Linguistic studies on the aspectual system of natural language have mainly focused on its semantics and morphology; the syntax of aspect has not yet received as much attention. In this dissertation, I provide a syntactic analysis of the aspectual system of Chinese. In analyzing the properties of situation aspect, I propose a unified syntactic structure that accounts for the two mechanisms of telicity marking in Chinese. First, I argue that like pre-verbs in Slavic languages, Chinese also has overt telic morphemes which are used to turn an atelic event into a telic one. For example, I claim that the morpheme wan 'to finish' is base-generated as the head of Inner Aspect Phrase in between vP and VP. This functional phrase is responsible for the telic reading of a sentence. I also claim that differently from languages such as English, whose telicity marking mainly depends on the quantity of the object, countability and boundedness of direct objects in Chinese are not directly responsible for telicity marking. Secondly, I demonstrate that the proposed analysis of telicity marking can also be used to account for the syntactic distributions of the resultative V-V compounds and V-de phrases. I argue that these two types of sentences also contain Inner Aspect Phrase that is responsible for the telic reading. I also claim that the difference in word order between these two constructions is due to morphological requirements and I illustrate how morphology may affect syntax in the derivation. Finally, I discuss imperfective viewpoint aspect in analyzing the distributions of the progressive zai and the durative -zhe. Starting from the close relation between locative expressions and progressive aspect cross-linguistically, I demonstrate that zai always functions as a preposition and is not itself the source of the progressive aspect. I also analyze the usages of -zhe and argue that like English present particle morpheme -ing, this imperfective particle also functions as a verbal suffix of two different types of imperfective aspect. It can be used to express progressive aspect as well as resultative imperfective aspect. The analysis provides a generalization of the imperfective viewpoint aspect in Chinese.

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nÃo hà / This research aims to analyze variation in the use of the imperfect of indicative and imperfective periphrases the past, literary memories produced in 2010 and 2012, by students of the 7th and 8th years, finalists of the Portuguese Language Olympiad Writing the Future. Accordingly, it intends to investigate factors (linguistic and extra-linguistic) motivate the choice of one form or another. Therefore, is based on the Sociofuncionalism the postulates defended by Tavares (2003), resulting theoretical wedding between Sociolinguistics variational (Weinreich, Labov And HERZOG, 1968; Labov, 1972, 1978, 1994, 2001, 2003, 2010) and the US shed functionalism (cf. Givon, 1995, 2001; HOPPER, 1991; HOPPER & TRAUGOTT, 1993; TRAUGOTT, 1995. the corpus consists of 2205 data imperfective forms of past collected from 76 of literary texts memories , and in 1926 these data imperfect indicative past tense, for a total of 87.3% of the total, and 279 forms of imperfective periphrases past, totaling a percentage of 12.7% of the total incidence. The outcomes of the rounds statistics done using the software GoldVarb revealed that the phenomenon under study is motivated by linguistic factors, as imperfective function (episodic, habitual, iterative and progressive), semantic-discursive kind of verb (process culminated, culmination, activity and state), type prayer (coordinated asyndetic, subordinate adverbial, adjectival subordinate, coordinated syndetic, principal, absolute and conditional substantive), aspectual modifier (quantifier, durative, punctual and without modifier) and polarity (positive and negative), having been discarded by the statistics rounds factors narrative of the plan: figure and ground and geographic regions for failing to submit the relevant motivation of the imperfective forms under review. Thus, the results obtained and analyzed showed us how prototypical contexts for each form under the following analysis: the imperfect codes, prototypically, episodic role, culminating with process verb in affirmative prayer coordinated asyndetic with quantifier modifier; the periphrasis, in turn, presents, prototypically, progressive encoding function, with state verbs in negative substantive subordinate clauses, in the presence of aspectual point modifier. / Esta pesquisa tem por objetivo analisar variaÃÃo no uso do imperfeito do indicativo e de perÃfrases imperfectivas de passado, em memÃrias literÃrias produzidas em 2010 e 2012, por alunos do 7o e do 8o anos, finalistas da OlimpÃada de LÃngua Portuguesa Escrevendo o Futuro. Nesse sentido, intenta-se investigar fatores (linguÃsticos e extralinguÃstico) motivam a escolha por uma ou outra forma. Para tanto, fundamenta-se nos postulados do Sociofuncionalismo, defendidos por Tavares (2003), resultante do casamento teÃrico entre a SociolinguÃstica Variacionista, (WEINREICH, LABOV E HERZOG, 1968; LABOV, 1972, 1978, 1994, 2001, 2003, 2010), e o Funcionalismo de vertente norte-americana (cf. GIVÃN, 1995, 2001; HOPPER, 1991; HOPPER &TRAUGOTT, 1993; TRAUGOTT, 1995). O corpus à formado por 2205 dados de formas imperfectivas de passado coletados de 76 textos de memÃrias literÃrias, sendo 1926 destes dados de pretÃrito imperfeito do indicativo, perfazendo um total de 87,3% do total, e 279 formas de perÃfrases imperfectivas de passado, que totalizam um percentual de 12,7% do total de ocorrÃncias. Os resultados decorrentes das rodadas estatÃsticas realizadas pelo programa computacional GoldVarb revelaram que o fenÃmeno em estudo à motivado por fatores linguÃsticos, como funÃÃo imperfectivas (episÃdica, habitual, iterativa e progressiva), tipo semÃntico-discursivo do verbo (processo culminado, culminaÃÃo, atividade e estado), tipo de oraÃÃo (coordenada assindÃtica, subordinada adverbial, subordinada adjetiva, coordenada sindÃtica, principal, absoluta e subordinada substantiva), modificador aspectual (quantificador, durativo, pontual e sem modificador) e polaridade (positiva e negativa), tendo sido descartados pelas rodadas estatÃsticas os fatores plano da narrativa: figura e fundo e regiÃes geogrÃficas por nÃo terem apresentado relevÃncia na motivaÃÃo por uma das formas imperfectivas sob anÃlise. Dessa forma, os resultados obtidos e analisados revelaram-nos como contextos prototÃpicos para cada forma sob anÃlise os seguintes: o imperfeito codifica, prototipicamente, funÃÃo episÃdica, com verbo de processo culminado, em oraÃÃo coordenada assindÃtica afirmativa, com modificador quantificador; a perÃfrase, por sua vez, apresenta-se, prototipicamente, codificando funÃÃo progressiva, com verbos de estado, em oraÃÃes subordinadas substantivas negativas, na presenÃa de modificador aspectual pontual.