College Student’s Comprehension on Te Iru Aspects

This research is a study that discusses the college student’s comprehension on te iru aspect using 7 indicators of comprehension include interpreting, exemplifying, classifying, summarizing, inferring, comparing, and explaining. This researsch is focused on the progressive aspect, habituative aspect, and resultative aspect. The purpose of this study is to describe students' comprehension of te iru aspects. The method used in this study is qualitative descriptive. Data was obtained from interviews with 8 Japanese college students. The results showed that student’s comprehension of all three aspects of te iru is not perfect. The highest order of comprehension on te iru aspects starts from progressive, habituative, and resultative aspect.

Processing Aspectual Agreement in an Inflexionless Language: An ERP Study of Mandarin Chinese

This is a study of the collocation of Chinese verbs with different lexical aspects and aspect markers. Using event-related potentials (ERPs), we explored the processing of aspect violation sentences. In the experiment, we combined verbs of various lexical aspect types with the progressive aspect marker zhe, and the combination of the achievement verbs and the progressive aspect marker zhe constituted the sentence’s aspect violation. The participants needed to judge whether a sentence was correct after it was presented. Finally, we observed and analyzed the components of ERPs. The results suggest that when the collocation of aspect markers and lexical aspect is ungrammatical, the N400-like and P600 are elicited on aspect markers, while the late AN is elicited by the word after the aspect marker. P600 and N400-like show that the collocation of Chinese verbs with various lexical aspects and aspect markers involve not only syntactic processing, but also the semantic processing; and the late AN may have been due to the syntax revision and the conclusion at the end of sentences.

Lexical and Grammatical Aspect in On-line Processing of English Past Tense and Progressive Aspect by Mandarin Speakers

Previous studies have shown that the grammatical aspect of verb predicates has an effect on tense-aspect sentence processing. However, it remains unclear as to whether the interaction of lexical aspect and grammatical aspect can influence the form-meaning association in the second language (L2) tense-aspect sentence processing, especially for the learners whose native language is grammatically marked differently from their L2. This study conducts a psycholinguistic investigation to highlight how the prototypical and non-prototypical associations predicted in the Aspect Hypothesis and L2 proficiency level influence the processing of English past tense and progressive morphology by Mandarin Chinese learners at two proficiency levels and native English speakers. The results show that the prototypical associations of English tense-aspect categories predicted in the Aspect Hypothesis, such as achievement verbs with past tense and activity verbs with the progressive aspect, can engender shorter reading time than non-prototypical associations for both native speakers and second language learners. There is no significant difference between native speakers and Chinese learners of English in their processing of prototypical items, while significant differences exist in the processing of non-prototypical items. The L2 proficiency level does not have an effect on the processing of prototypes but on the processing of non-prototypes in the L2 tense-aspect marking. This study extends previous research, showing the interaction effect of lexical aspect and grammatical aspect in the form-meaning association in L2 tense-aspect sentence processing.

The Influence of the Dagbani Imperfective Verb Form on Dagomba‟s Use of the English Tense

This paper analyses the influence of the imperfective verb form of Dagbani a Mabia (Gur) language, spoken in Northern Ghana- on the English tense. Dagbani and English have been in contact for decades; they exhibit differences grammatically and phonologically. Scholars have discussed the grammar of Dagbani. However, no scholar addressed the influence of Dagbani imperfective on the use of English. Considering the fact that there is a strong interplay between English, as the official language of Ghana, and Ghanaian languages in the socio-economic, political and educational sectors of the country, teachers and curriculum developers need to pay attention to how these languages influence each other with specific focus on how to cater for these influences during classroom interactions. This paper, therefore, analyses the influence of the Dagbani imperfective form on English tense, taking into consideration the progressive aspect and the habitual present tense of Dagbani. The study sets to find out if educational levels of people affect the influence of the Dagbani imperfective on English tense. Data for the study were collected through sentence translation and picture description from (89) students in Tamale and Yendi. The data were analysed within the framework of grammatical replication theory by Heine and Kuteva, based on Weinreich languages in contact. The data are analysed based on the respondents’ levels of education (Basic, Secondary, and Tertiary). Findings indicated that the progressive aspect of Dagbani imperfective verb form overshadows the habitual present, as Dagomba(s) speak English. Irrespective of Dagomba’s educational level, they replicate the Dagbani imperfective use in English; however, the influence minimally reduces as speakers climb the academic hierarchy.

On preverbal zai in Mandarin Chinese: its progressive and prepositional functions

This study revisits the linguistic properties of preverbal zai in Mandarin Chinese. Specifically, it examines the syntax of a prepositional phrase headed by zai functioning as an adjunct, as the main predicate of a sentence with a continuous reading, as well as a sentence containing zai with a progressive reading. It is argued that there is only one zai and that it always functions as a preposition selecting either a Locative Phrase (LP) or a Zeit Phrase (ZP) as its complement. The study also claims that the different aspectual readings of sentences containing zai are a result of the different types of complements zai selects. It is argued that a sentence has a continuous reading when zai selects an LP and a progressive one when it selects a ZP as its complement. The proposed analyses not only provide a unified account of the linguistic functions of zai but also give a syntactic account of the close relation between the imperfective aspect (in particular, the progressive aspect) and locative elements that has been observed by many previous studies.

A STUDY OF TENSE SHIFT AS A RESOURCE FOR IDENTITY CONSTRUCTION

This study focuses on tense variation as linguistic features of narrative performance using Schiffrin’s (1981) theory of tense variation supported by Labov’s (1972) and Ochs and Cap’s (2001) frameworks of narrative structure. It shows that historical present also performs evaluative function and appears in restricted clauses in progressive aspect indicating the overlap on time between two actions. Shifts into narrative past tense also perform an evaluative function and appears in contexts narrating unexpected event within the complication. Generic and nominalising actions are used to express negative evaluation of an opponent based on an earlier premise. These findings can bring new insights into the way politicians construct arguments in self and other presentation since nominalising negative actions implies comparing the self to an external other. This is achieved in association with stance taking and evaluative commentaries provided by politicians as strategies of positive self and negative other presentation. The study provides a detailed analysis of the linguistic features stated earlier in relation to identity construction and self-presentation exemplifying the use of HP

Contact phenomena in the verbal complex: the Walser connection in the Alpine area

In the context of the Alps – a broad region characterized by common geographical and cultural features – the isolation caused by the geographical setting makes it possible for conservative strategies to survive from the Middle Ages through present times. This isolation, however, does not exclude that conservative patterns evolve into innovative strategies. To illustrate this, we surveyed causative and progressive constructions in the historical German minority varieties on the southern side of the Alps. Greschòneytitsch, a particularly dynamic variety, shows the remarkable development of a causative particle, tònz, and the grammaticalization of an adverb, eister, into a marker of progressive aspect.

An aspectual contour of phrasal verb constructions with English think

In English, the internal constituency of an event is obligatorily expressed by means of non-progressive versus progressive aspect. It is also represented linguistically by means of lexical aspect, and thus verb semantics. The two types of distinctions are shown to lie at two different levels of schematicity in the Integrated Model of Aspect (IMA, Kokorniak 2018). Although particles constitute only an additional tool in aspectual profiling in English, they are very productive at the level of lexical aspect in profiling minor aspectual differences that main verb semantics and inflection cannot reflect. The particles that the verb think can be combined with include out, over, through and up. Monolingual learners’ dictionaries suggest that think out, think over and think through can be used interchangeably. Their definitions indicate that in all three cases the particles designate a careful and thorough mental process. The study presents an aspectual contour of think and the particles that the verb can be combined with, and displays that each particle constitutes an elaboration of the mental path in a slightly different way. Their semantic contribution to the aspectual verb profile is shown and located in the IMA continuum, while corpus examples depict their use.

ENGLISH PROGRESSIVE ASPECT: TRENDS, USES AND SERBIAN TRANSLATION EQUIVALENTS

English progressive aspect has been a frequent topic of research from different standpoints, especially its usage and its status as a tense or aspect. Some recent studies pointed to the fact that the use of progressive has been changing over the decades, showing differences in frequency, meanings and implications. Therefore, this paper compares the approach to progressive in selected English grammars with the use of progressive in a contemporary literary corpus. Namely, the first part of the paper presents standpoints from the English grammar books that progressive offers a temporal frame for another situation, that it may denote duration, temporariness, incompletion, emotionally coloured tone etc. The central part of the paper discusses these standpoints and relates them to the uses of progressive aspect (present, present perfect, past, past perfect and future progressive) in the contemporary novel Girl with a Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevalier. The primary goal of this empirical research is to gain insight into the current tendencies related to the use of progressive aspect in the literary style, for instance, the statistical data about the abovementioned meanings; the second goal is to check the feature of stativity and the uses of stative verbs in the progressive aspect in the corpus. Finally, the paper discusses the Serbian translation equivalents of the excerpted English examples because they reflect the uses of the English progressive and may help clarify them