本文主要談論漢語中帶有「著」後綴的謂語之語意，並著重於單動作動詞
(semelfactive verb) 的語意討論。在一個句子中，「著」的使用只適用於特定的
情境類型(situation types)，當這些動詞帶有「著」後綴時，可以表達單一事件
的進行亦或者一系列事件的連續發生，意即迭代語意(iterative reading)。單動
作動詞是一種沒有持續時間的動詞，當這類動詞帶有「著」後綴時只會有迭代
語意的產生。而這樣的迭代語意也可以出現在活動動詞(activity verbs) 以及完
結動詞(accomplishment verbs)。
然而謂語帶有「著」的迭代語意的產生在文獻中並沒得到許多的關注。本
論文根據Deo (2009) 對非完成貌(imperfective) 的語意分析來解釋迭代語意的
產生。Deo 採用與語境有關的時間分割(contextually dependent partition) 方式解釋習慣性和進行式的語意。本文主張「著」所表達的語意類似於Deo (2009)
對英文的進行貌後綴-ing(English progressive marker) 的分析。帶有「著」後綴的謂語之迭代語意以及進行語意(progressive reading) 皆可藉由這種時間分割的方式(partition-based) 來獲得。一個句子帶有「著」的迭代語意表達的是謂語所描述的一連串事件在參考時間(reference time) 內規律的發生，但是這些反覆發
生的事件並不會持續到未來。

This thesis concerns the interpretation of a verbal predicate with the aspect marker -zhe in Mandarin, with a focus on semelfactive verbs. The use of -zhe in a sentence is felicitous only with verbs with certain situation types; when these verbs are suffixed
with this marker, they may form a predicate that may express an ongoing single event or the consecutive occurrence of a series of events (i.e., the iterative reading). Semelfactive verbs, which express situations that have no duration, are compatible with -zhe and only the iterative reading is available when they are suffixed with -zhe. The iterative reading is also available with some activity and accomplishment verbs.
The fact that a predicate with -zhe may carry an iterative reading has not received much attention as it deserves. In this thesis, I suggest that such a reading may be accounted for with Deo’s (2009) analysis of imperfective aspects. Deo employs contextually dependent partition to characterize the semantic contribution of the habitual as well as progressive reading of imperfective aspect. Along with these lines, I suggest that the semantic contribution of -zhe be characterized as that of the English progressive marker
ing in Deo’s analysis, and both the iterative reading and the progressive reading may be derived this partition-based semantics of -zhe. The main idea is that a sentence with -zhe express that a series of events described by the predicate occur regularly within the reference time interval, which does not extend to the future.

List of Figures III
List of Tables IV
List of Abbreviations 1
1 Introduction 1
1.1 Background of Aspectuality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.1.1 Viewpoint aspect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
1.1.2 Situation aspect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
1.2 Some problems in Chinese aspect marker -zhe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
2 Previous research on aspect marker -zhe 13
2.1 The aspectual property of -zhe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
2.2 The major function of -zhe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
2.3 The interaction of -zhe between situation types . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
2.4 Previous analyses of -zhe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
3 Semantics of the imperfective 38
3.1 The core meaning of imperfectives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
3.1.1 The generalization puzzle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
3.1.2 The intensionality puzzle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
3.2 Deo (2009)’s analysis for the meaning of imperfective and progressive
marking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
4 The interaction between aspect marker -zhe and situation types 56
4.1 The iterative reading of -zhe-sentences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
4.2 The typical cases of verbs and -zhe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
5 Conclusion 77
Bibliography 80

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