THE SEMANTICS OF COMPLEX ASPECTS CONSTRUCTED FROM TWO IMPERFECTIVE SIMPLE ASPECTS IN CHINESE.

This paper describes the semantics of six complex aspects composed of two imperfective simple aspects in Chinese, with the focus on aspectual functions, temporal structures, and semantic applicability conditions of the aspects. Based on the results of an investigation into the combination potestial of simple aspects in Chinese, we show characteristics of the Chinese complex aspects and formulate two conditions of aspect combinations. We also propose a set of rules for constructing the temporal structures of the complex aspects. A selection order principle is used in designing the system network of the Chinese aspects to guarantee the grammaticality of the produced complex aspect expressions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]