Towards a typology of progressive aspect marking in Sinitic: a pilot study

Abstract

Abstract Compared with other aspects of grammar, the aspectual systems of Sinitic languages have received relatively more scholarly attention. Nevertheless, sample-wise, the existing studies are, generally speaking, neither balanced nor comprehensive; goal-wise, they aim at providing a descriptive account in general, rather than a typological and/or historical analysis. In this paper, we present the results of a first pilot study of progressive aspect marking in 41 Sinitic varieties that employ a 在 zài-type progressive construction. The dialects considered belong to the Mandarin, Gan, Xiang, Min, Hakka, and Yue groups. We conceive this pilot study as a first step towards developing an exhaustive typology of progressive marking constructions in Sinitic. In our sample, we observed four different marking patterns: (i) preverbal single marking; (ii) post-VP single marking; (iii) verb suffix; (iv) preverbal and postverbal double marking. After illustrating the morpho-syntactic strategies found in our sample, we shall discuss their typology and their patterns of areal distribution. Also, we shall offer comparative remarks with Sinitic languages adopting other ‘be.at’ verbs as markers of progressive aspect, as well as the parallel ‘be.at’ + locative marker construction.