The Meaning and Usage of the Aspect Auxiliary <i>Ei</i> in Shunde Dialect

Abstract

Aspect is one of the important concepts of grammatical category, and it is the way of observing the events in the course of time. The expression of aspect category may vary greatly in different languages or dialects. Common forms of expression are affix, clitic, aspect auxiliaries, and aspectual marks. Yue dialect is one of the important types of Chinese dialects, and Shunde dialect is an important branch of Yue dialect. From the perspective of comparison with Putonghua and Yue dialects, this article explores the aspectual meaning of the aspect auxiliary EI in Shunde dialect. The six kinds of aspect are summarized: Perfect aspect; Perfective aspect; Realization aspect; Completive aspect; Partial Performance aspect; Continuous aspect. Then, this paper analyzes its aspectual usage according to its syntactic environment, pragmatic function, and level of grammaticalization. On the one hand, the obvious commonality is that with regard to the usage and meaning of the first six aspectual categories, the aspect auxiliary EI in Shunde dialect can roughly correspond to ZUO in Guangzhou dialect. Moreover, the two dialects can roughly correspond to the aspect auxiliary LE in Mandarin in terms of usage and meaning of the first six aspectual categories. On the other hand, the significant difference is that the expression of continuous aspect in Shunde dialect is much more complicated than Guangzhou dialect and Mandarin. Specifically, in the Shunde dialect, the continuous aspect auxiliary EI must appear when expressing static continuance, but the continuous aspect auxiliary ZHU does not necessarily appear; in Guangzhou dialect, ZHU can only be used; in Mandarin, the continuous aspect auxiliary ZHE must be used. The complexity of the dialects and Mandarin in term of aspectual system illustrates the complex relationship between grammatical categories, grammatical means, and forms of expression: these three are not simple one-to-one relationships. That is, that a grammatical category uses a grammatical means and form to express is almost non-existent. Since there is no morphological change in Chinese in the strict sense, Chinese tends to express a grammatical category with more than one lexical item or construction, or a lexical item or construction expresses more than one grammatical category. The similarities and differences between aspect auxiliary EI in Shunde dialect, ZUO in Mandarin and Le in Mandarin represent the diversity of means and ways of expressing aspect in Chinese. This study demonstrates the identity between the difference and commonality of the grammatical system of Chinese dialects.