Abstract
We propose that the Mandarin aspectual particle -le in post-verbal position (verbal - le) marks by default the sentence it occurs in as a Narrative. We argue this effect arises from its lexical semantics: verbal -le marks a transition between two eventualities which occurs in the past relative to some reference time. We show how this meaning converges with two defining characteristics of Narrative discourse. This approach, combined with assumptions about an inference available from sentences that describe a dynamic event, is applied to account for the felicity conditions of activity verbal -le sentences.
| Original language | English (US) |
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| Title of host publication | Proceedings of KONVENS 2006 - Konferenz zur Verarbeitung Naturlicher Sprache |
| Pages | 181-188 |
| Number of pages | 8 |
| State | Published - 2006 |
| Event | 8th Konferenz zur Verarbeitung Naturlicher Sprache, KONVENS 2006 - 8th Conference on Natural Language Processing, KONVENS 2006 - Konstanz, Germany Duration: Oct 4 2006 → Oct 7 2006 |
Publication series
| Name | Proceedings of KONVENS 2006 - Konferenz zur Verarbeitung Naturlicher Sprache |
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Other
| Other | 8th Konferenz zur Verarbeitung Naturlicher Sprache, KONVENS 2006 - 8th Conference on Natural Language Processing, KONVENS 2006 |
|---|---|
| Country/Territory | Germany |
| City | Konstanz |
| Period | 10/4/06 → 10/7/06 |
Bibliographical note
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