This book presents theoretical descriptions and a computational implementation of the semantics of Chinese (Mandarin) aspects. Fourteen Chinese simple aspects and twenty-six complex aspects are organized into a single hierarchical system network drawing on the theory of systemic functional grammar. In the theoretical part, the semantics of the aspects included in the Chinese aspect system is interpreted with a focus on the aspects‘ aspectual functions, temporal structures, and semantic applicability conditions. In the computational part, the semantic applicability conditions of individual aspects provided by corresponding aspect selection functions in the theoretical descriptions are implemented for automatic generation. As one of the contributions to linguistic research, the processing of complex aspects in Chinese is taken as a particular focus of this study.

The Author: Guowen Yang, born in Beijing (China), received a Bachelor of Engineering in computer science from Tsinghua University in Beijing, an M.A. in computational linguistics from the Graduate School of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in Beijing, and a Ph.D. from the University of Bremen. She is an associate professor at the Institute of Linguistics of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

: Classifications of Chinese aspects – Aspectual functions of aspects – Temporal structures of aspects – Semantic applicability conditions of aspects – Combinations of individual aspects – The representation of the semantics of aspects – Grammar networks of the Chinese aspect system – The generation of aspect expressions.