Языки стран Дальнего Востока, Юго-Восточной Азии и Западной Африки

Tsankova A. D. Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski”, Bulgaria Quantitative Survey on the Correlation of Basic Factors for the Functioning of the Aspect-Tense Markers in Modern Chinese The study presents a statistical account of the influence of basic linguistic factors for the usage of the markers 了 , 过 , 着 in Modern Chinese. The set of relevant factors include semantic and syntactic properties of predicate and argument, sentence type, speech mode, discourse position, and the aspect-tense meaning expressed by the phrase. An experimental text with 1062 potential positions of aspect-tense marking was surveyed among 20 native speakers in order to assess the degree of variability in the intuitive choice of the markers. The analysis through multiple regression (SPSS) on correlation models, combining values of the factors under study explores a series of positive and negative cor- relations that may influence the explication of the aspect-tense markers in actual speech situation. Keywords : aspect-tense marking, quantitative survey, correlational analysis, Modern Chinese The aspect-tense markers in Modern Chinese are subject to a substantial degree of non-regularity and variability in use, due to reasons of linguistic and extra-linguistic nature. In linguistic studies the functioning of these formal elements have been approached from various perspectives in order to reveal the mechanisms of explication of the markers in the conditions of their grammatical optionality (see Li, Thompson 1981: 184–299, Solntsev 1982, Solntseva 1982, Shutova 1982, Huang 1987, Li Xingya 1989, Fang 1992: 453–467, Tan 2002: 346–568, Zheng et al. 2004: 1–94, Liu et al. 2006: 361–407, Chu 1998: 35–87, Ljungqvist 2007, Kolpachkova 2011 etc., among others). Apart from theoretical studies on this topic, there are several experimental surveys, aimed to assess certain quantitative and comparative aspects in the functioning of the markers (Solntseva, Solntsev 1965), including pragmatic properties of the studied forms (Spanos 1979(a),