摘要：Finiteness has long been a controversial category. In particular, on its cross-language definition criteria, the academia has not reached a consensus so far. An examination of the trend of the research on finiteness can provide reference for its further study. The paper makes a systematic investigation into the research on finiteness, and finds that the research of finiteness has a tendency from phenotype to cryptotype, from verb to clause, from syntax to function, from monolingual perspective to typological one. From this trend, it can be inferred that the definition criteria of finiteness can be made more explicit if these features are integrated into its future study.
