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On a Temporal Preposition in the Baoding Dialect—Synchronic and Diachronic Perspectives

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New Perspectives on Aspect and Modality in Chinese Historical Linguistics

Part of the book series: Frontiers in Chinese Linguistics ((FiCL,volume 5))

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Abstract

There is a special temporal marker in the Baoding dialect to express the temporal relation of two sequential events: 投 tho22. We consider this maker as a preposition, which precedes its nominal objects corresponding to the postposition 之前/以前 zhīqián/yĭqián ‘before’ in Standard Mandarin. This paper firstly analyses the aspectual and the semantic features of the elements following 投 tho22 and the conditions constraining the 投 tho22 phrase. The source of 投 tho22 and its evolutionary development from Ancient Chinese ‘to throw’ [verb] to Modern Chinese (Baoding) ‘before’ [preposition] through Medieval Chinese are further discussed.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    We would like to thank Prof. Marie-Claude Paris and Prof. Christine Lamarre for their very useful comments on the first part of this paper concerning the Baoding dialect.

  2. 2.

    In the following we will not mention again the circumpositional constructions which are, in both languages (Standard Mandarin and Baoding), much less employed than the prepositional or postpositional ones. We are also aware that some consider that this preverbal element could be 头 tóu as well as 投 tóu (see Xiàndài hànyǔ cídiǎn 1996, pp. 1270–1271).

  3. 3.

    In Xi’an (a Mandarin dialect spoken in Shaanxi), the event followed by t’ou24 has always a negative undesirable effect for the addressee. (Lan 兰宾汉 2011: 201). Its scope is also very different from tho22 in Baoding. See Sect. 1.4.

  4. 4.

    See, among others, Zhu 朱德熙 (1959) or Peyraube (1979) on the expletive negation in the proximatives (see Ziegeler 2016) such as 差一点儿 chàyidiǎnr ‘almost, nearly’, as in 他差一点儿死了 tā_chàyìdiănr_sĭ_le [3SG_almost_die_COS] ‘He almost died’ = 他差一点儿没死tā_ chàyìdiănr_méi_sĭ [3SG_almost_NEG_die], also ‘He almost died’. Note that in French we have the same situation, with an expletive negation without any meaning: ‘Il s’en est fallu de peu qu’il meure’ = ‘Il s’en est fallu de peu qu’il ne meure.’ See also Lin 林若望 (2016).

  5. 5.

    投 tho22 may only appear in the sentence initial position if it is followed by 到 tɔ51, 投到 tho22tɔ being a disyllabic word meaning ‘before’ (it meant ‘until’ in previous stages. See the following section). Example:

    投到你吃饭先把桌子收拾收拾

    tho22tɔ_ni213_ tʂhʅ45fæ̃51_ ɕiæ̃45_ pa213_ tʂuɔ45tsɿ_ ʂo45ʂʅ _ ʂo45ʂʅ

    before_2SG_eat_first_OM_table_clean-up_RED

    First, clean up the table before having a meal.

  6. 6.

    See Peyraube (2017a) for a state of the art concerning the issue of a syntactic periodization of Chinese.

  7. 7.

    No instance of temporal tóu is mentioned in Meisterernst’s (2015) comprehensive analysis of tense and aspect in the Shĭjì 史记 (The Grand Scribe’s Records, 1st c. BCE).

  8. 8.

    For a different point of view, see Shi and Wu 时昌桂, 吴伟奇 (2008) who consider that tóu being a locative/temporal preposition is reasonably attested under the Six Dynasties period, before becoming common under the Tang (618–907). The instances they provide from Hòu Hàn shū 后汉书 (Book of the Later Han, 445) and from Sōu Shén Jì 搜神记 (In Search of the Supernatural, 4th c.) are not convincing.

  9. 9.

    Cited in Ma 马贝加 (2003: 137).

  10. 10.

    For more details on the uses of tóu in Zŭ Táng Jí, see Christoph Anderl (2004: 326–327). See also Zhang 张赪 (2002: 131).

  11. 11.

    As concerns Wang Anshi, it could also be the case that tóulăo is a disyllabic word meaning ‘to retire (from business)’ Other examples can be found in Ma 马贝加 (2002: 136–138).

  12. 12.

    Zhang 张赪 (2002: 221) is of the opinion that tóu alone could have been more common in the spoken language of that time.

  13. 13.

    See Traugott & Dasher (2002: 16) for a quite similar analysis of ‘after’ and ‘since’ in English.

  14. 14.

    In English as well, we found difference between ‘before’ and ‘until’ in these sentences.

  15. 15.

    See some examples in Khmer (Austroasiatic), Zande (Niger-Congo), Bulu (Bantu), Kikuyu (Bantu) in Heine & Kuteva (2002: 45–46) who suggested that “this grammaticalization appears to be part of a more extensive chain: ARRIVE > ALLATIVE > UNTIL.

  16. 16.

    See Peyraube (2017b) for a discussion and a definition of the concept of grammaticalization.

Abbreviations

1SG:

First singular personal pronoun

1PL:

First plural personal pronoun

1PLIN:

First plural personal pronoun inclusive

2SG:

Second singular personal pronoun

3SG:

Third singular personal pronoun

2PL:

Second plural personal pronoun

3PL:

Third plural personal pronoun

BEN:

Beneficiary

CL:

Classifier

COMPL:

Completive aspect

COS:

Particle expressing a change of state

EXP:

Experiential aspect marker

GEN:

Genitive

INT:

Interrogative particle

NEG:

Negative marker (adverb)

OM:

Preverbal object marker

PL:

Plural

PFV:

Perfective aspect marker

PROH:

Prohibitive

PRT:

Final particle

RED:

Reduplication

REL:

Relative marker

RES:

Resultative complement

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique & Ecole des Hautes études en Sciences Sociales, Paris, France

    Alain Peyraube

  2. Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales, Paris, France

    Na Song

Authors
  1. Alain Peyraube
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  2. Na Song
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Correspondence to Alain Peyraube .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. National Tsing Hua University, Institute of Linguistics, Hsinchu, Taiwan

    Barbara Meisterernst

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Peyraube, A., Song, N. (2019). On a Temporal Preposition in the Baoding Dialect—Synchronic and Diachronic Perspectives. In: Meisterernst, B. (eds) New Perspectives on Aspect and Modality in Chinese Historical Linguistics. Frontiers in Chinese Linguistics, vol 5. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-1948-8_1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-1948-8_1

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