Event types in Mandarin

Nonstative event types classified into atelic, telic, & change-of-state are linguistically evaluated as they apply to Mandarin Chinese. Originally an Aristotelian distinction, telic refers to events occurring in successive stages with a natural endpoint, whereas atelic has no natural endpoint. Considering the near universality of such an aspectual analysis as evidenced in a variety of languages, fundamental cognitive distinctions expressed verbally should also be encountered in Mandarin Chinese. Texts are constructed to differentiate the three event types based on completion, duration, & nondetachability. It is shown that although distinctions in atelic & change-of-state events are supported in the language, telic events are not evident in the same way, due to the language's feature of resultative verb complements that require a rethinking of the Mandarin aspectual system. Event aspect & viewpoint aspect are key in the function of resultative verb complements. 35 References. J. Sadler