study observes that Chinese tense and aspect have a homogeneous relationship with Chinese strong spatiality and Persian tense and aspect hav a homogeneous relationship with Persian strong temporality,respectively.Chinese tense generally has little relationship with verbs.In many cases,a Chinese sentence does not have not a predicate verb.However,in a Persian sentence,the verb presents the tense and aspect and is taken to be the core component,and the Persian tense and aspects are usually reflected in the morphological change of the verb.The results of this research show that the Chinese tense category has not yet reached a high level of grammaticalization,not because the Chinese people do not pay attention to the concept of time,but because the Chinese people tend to percei ve and express（often realize）time by means of existing spatial things.Such way of perception and expression makes Chinese sentences tend to be nominal in nature,such as Chinese noun-predicate sentences and independent nominal sentences.The position of nouns in Chinese sentences is stronger than that of verbs,because nouns are the means of expressing space.However,the Persian-speaking people pay more attention to action,change or process.When this characteristic comes to the Persian language,it makes the use of grammatical tools necessary in Persian sentences.In order to express the grammatical relation of a predicate verb,the grammatical tools of morphological changes,i.e.the use of tense and aspect markers,are preferred by the Persian speakers.But it is not the case with Chinese speakers.In summary,this dissertation discusses the tense and aspect of the Persian and Chinese languages,finds that the differences in the tense and aspect features involving the two languages are more than their similarities,and observes that the underlying reasons and cognitive factors behind these features lie in the "Persian-Chinese view of temporal and spatial differences".The results of the contrastive analysis shown in this thesis through quantitative and qualitative methods prove that the strong temporal characteristics of Persian tense and aspect categories and the strong spatial attributes of Chinese tense and aspect categories.This research is beneficial not merely to the study of Persian and Chinese tense and aspect,and to the contrastive analysis of Persian and Chinese,but also to the study of Persian and Chinese as a second language acquisition and the compilation of relevant textbooks,especially to the development of the research on cognitive grammar of Persian and Chinese.