Mandarin aspect markers

Mandarin has no tense inflection, and temporal interpretation rests largely on a small set of aspect particles. The verbal suffix le is commonly described as the perfective marker and guò as the experiential marker, an experiential perfect; the preverbal zài marks the progressive. Nézha chuī le chángdí 'Nezha played the flute' typically refers to a specific, likely recent event, while Nézha chuī guò chángdí 'Nezha has played the flute before' reports that such an experience exists. The negative counterpart of le is the negator méi-yǒu, entered in Fragments/Mandarin/Negation.lean. The description and examples follow [Zha25], who also documents the use of le and guò in comparatives; that the two uses share one meaning is the dissertation's analysis and lives in Studies/Zhao2025.lean.

References

• [Zha25]

def Mandarin.Aspect.le : Aspect.Marker

The perfective suffix le 了: Nézha mǎi le yī-píng cù 'Nezha bought a bottle of vinegar'.

Equations

• Mandarin.Aspect.le = { morphs := [Morphology.Morph.suff "le"], script := some "了", gloss := "PFV", viewpoint := Aspect.ViewpointType.perfective }

def Mandarin.Aspect.guo : Aspect.Marker

The experiential suffix guò 过, an experiential perfect: Nézha chuī guò chángdí 'Nezha has played the flute before'.

Equations

• Mandarin.Aspect.guo = { morphs := [Morphology.Morph.suff "guò"], script := some "过", gloss := "EXP", viewpoint := Aspect.ViewpointType.perfect }

def Mandarin.Aspect.zai : Aspect.Marker

The progressive zài 在: Nézha zài chàng gē 'Nezha is singing'.

Equations

• Mandarin.Aspect.zai = { morphs := [Morphology.Morph.free "zài"], script := some "在", gloss := "PROG", viewpoint := Aspect.ViewpointType.imperfective }

def Mandarin.Aspect.markers : List Aspect.Marker

The aspect particles.

Equations

• Mandarin.Aspect.markers = [Mandarin.Aspect.le, Mandarin.Aspect.guo, Mandarin.Aspect.zai]