The Two-dimensional Geometric Analysis Of The Aspectual Coercion In Qiong+VP Construction

The study of aspect always attracts the attention of scholars at home and abroad and the research of aspectual coercion is especially a hot topic in recent years.In the light of the relevant literature,the author finds that there are mainly two deficiencies in aspectual coercion study: one is that most scholars adopt the traditional approach,categorizing aspect based on aspectual characteristics such as durative and telic,and the other is that most of the existing aspectual research focus on aspectual coercion in English,while aspectual coercion in Chinese dialects does not receive enough attention.This thesis tries to construct a new and more systematic theoretical framework for aspectual coercion research and explore the interaction of qiong+VP construction and different kinds of verbs in the dialect of Daning County in Shanxi Province based on the heterogeneity-based model put forward by Hasar and Ahmadnejad and the two-dimensional geometric framework built by Croft.It focuses on the aspectual changes after the verbs enter the construction and on how the changes are presented on the two-dimensional model.The study shows that after entering qiong+VP construction,the aspectual features of accomplishment verbs and activity verbs remain unchanged.That is,they have not experienced aspectual coercion because the former is not compatible with qiong+VP construction,while the latter is utterly consistent with the construction.In contrast,the aspectual characteristics of achievement verbs,semelfactive verbs,and state verbs have changed in varying degrees due to the construction’s coercion.However,the changes are reflected exclusively on the t dimension in the two-dimensional geometric model,whereas the features on the q dimension remain as before.This thesis makes a detailed description and explanation of the interaction between qiong+VP construction and different verbs through one-dimensional analysis and two-dimensional demonstration.It provides reference for future studies of aspectual coercion,makes up for the deficiency of aspectual coercion study in Chinese dialects and facilitates understanding the construction.