The Discovery of Aspect: A Heuristic Parallel Corpus Study of Ingressive, Continuative and Resumptive Viewpoint Aspect
Languages differ in how systematically and obligatorily they encode conceptual categories such as tense and aspect. By drawing on large parallel corpora, these differences can be exploited heuristically: expressive obligatoriness and the systematicity of a conceptual category in one language can fun...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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MDPI AG
2022-06-01
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| Series: | Languages |
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| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2226-471X/7/3/158 |
| _version_ | 1797485825667104768 |
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| author | Maarten Bogaards |
| author_facet | Maarten Bogaards |
| author_sort | Maarten Bogaards |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Languages differ in how systematically and obligatorily they encode conceptual categories such as tense and aspect. By drawing on large parallel corpora, these differences can be exploited heuristically: expressive obligatoriness and the systematicity of a conceptual category in one language can function as a probe for other languages that do not (evidently) encode it. This study applies this method—called <i>heuristic translation mining</i> (HTM)—to viewpoint aspect in Mandarin (an aspect-oriented language) and Dutch (a non-aspect-oriented language). Specifically, it takes the Mandarin aspect markers 起来<i>-qilai</i> (“ingressive”) and 下去<i>-xiaqu</i> (“continuative”) and collects translation strategies for these markers from a corpus of five Mandarin novels and their Dutch translations. The outcomes are methodological, descriptive and theoretical in nature. Methodologically, it is shown how conceptual templates consisting of temporal boundaries and phases facilitate annotating specific types of viewpoint aspect consistently. Descriptively, the exercise indicates at which linguistic levels viewpoint aspect may be encoded in a non-aspect-oriented language. Theoretically, conducting an HTM analysis with several aspect markers at once makes it possible to quantify (non-)marking of conceptual content; it turns out that the types of viewpoint under study correspond to varying marking frequencies, which may correlate with conceptual complexity. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-09T23:24:26Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-61d21b6f09ca40fe89c0fc88975656e6 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2226-471X |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-09T23:24:26Z |
| publishDate | 2022-06-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Languages |
| spelling | doaj.art-61d21b6f09ca40fe89c0fc88975656e62023-11-23T17:20:07ZengMDPI AGLanguages2226-471X2022-06-017315810.3390/languages7030158The Discovery of Aspect: A Heuristic Parallel Corpus Study of Ingressive, Continuative and Resumptive Viewpoint AspectMaarten Bogaards0Leiden University Centre for Linguistics (LUCL), Leiden University, 2300 RA Leiden, The NetherlandsLanguages differ in how systematically and obligatorily they encode conceptual categories such as tense and aspect. By drawing on large parallel corpora, these differences can be exploited heuristically: expressive obligatoriness and the systematicity of a conceptual category in one language can function as a probe for other languages that do not (evidently) encode it. This study applies this method—called <i>heuristic translation mining</i> (HTM)—to viewpoint aspect in Mandarin (an aspect-oriented language) and Dutch (a non-aspect-oriented language). Specifically, it takes the Mandarin aspect markers 起来<i>-qilai</i> (“ingressive”) and 下去<i>-xiaqu</i> (“continuative”) and collects translation strategies for these markers from a corpus of five Mandarin novels and their Dutch translations. The outcomes are methodological, descriptive and theoretical in nature. Methodologically, it is shown how conceptual templates consisting of temporal boundaries and phases facilitate annotating specific types of viewpoint aspect consistently. Descriptively, the exercise indicates at which linguistic levels viewpoint aspect may be encoded in a non-aspect-oriented language. Theoretically, conducting an HTM analysis with several aspect markers at once makes it possible to quantify (non-)marking of conceptual content; it turns out that the types of viewpoint under study correspond to varying marking frequencies, which may correlate with conceptual complexity.https://www.mdpi.com/2226-471X/7/3/158viewpoint aspectingressive aspectcontinuative aspectresumptive aspectparallel corpusMandarin |
| spellingShingle | Maarten Bogaards The Discovery of Aspect: A Heuristic Parallel Corpus Study of Ingressive, Continuative and Resumptive Viewpoint Aspect Languages viewpoint aspect ingressive aspect continuative aspect resumptive aspect parallel corpus Mandarin |
| title | The Discovery of Aspect: A Heuristic Parallel Corpus Study of Ingressive, Continuative and Resumptive Viewpoint Aspect |
| title_full | The Discovery of Aspect: A Heuristic Parallel Corpus Study of Ingressive, Continuative and Resumptive Viewpoint Aspect |
| title_fullStr | The Discovery of Aspect: A Heuristic Parallel Corpus Study of Ingressive, Continuative and Resumptive Viewpoint Aspect |
| title_full_unstemmed | The Discovery of Aspect: A Heuristic Parallel Corpus Study of Ingressive, Continuative and Resumptive Viewpoint Aspect |
| title_short | The Discovery of Aspect: A Heuristic Parallel Corpus Study of Ingressive, Continuative and Resumptive Viewpoint Aspect |
| title_sort | discovery of aspect a heuristic parallel corpus study of ingressive continuative and resumptive viewpoint aspect |
| topic | viewpoint aspect ingressive aspect continuative aspect resumptive aspect parallel corpus Mandarin |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2226-471X/7/3/158 |
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