Aspectual Influence on Temporal Relations: A Case Study of the Experiential Guo in Mandarin

經驗貌「過」對漢語時序關係的影響

本篇論文探討經驗貌「過」對漢語時序關係的影響。本文論證：經驗貌「過」以下列方式透過修辭關係間接影響時序關係：一、「過」標明一基本之修辭關係 -- 「經驗背景」，而這個修辭關係表示，事件發生的時間，在另一事件之前。二、「過」所引領之事件，如無必要，其內部過程不能被讀取。這兩點均是由經驗貌「過」之時貌語意而來。廣義而言，本篇論文顯示了，漢語中的時貌標記並不直接決定時序關係，而是以下面兩個方式，根據其時貌語意，透過修辭關係間接決定時序關係：一、標明一基本之修辭關係，二、提出應遵守之時序限制。這個結論，與本人（2004、2005b、2007b）的研究結論相呼應。

This paper examines how the temporal relation between a clause containing the experiential guo and an adjacent clause is determined. Mandarin is a language not morphologically marked for tenses (e.g., Lin 2006), and therefore, tenses cannot help in determining temporal relations in Mandarin. However, Mandarin has a rich aspectual system. This paper argues that the experiential guo indirectly influences temporal relations via rhetorical relations by either specifying a default rhetorical relation, or by constraining the circumstances under which a certain rhetorical relation can connect a clause with guo to an adjacent clause. This paper also argues that the default rhetorical relation and the constraints are determined by the aspectual properties of the experiential marker. Other information, such as discourse connectors, lexical information, etc., can override the default rhetorical relation indicated by guo and specifies a rhetorical relation. Therefore, this paper concludes that in Mandarin aspect markers can indirectly affect temporal relations by means of rhetorical relations, a result consistent with Wu’s (2005b) paper on the perfective marker le in Mandarin, and Wu’s (2007b, 2004) work on the progressive marker zai and the durative marker zhe.