The Functioning of Verbal Aspect Markers in Chinese

The issue of verb morphology is usually considered as an essential part of a language analysis, especially in Chinese, where markers of aspect are the only kind of morphology-like devices in the Chinese language. This problem draws special attention as their definition and classification may vary in different studies. However, there is still no any comprehensive research which attempted to analyze, compare and systematize the existing data on the topic. The purpose of this study is to investigate different approaches of Western, Russian (Soviet) and Chinese linguists to analyze Chinese verbal aspect markers and to find out what problems in this area need further investigation. The research design can be identified as non-experimental, descriptive and comparative. When analyzing the data we will apply qualitative methods focusing on the definition of aspect, markers “le”, ”guo” and “zhe” and other aspect markers. We will define what major problems arise in this field of study and compare different the points of view in the specified area. The results of this paper may reveal differences in interpretation of the meaning of aspect in Chinese and functioning of verbal aspect markers in the Chinese language by Russian, Western and Chinese scholars and become a theoretical base for further research. Key words: the Chinese language, linguistics, morphology, verbal aspect markers