A Reichenbach-based Analysis of Cengjing

Cengjing has been proposed to serve as an adverb by Lü (1999), defined as marking past time by Ma (2003) and as a perfective aspect marker by Cao (2002), as reviewed in Chapter Two. I suggest that cengjing is a past time adverb, following Lü (1999), Yisheng Zhang (2002), Yajun Zhang (2002), Chang (2009), Li and Ho (2016), among others. The

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terminology seen among previous works is not consistent, if not accurate for some of them. I will elaborate in the following with Reichenbach’s three times.

Based on the proposal that sees cengjing as past time adverb, the situations under cengjing’s scope accordingly happened in the past. As reviewed in Chapter Two, cengjing is not compatible with the future and the present tense. For example, (65) is not acceptable in that the time frame of mingnian ‘next year’ (S-R) violates the setting of cengjing as a past tense adverb (R-S). The resultative state of creating a novel, conveyed by wan ‘complete’, belongs to a time that has not come yet, apparently against the past context predetermined by cengjing.

(65)  *Mingnian zhe-ge shihou wo jiu hui cengjing xie next.year this-CL time I just will CENGJING write wan yi-ben xiaoshuo.

finish one-CL novel

*‘I will have once finished this novel by this time next year.’

Cengjing marks past time but does not restrict the stage of the situation. That is, cengjing requires R precede S but leaves open the order of R and E. Besides scoping over a simple past, cengjing is compatible with different aspectual scenarios. For example, in (66), in the order of E-R-S, a finished situation of arriving in the UK comes before a reference time (R), i.e. six years ago. This shows cengjing can modify a past situation in another past. In (67), the dancing activity was going on for a while in the remote past specified by time reference duo nian qian ‘years ago’. The R coincides with E, which covers a certain stretch of time

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(Reichenbach 1947: 289). This time extension is marked by present participle in English. The extended tense shows an order of R,E-S.

(66)  Liu-nian qian ta qu Meiguo qian cengjing xian six-year ago he go US before CENGJING earlier qu le Yingguo.

go PFV UK

‘He went to UK first before going to US six years ago.’

(67)  Duo nian qian de mou-ge wuye ta cengjing hen many year before DE some-CL midnight he CENGJING very xingfen-de zai tiaowu.

excitedly PROG dance

‘In a midnight years ago he was dancing with much excitement.’

Cengjing requires that the situation terminate before S, i.e. E must precede S. In (68) where cengjing scopes over a state situation, the state of perplexity lasted only in the past and is no longer available at S. Cengjing cancels the future possibility, and the E is expected to be kept with the R in the past.

(68)  Wo cengjing miwang, dan xianzai zhidao fangxiang le.

I CENGJING at.a.loss, but now know direction PFV

‘I was once at a loss, but now have figured out the way to go.’

The previous analyses of cengjing, as seen in Chapter Two, leave many problems that are awaiting a better explanation. I will address them with the abstract times from

Reichenbach (1947).

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Scholars such as Cao (2002) and Hu (2005) argue that it is possible for situations under cengjing’s scope to hold at S. Cao has a quick mention of the possibility, though she provides no example to support it. Hu examines cengjing on pragmatics-based accounts; he classifies all the relevant meanings into basic and derivative categories. According to Hu, if the situation does not hold at S, cengjing displays its basic meaning; if the situation holds at S, cengjing’s meaning is one of the derivative. He argues that in (69) (= (23) in Chapter Two) cengjing takes a derivative meaning, so the situation continues at S.

(69)  Bieren wo bu lun, ruoshi ziji ze cengjing kan-guo xuduo others I not judge if self then CENGJING see-EXP much jiu shu, weile jiaoshu zhi jin ye hai zai kan.

old book for teach till today also still PROG see

‘As for me, I used to read many old books, and for teaching, I still do.’ (Hu 2005:

26)

Against Cao’s and Hu’s views, my proposal is that it is impossible for the same situation under the scope of cengjing to hold until S. In (69) the situation of reading books lacks continuity. The resuming situation is a new event, separate from the previous one. (69) consists of two clauses denoting two events, and cengjing only has scope over the first event.

Therefore, in the second clause the situation holds until S.

Deng (2010) argues that cengjing is incompatible with the progressive aspect as

reviewed in Chapter Two, such as (70) (= (16) in Chapter Two) and dismisses the possibility of combining cengjing and zai, without further elaboration. I suggest that the reason for (70) to be unacceptable is a semantic clash between cengjing and yong cun ‘exist forever’. The

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yong cun predicates two arguments, aiqing ‘love’ and shiye ‘career’, the latter of which is modified by a relative clause under cengjing’s scope. The shiye under cengjing’s scope should no longer exist at S, and thus this sentence is semantically contradictory.

(70)  *Womende aiqing yu women cengjing zai

our love with we CENGJING PROG

jinxing de shehui fuwu shiye yiyang yong cun.

process DE society service career same forever exist

*‘Our love lasts as long as the social service we were once doing.’ (Deng 2010:

127)

As for the issue of compatibility between cengjing and zai, since my argument sets cengjing as an adverb marking past time, I regard the combination of cengjng and a

progressive particle as semantically legitimate. In (71) zai demonstrates time extension of an event, which Reichenbach (1947) terms as extended tense, and cengjing places this aspectual situation in a past context, so the in-progress process of the plan is in the past. Reichenbach views E and R as coincidental in the extended tense, thus showing an order of R,E-S.

(71)  Na-chang zhanzheng zhongduan le women cengjing that-CL war suspend PFV we CENGJING

zai jinxing de jihua.

PROG process DE plan

‘The war suspended the plan we were processing.’

Cao (2002) argues that cengjing, generally considered an adverb indicating remote past, can have a ‘just now’ meaning as well, as in (72), which is about an event that just happened, possibly a few minutes ago. As mentioned in 2.5, the informants of this study, nevertheless,

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consider (72) awkward unless it is intended to create perceptual remoteness. I suggest there is no definitive value of the minimum remoteness of the event time from the speech time. Still, cengjing is apparently against a too recent situation, as in (72). It is not a well-formed sentence because gangcai ‘just now’ brings in an extremely recent past (R), but the situation (E) under cengjing’s scope belongs to a remoter past. The closest explanation to clarify this semantic obscurity is that cengjing is compatible with a recent past under the condition of stressing the time difference between the happening of a situation (E) and speech time (S).

For instance, it makes sense to use cengjing in (73). Shuodao-guo ni is an event in the recent past, which seems to lose validity when this situation is uttered. Cengjing has the function of highlighting a then-and-now discontinuity.

(72)  Gangcai ta ceng shuodao-guo ni.

just.now he CENG talk.about-EXP you

‘He just talked about you.’ (Cao 2002: 44)

(73)  Gangcai ta ceng shuodao-guo ni, xianzai que wang le.

just.now he CENG talk.about-EXP you now but forget PFV

‘He just talked about you, but forgets it now.’

Qu (2012) argues that cengjing tends to scope over realis mood, as in (74) (= (21) in Chapter Two), but does not explain why it has such an inclination. In fact, there are

counterexamples that undermine the credibility of Qu’s claim. The possibility of sentences like (75) questions the argument that cengjing tends to scope over realis mood. In (75) cengjing is under the scope of keneng ‘may’ but the lack of tense in modal verbs allows

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cengjing to give tense to the sentence, so the likelihood of his working for CIA is in the past.

In opposition to Qu (2012), cengjing has equal tendency to scope over realis or irrealis mood.

(74)  Ju hangkong shi jizai kongqi qiangbi cengjing ba by aviation history record air wall CENGJING BA jianying-de feiji zhuang de fensui.

hard plane hit DE smash

‘The aviation history writes that air curtains once smashed a hard plane.’ (Qu 2012:

162)

(75)  Ta keneng cengjing xiaoli yu zhongqingju.

he may CENGJING serve at CIA

‘He once worker for CIA.’

In sum, cengjing is analyzed as a past time adverb (R-S) based on Reichenbach’s (1947) three abstract times in this study. Though it is open to any aspectual possibility, the E must precede S. Given this anterior relation of E to S, I refute Cao’s (2002) and Hu’s (2005) proposal that there is possibility for situations under cengjing’s scope to hold at S. The controversy of progressive’s compatibility (Deng 2010) is resolved by proving a past

progressive (E,R-S) sentence to be well-formed. Qu’s (2012) finding of the relation between cengjing and realis mood is refuted with the acceptable irrealis mood sentence. In terms of the remoteness of a past situation (Cao 2002), cengjing and recent past can get along well when cengjing is used to contrast past from present.

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