A Review of Semantic Studies on the English and Chinese Progressive Operators

Mengjie Zhang

doi:doi:10.11648/j.ijll.20231105.11

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A Review of Semantic Studies on the English and Chinese Progressive Operators

Mengjie Zhang

Published in International Journal of Language and Linguistics (Volume 11, Issue 5)

Received: 18 August 2023 Accepted: 28 August 2023 Published: 6 September 2023

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Abstract

Recent years have seen a change in formal semantic studies of the English progressive operator from centering on deriving its truth from its non-progressive counterpart to a weaker assumption that the truth of the English progressive operator depends on the conditions available to make it true. It is found that Varasdi (2014), utilizing conditions, not only avoids yielding the truth of invalid propositions and the falsity of valid propositions, but also explains away the “imperfective paradox” and the indeterminacy of the English progressive operator, which makes it a desirable proposal to explain the semantics of the English progressive operator. In contrast, studies on the Chinese progressive operator mainly concentrate on its temporal meaning and have not considered its modal meaning, resulting in the lack of investigations of whether the Chinese progressive operator shows the “imperfective paradox” as well. Therefore, this paper focuses on reviewing previous studies on the semantics of the English and Chinese progressive operators in the field of formal semantics, based on which reflections on the problems of semantic analyses on the Chinese progressive operator are made and insights for future semantic studies on the Chinese progressive operator are pointed out. The suggestion is that future studies on the Chinese progressive operator are expected to check whether Varasdi’s (2014) proposal is applicable to elaborate the semantics of the Chinese progressive operator to solve the problems of explaining the imperfective paradox and indeterminacy manifested in the Chinese progressive operator, on the on hand, and accommodating the semantic and distributional idiosyncrasies of the Chinese progressive operator, on the other.

Published in	International Journal of Language and Linguistics (Volume 11, Issue 5)
DOI	10.11648/j.ijll.20231105.11
Page(s)	148-155
Creative Commons	This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright	Copyright © The Author(s), 2024. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

English Progressive Operator, Chinese Progressive Operator, Semantics, Reflections, Insights

References

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APA Style

Mengjie Zhang. (2023). A Review of Semantic Studies on the English and Chinese Progressive Operators. International Journal of Language and Linguistics, 11(5), 148-155. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijll.20231105.11

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ACS Style

Mengjie Zhang. A Review of Semantic Studies on the English and Chinese Progressive Operators. Int. J. Lang. Linguist. 2023, 11(5), 148-155. doi: 10.11648/j.ijll.20231105.11

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AMA Style

Mengjie Zhang. A Review of Semantic Studies on the English and Chinese Progressive Operators. Int J Lang Linguist. 2023;11(5):148-155. doi: 10.11648/j.ijll.20231105.11

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@article{10.11648/j.ijll.20231105.11,
  author = {Mengjie Zhang},
  title = {A Review of Semantic Studies on the English and Chinese Progressive Operators},
  journal = {International Journal of Language and Linguistics},
  volume = {11},
  number = {5},
  pages = {148-155},
  doi = {10.11648/j.ijll.20231105.11},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijll.20231105.11},
  eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ijll.20231105.11},
  abstract = {Recent years have seen a change in formal semantic studies of the English progressive operator from centering on deriving its truth from its non-progressive counterpart to a weaker assumption that the truth of the English progressive operator depends on the conditions available to make it true. It is found that Varasdi (2014), utilizing conditions, not only avoids yielding the truth of invalid propositions and the falsity of valid propositions, but also explains away the “imperfective paradox” and the indeterminacy of the English progressive operator, which makes it a desirable proposal to explain the semantics of the English progressive operator. In contrast, studies on the Chinese progressive operator mainly concentrate on its temporal meaning and have not considered its modal meaning, resulting in the lack of investigations of whether the Chinese progressive operator shows the “imperfective paradox” as well. Therefore, this paper focuses on reviewing previous studies on the semantics of the English and Chinese progressive operators in the field of formal semantics, based on which reflections on the problems of semantic analyses on the Chinese progressive operator are made and insights for future semantic studies on the Chinese progressive operator are pointed out. The suggestion is that future studies on the Chinese progressive operator are expected to check whether Varasdi’s (2014) proposal is applicable to elaborate the semantics of the Chinese progressive operator to solve the problems of explaining the imperfective paradox and indeterminacy manifested in the Chinese progressive operator, on the on hand, and accommodating the semantic and distributional idiosyncrasies of the Chinese progressive operator, on the other.},
 year = {2023}
}

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TY  - JOUR
T1  - A Review of Semantic Studies on the English and Chinese Progressive Operators
AU  - Mengjie Zhang
Y1  - 2023/09/06
PY  - 2023
N1  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijll.20231105.11
DO  - 10.11648/j.ijll.20231105.11
T2  - International Journal of Language and Linguistics
JF  - International Journal of Language and Linguistics
JO  - International Journal of Language and Linguistics
SP  - 148
EP  - 155
PB  - Science Publishing Group
SN  - 2330-0221
UR  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijll.20231105.11
AB  - Recent years have seen a change in formal semantic studies of the English progressive operator from centering on deriving its truth from its non-progressive counterpart to a weaker assumption that the truth of the English progressive operator depends on the conditions available to make it true. It is found that Varasdi (2014), utilizing conditions, not only avoids yielding the truth of invalid propositions and the falsity of valid propositions, but also explains away the “imperfective paradox” and the indeterminacy of the English progressive operator, which makes it a desirable proposal to explain the semantics of the English progressive operator. In contrast, studies on the Chinese progressive operator mainly concentrate on its temporal meaning and have not considered its modal meaning, resulting in the lack of investigations of whether the Chinese progressive operator shows the “imperfective paradox” as well. Therefore, this paper focuses on reviewing previous studies on the semantics of the English and Chinese progressive operators in the field of formal semantics, based on which reflections on the problems of semantic analyses on the Chinese progressive operator are made and insights for future semantic studies on the Chinese progressive operator are pointed out. The suggestion is that future studies on the Chinese progressive operator are expected to check whether Varasdi’s (2014) proposal is applicable to elaborate the semantics of the Chinese progressive operator to solve the problems of explaining the imperfective paradox and indeterminacy manifested in the Chinese progressive operator, on the on hand, and accommodating the semantic and distributional idiosyncrasies of the Chinese progressive operator, on the other.
VL  - 11
IS  - 5
ER  -

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Author Information

Mengjie Zhang

College of Foreign Languages, Henan University, Kaifeng, China

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Mengjie Zhang. (2023). A Review of Semantic Studies on the English and Chinese Progressive Operators. International Journal of Language and Linguistics, 11(5), 148-155. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijll.20231105.11

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ACS Style

Mengjie Zhang. A Review of Semantic Studies on the English and Chinese Progressive Operators. Int. J. Lang. Linguist. 2023, 11(5), 148-155. doi: 10.11648/j.ijll.20231105.11

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AMA Style

Mengjie Zhang. A Review of Semantic Studies on the English and Chinese Progressive Operators. Int J Lang Linguist. 2023;11(5):148-155. doi: 10.11648/j.ijll.20231105.11

Copy | Download

@article{10.11648/j.ijll.20231105.11,
  author = {Mengjie Zhang},
  title = {A Review of Semantic Studies on the English and Chinese Progressive Operators},
  journal = {International Journal of Language and Linguistics},
  volume = {11},
  number = {5},
  pages = {148-155},
  doi = {10.11648/j.ijll.20231105.11},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijll.20231105.11},
  eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ijll.20231105.11},
  abstract = {Recent years have seen a change in formal semantic studies of the English progressive operator from centering on deriving its truth from its non-progressive counterpart to a weaker assumption that the truth of the English progressive operator depends on the conditions available to make it true. It is found that Varasdi (2014), utilizing conditions, not only avoids yielding the truth of invalid propositions and the falsity of valid propositions, but also explains away the “imperfective paradox” and the indeterminacy of the English progressive operator, which makes it a desirable proposal to explain the semantics of the English progressive operator. In contrast, studies on the Chinese progressive operator mainly concentrate on its temporal meaning and have not considered its modal meaning, resulting in the lack of investigations of whether the Chinese progressive operator shows the “imperfective paradox” as well. Therefore, this paper focuses on reviewing previous studies on the semantics of the English and Chinese progressive operators in the field of formal semantics, based on which reflections on the problems of semantic analyses on the Chinese progressive operator are made and insights for future semantic studies on the Chinese progressive operator are pointed out. The suggestion is that future studies on the Chinese progressive operator are expected to check whether Varasdi’s (2014) proposal is applicable to elaborate the semantics of the Chinese progressive operator to solve the problems of explaining the imperfective paradox and indeterminacy manifested in the Chinese progressive operator, on the on hand, and accommodating the semantic and distributional idiosyncrasies of the Chinese progressive operator, on the other.},
 year = {2023}
}

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TY  - JOUR
T1  - A Review of Semantic Studies on the English and Chinese Progressive Operators
AU  - Mengjie Zhang
Y1  - 2023/09/06
PY  - 2023
N1  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijll.20231105.11
DO  - 10.11648/j.ijll.20231105.11
T2  - International Journal of Language and Linguistics
JF  - International Journal of Language and Linguistics
JO  - International Journal of Language and Linguistics
SP  - 148
EP  - 155
PB  - Science Publishing Group
SN  - 2330-0221
UR  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijll.20231105.11
AB  - Recent years have seen a change in formal semantic studies of the English progressive operator from centering on deriving its truth from its non-progressive counterpart to a weaker assumption that the truth of the English progressive operator depends on the conditions available to make it true. It is found that Varasdi (2014), utilizing conditions, not only avoids yielding the truth of invalid propositions and the falsity of valid propositions, but also explains away the “imperfective paradox” and the indeterminacy of the English progressive operator, which makes it a desirable proposal to explain the semantics of the English progressive operator. In contrast, studies on the Chinese progressive operator mainly concentrate on its temporal meaning and have not considered its modal meaning, resulting in the lack of investigations of whether the Chinese progressive operator shows the “imperfective paradox” as well. Therefore, this paper focuses on reviewing previous studies on the semantics of the English and Chinese progressive operators in the field of formal semantics, based on which reflections on the problems of semantic analyses on the Chinese progressive operator are made and insights for future semantic studies on the Chinese progressive operator are pointed out. The suggestion is that future studies on the Chinese progressive operator are expected to check whether Varasdi’s (2014) proposal is applicable to elaborate the semantics of the Chinese progressive operator to solve the problems of explaining the imperfective paradox and indeterminacy manifested in the Chinese progressive operator, on the on hand, and accommodating the semantic and distributional idiosyncrasies of the Chinese progressive operator, on the other.
VL  - 11
IS  - 5
ER  -

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