Aspect or Manner? A Study of Reduplicated Adverbials in Mandarin Chinese

In this paper, we attested modifiers in Mandarin and their effects on the verbal complexes. In the past, the Aktionsart of verbs is often discussed within the verbal events. Here, we discuss how modifiers can change or modify the aspects of the verbal semantics by examining several (reduplicated) modifiers in Mandarin – [慢慢(的)V] [mànmàn(de)V] ‘slowly’; [好好(的)V] [hǎohǎo(de)V] ‘nicely’; and [快/趕快(的)V] [kuài/gǎnkuài (de)V] ‘quickly’. We found that 快 快 kuàikuài ‘quickly’ highlights an endpoint, 慢 慢 mànmàn ‘slowly’ focuses on the iterative small segments of the activity. The results showed that these adverbials, among other linguistic units, that mark a viewpoint change, would also mark aspects – interative/stage and prospective.