ABSTRACT
After a detailed investigation of the distribution, interpretation, and interaction of different markers of Tense, Aspect, and Negation in Vietnamese, this chapter reaches the following conclusions. (i) Despite lacking inflectional tense, Vietnamese does have syntactic tense, i.e., Vietnamese has those structural positions which are dedicated to Tense and Aspect. (ii) In fact, Tense and Aspect in Vietnamese are realised via a rigid fine-grained functional sequence which syntacticises subtle semantic distinctions both preverbally and postverbally. (iii) There is a two-way complicated relationship between Negation and Aspect in Vietnamese, which can be explained in a principled way by taking into consideration how the internal syntax of the temporal, aspectual and negative markers derives their clausal syntax. Finally, the chapter discusses how this study of Vietnamese contributes to a better understanding of East and mainland Southeast Asian languages more generally, as well as of language universally.
