Why does 他吃了饭 sound incomplete?

Question

As I study usage of different aspects markers in Chinese, I started to realize that my problems with those markers come from simple fact that: "I don't see any use in them." Reason for this is: Whenever I see a bare verb phrase, I translate it as simple present time. But this is far from truth.

So, let me ask a question:

"Why does 他吃了饭 sound incomplete?" This kind of sentence is being used in many theoretical talks and papers on Chinese linguistics

My answers: The difference between 他吃饭 and 他吃了饭 lies only in that 了 renders the situation as factual rather then irreal (habitual, desirable, wishing, issuing a command etc.)

Explanation:

他吃饭 can be translated (in proper context) as:

1. An order. "He (must) eat (now)!" (screaming).
2. A habit. He eats (always).
3. A desire. He (wants/thinking about) to eat.

But once you add 了 to a verb(as in 他吃了饭), you thus delete all the mentioned above as a possible translations. Now the situation is "factual \actual". It is not about habit, orders, desires and other irrealis modes. But rendering situation factual is not enough, you still have a big list of possible translations (in proper context), for example:

1. A fact. He ate.
2. A fact. He eats... and then... (not as a habit, but actually eats as in some narrative)
3. A fact. He just initiated a process of eating.
4. Future. He will have eaten (by the time ...)
5. any suggestions?

that is why in 他吃了饭 you need further specification! The verb 吃了 is not rendered to ANY time (just rendered to reality, making it a fact or eventuality)!!!

P.S. Please, refrain from "perfective aspect marker 了" viewpoint if it is possible. Thank you!

P.s.s. Please, provide your possible translations and contexts for 他吃了饭 (this is very important for not natives! We need to see the point in adding aspects to naked verbs!!!)

Answer 1

I can't for the life of me understand why switching an associative verb to the front forms a question in English. Am I not stupid?

The fact is, in a lot of cases, languages don't follow any kind of logic or reasoning.

If you say 他吃饭了, it's a complete sentence. If you say 他吃了饭, a listener would expect you to tell him what happened next, like 他吃了饭，拍拍肚子就走了。Now that it's complete, the listener can rest in peace.

So in this case, 他吃了饭 means "After he ate" -- Apparently an incomplete sentence.

But why does switching the position of 了 change its meaning? No one has the slightest idea.

There are situations where "verb + 了 + object" makes a complete sentence. Like when answering "他吃了什么?" with "他吃了一只火鸡."

Answer 2

I would say that your sentence 他吃了饭 sounds incomplete for two reasons:

1. there is an aspect marker 了 exactly
   
2. the sentence structure in Chinese is theme-comment
   
   

IMHO, what you say here:

The difference between 他吃饭 and 他吃了饭 lies only in that 了 renders the situation as factual rather then irreal (habitual, desirable, wishing, issuing a command and ect.)

is due to the fact that if you state that something has ended, you imply that it happened. There's nothing that hints about "factual" vs "non factual" directly in the presence of 了 there. I believe it is a consequence of it being an aspect marker. Therefore that's exactly the aspect particle 了 making the sentence hang. That's what that 了 is for.

As Wang Dingwei says:

So in this case, 他吃了饭 means "After he ate" -- Apparently an incomplete sentence.

You must complete with something more:

他吃了饭就走了
他吃了饭觉得不舒服
他吃了饭一般睡午觉

And you can also see that the sentences above can be translated with different tenses, therefore:

The verb 吃了 is not rendered to ANY time

is intuitively true because aspectual 了 doesn't convey information about time. It marks the completeness of the action, not directly its actuality. In 他吃了饭 you are stating that something ends without accounting for what the subject (actually, the theme) does next. That's all what there is to it, IMHO.

As a last note, if you just want to say that you have finished eating without adding further information, than the theme of your sentence is the food! And to specify that the action is not hanging, I would use a result verb （完，好） AND a modal 了, indicating that I ate and I'm eating no more.

饭我吃好了

Answer 3

Mandarin is not my mother language, yet I would tend to think like this.

1. Using 了 after the verb and object (verb + object + 了)

It denotes that the action is completed, with an implication that it is not completed a long time ago, or it is just completed.

2. Using 了 right after the verb.

It also denotes the completion of an action, but there is no indication of the time. It may sounds unnatural to be complete, yet it is OK to end a sentence like this. Only because 吃饭 is a very usual situation would the listener expects more than that usually.

3. Using 了 right after an adjective

This one is completely different from the previous two. Adding 了 in this case means "become (adjective)". Example: 你帅了。 => You became handsome.

4. Using 了 after verb, adjective and adverb (verb/adjective + adverb + 了)

For this one, I think 了 is only used to soften the tone of the sentence, without any actual meaning. Example: 你漂亮极了。 -> You are so beautiful.

Well, if that is the case, what is the difference between 了 and 完?

1. You cannot use 完 after the object but only after the verb, yet this rule does not apply to 了.

Example: 你吃饭完 —> incorrect, 你吃完饭 —> correct, 我吃完饭了 —> correct

2. Using 完，you can continue the sentence with another job. (Ex: I finished doing sth, and THEN...)

Another approach: 了 actually means 了结, which is "end" in English, while 完 is 完成, which is equivalent to "finish" in English. If you can distinguish between "end" and "finish", you should be able to identify the difference between 完 and 了.

For this definition, I am not so sure, but an example will be:

我吃了饭 > I ended eating (I was eating, but now I am no longer eating), 
我吃完饭 > I finished eating