TAU+VP and Clause-Final TAU in Xiaolongmen, a Xiang Dialect

It is observed that the morpheme TAU [inline-graphic 01] in Xiaolongmen, a Xiang dialect, appears in two distinctive positions to give sentences a past tense interpretation. The preverbal TAU (tau1213) indicates that the subject went/came to a location to participate in an event, and the subject has already left the location and the actions/events have been terminated by the speaking moment; the clause-final TAU (tau2213) indicates actions or states happened at least once in the past and they have stopped at the speaking time; it also implies that that is the reason for the current situation. We argue that tau1213 is a perfective aspect marker which assigns a past tense interpretation by using the non-coincidence relationship between the event location and the location of the event initiator. As for tau2213, it is argued to be a resultative perfect aspect marker indicating an action/state happened at least once at some time in the past and it has resulted in the current situation.