Abstract
AbstractThis study revisits the linguistic properties of preverbalzaiin Mandarin Chinese. Specifically, it examines the syntax of a prepositional phrase headed byzaifunctioning as an adjunct, as the main predicate of a sentence with a continuous reading, as well as a sentence containingzaiwith a progressive reading. It is argued that there is only onezaiand 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 containingzaiare a result of the different types of complementszaiselects. It is argued that a sentence has a continuous reading whenzaiselects 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 ofzaibut 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.
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