A Typological Study Of Tense-aspect Features Of Serial Verb Constructions In The Framework Of Event Structure

This thesis demarcates and classifies Serial Verb Construction（SVC）neatly,proves the validity of the Principle of Temporal Sequence（PTS）for verb order,discovers a lexical aspectual feature pattern of SVCs all over the world and analyzes in detail the number,position and scope of aspect markers cross-linguistically,especially those of Mandarin Chinese SVCs.To achieve the research,the theory of Event Structure is adopted,according to which SVCs are demarcated and classified into three types in line with temporal relations of sub-events.With abundant examples from 53 languages,a systematic analysis of tense-aspect features is carried out from a typological and contrastive perspective in two aspects: lexical aspectual features and overt tense-aspect markers.Referring to three pairs of lexical aspectual features（telicity/atelicity,duration/non-duration and state/dynamism）,the thesis discovers that in co-temporal SVCs（Se₁=Se₂）,VP1 is either（-,+,+）or（-,+,-）;in non-overlapping sequential SVCs（Se₁<Se₂）,a qualified VP1 should be（+,+,-）or（+,-,-）;VP2 is always unrestricted.For sequential SVCs（Se₁<Se₂）whose sub-events are partially overlapped in time,only one possible set is found so far: VP1（-,+,-）,VP2（+,-,-）.Tense is always shared by VPs in an SVC,but a universal tense-aspect marking pattern has not been discovered.Generally,SVCs can have single,concordant,optional concordant or separate marking;the scope of the aspect marker varies from case to case.Mandarin Chinese SVC is a typical separate marking construction,whose selection and scope of aspect markers are determined by the SVC type,lexical aspectual features and the property of the aspect marker.Moreover,in some languages one of the VPs in an SVC is being grammaticalized into an aspect marker.These discoveries provide not only universal implications for cross-linguistic studies on SVCs,but also a broad typological perspective for Chinese SVC studies,which is illuminating for in-depth research in the future.