When the perfective aspect verb suffix le (了) emerged in Pre-Modern Chinese, it brought about a new aspectual perspective in the Chinese language system. Mei (1999) suggests that the emergence of the verb suffix resulted from motivations internal to the language, while Jiang (2001) attributes the change to the aspect marker yi (已), which corresponds to the gerund form of Sanskrit and was widely used in translations into Medieval Chinese (the linguistic stage preceding Pre-Modern Chinese) of Buddhist texts.
The issue is revisited in this paper through (1) the comparison of yi (已) in the Buddhist texts with formerly existing aspect markers of Chinese origin ji (既) and yi (矣), and (2) the comparison of yi (已) with its descendant le (了). It is proposed that yi (已) carried out the same function as ji (既) and yi (矣), but the fact that it was often placed immediately after a verb caused it to resemble the gerund suffix incorporated into the verb root in Sanskrit. The instances in which yi (已) resembles Sanskrit gerund forms were introduced into Medieval Chinese via coordinative compounding, [V + yi (已)], a popular way of coining new words at that time. In the next linguistic stage, Pre-Modern Chinese, [V + le (了)] replaced [V + yi (已)], and le (了) was grammaticized into a verb suffix when it co-occurred with achievement verbs in this construction. According to Chen and Wang (1975), what actuates a linguistic change may differ from the ways in which this change is implemented. The verb suffix le (了) was actuated by a form corresponding to the Sanskrit suffix, but it was implemented by virtue of the Chinese compounding rule. The change during which the second component of coordinative ([V + yi (已)]＞) [V + le (了)] turned into the suffix of the verb did not begin until [V + yi (已)] had been implemented, and the ultimate product of the verb suffix emerged due to an internal motivation of grammaticalization.
yi (已), le (了), perfective aspect verb suffix, language contact, Chinese historical grammar
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