ABSTRACT
In this chapter I turn to verbal le and consider how the re-positioning of le/liao relative to the main verb and its object relates to parallel changes observed in resultative constructions. Suggesting first that le/liao historically underwent structural reanalysis as completive aspect similar to other V2 elements in RVCs, I then concentrate on the synchronic status of verbal le and argue that a particular process of upwards grammaticalization in the functional structure dominating VP has resulted in verbal le currently being a morpheme which may actually instantiate three discrete functional heads—completive aspect, perfective aspect and also, more controversially, past tense. The chapter attempts to show that Smith's (1997) two-tiered system of situational and viewpoint aspect provides an insightful model for understanding the roles played by different functional suffixes on the verb, and argues for the possibility that functional morphemes undergoing change may naturally instantiate more than just a single functional head in any extended functional sequence. The central conclusion of the chapter that affixal elements undergo grammaticalization and reanalysis in a way which significantly parallels the movement-dependent reanalysis of free-standing morphemes is also argued to provide good evidence in favor of the Minimalist hypothesis that affixes are licensed via raising to a higher functional head, and that this raising may take place either overtly or covertly at the level of Lf.
