The prominence of Aspect in Czech and Chinese – A learner corpus-based study

Abstract

For the study of verbal categories, Bhat (1999) establishes a typology of languages based on the prominence that languages attach to tense, aspect, and mood. The criteria for prominence are determined by factors such as degree of grammaticalization, obligatoriness, systematicity and pervasiveness (Newman, 1954; Lehmann, 1985). These factors are interconnected, i.e. the category which is the most grammaticalized in a given language is the most obligatory and systematic and therefore the most prominent in that language.\n\nIn this study, the author considers that Czech and Chinese are both aspect-prominent languages. However, the degree of interactions between tense-aspect in Czech and Chinese are different, and this difference is considered as one of the main tasks to adequately acquire Czech aspects for learners whose L1 is Chinese. This argument is discussed and explained based on the corpora from CzeSL-SGT and NCCU Learner Corpus of Slavic Languages (LCSL).