汉英动词“时”和“体”的比较研究

A Comparative Study of Tense and Aspect of Chinese and English Verbs

"时"和"体"是语言学中的两个既有联系又有区别的概念.它们都是用来表达动词的时间信息,"时"着眼于表示动作何时发生,"体"强调动作处于进程中的何种阶段.汉英在"时"和"体"的类别、表现形式及其组合方面同中有异:汉语和英语动词的"时"都分为"现在"、"过去"和"将来"三种时制,然而表现"时"的方式却存差异;汉语动词的"时"必须借助词汇手段来表达,而英语动词的"时"是通过动词的形态变化表现的;汉语中"体"的类别比英语多,"体"的表现形式比英语灵活;汉语中"体"可以单独使用,也可以与"时"组合,而英语中"体"与"时"的组合是强制性的.

Tense and aspect are two relevant but different linguistic terms. Both of them are used to convey the time information of verbs, but tense focuses on when an action happens while aspect tends to express at which stage an action is. There exist differences as well as similarities in the categories of tense and aspect, ways of expressing and combining them in Chinese and English. Tense in the two languages can be classified into present, past and future, but there are differences in the ways to express it. In Chinese tense is expressed by means of time expressions while in English it is expressed by the morphological changes of verbs. Chinese has more types of aspect and more flexible ways to express aspect than English. In Chinese aspect can be used either alone or with tense while in English it has to be combined with tense.