The grammatical-lexical distinction in Chinese aspectual markers

Abstract

AbstractThis paper discusses the grammatical-lexical distinction based onBoye and Harder (2012)in the class of aspectual markers in Chinese and aims to decide whether these markers are grammatical or lexical in a theoretically anchored sense. To accomplish this, the language-general criteria proposed inBoye and Harder (2012)are translated into Chinese-specific criteria for diagnosing grammatical vs. lexical status, and these translated criteria are then applied to Chinese aspect markers in a questionnaire-based survey in order to test whether these markers are lexical or grammatical. Our classification of the Chinese markers tested is then compared with a traditional classification based on grammaticalization features (Lehmann 2015). The results support an integration of the two ways of approaching the grammatical-lexical distinction.