Perfective aspect particles or telic Aktionsart markers?: Studies of the directional verb compounds

In the context of aspectual studies, there has been little scholarship on the perfective aspect value of the directional verb compounds (henceforth DVC). The aspectual nature of the directional verb complements (shang, xia, hui, guo, kai, qi, and lai, qu) was almost overlooked until 1992, when the Chinese grammarian Fang treats them as the perfective aspect particles. However, the exact nature of the aspectual meaning of the directional verb complements is frequently unclear. This article provides a detailed study of the perfective aspectual meaning of the DVC. The study is made in terms of aspectual structure developed by Tenny. In this framework, directional verb compounding is viewed as an operation over aspectual structure. It is an aspectual operation whereby the PATH, TERMINUS or the MEASURE aspectual role of directional complement(s) is added to the empty aspectual role grid of the simplex verb (mainly an Activity) they combine with. As a result, the verb compound acquires the MEASURE or the PATH, TERMINUS aspectual role and is converted to a complex Accomplishment. As such, the DVC describes a telic situation. In a past context, or in combination with the perfective le, they denote attainment of a goal, thus contributing to the perfective meaning of a sentence. Directional verb compounding represents a highly productive process that relies on the property of delimitedness. They are clearly instances of grammaticalization of the telic notion in Chinese. They contribute to the perfective reading of a sentence.