Gu (2010) and C. Liu (2007)

In a master thesis titled The Study of the Position Words “Qian,” “Hou” and Their Related Words, Gu (2010) investigates eight compound words containing qián and seven containing hòu based on a corpus consisting of eight contemporary Chinese novels (10,475,225 Chinese characters in total).²¹ Among the various compound words, Gu compares zhīqián with yǐqián (‘before’) and zhīhòu with yǐhòu (‘after’), considering the syntactic similarities within each pair. In particular, Gu describes these temporal terms as occurring in the attached form when they are attached to a preceding element, be it a noun, verb, clause, or other fixed expressions, and in the bare form when there is no such a preceding element to which these terms are attached.²² The four temporal compound terms are used as adverbs in the bare form, and in the attached form these temporal terms together with their preceding element are predominantly used as temporal adverbials in the clause they occur, suggesting that regardless of the syntactic form, the primary function of these temporal terms is to modify a clause. Using the cover term attached form, Gu considers the grammatical

21 The English title is Gu’s original translation. Although Gu also points out that zhīqián and zhīhòu have spatial meanings whereas yǐqián and yǐhòu do not, we will simply present the analysis that is directly relevant to their temporal senses, since spatial senses are not our main concern in this study.

22 The original Chinese terms corresponding to attached form and bare form in Gu (2010) are hòufù (後附, literally ‘back-attached’) and dānyòng (單用, literally ‘single-use’), respectively.

function of these temporal terms and their preceding element as a whole, rather than directly calling these terms postpositions or conjunctions.

For the before-pair, Gu examines two other parameters, both regarding the reference point, namely, the concept denoted by the element immediately preceding zhīqián and yǐqián when they occur in the attached form. The first parameter is the distinction between punctual (or “point-like”) reference points and durative (or

“stretch-like”) reference points. Consider Gu’s classification (glossing and translation mine):

(2-9) Punctual reference point (Gu 2010: 23) (a) Temporal noun of punctuality

九 點 以前

jiǔ diǎn yǐqián nine o’clock YIQIAN

‘before nine o’clock’

(b) Verb or phrase denoting punctuality

最後 一 次 離開 英國 之前

zuìhòu yī cì líkāi yīngguó zhīqián the.last one time leave Britain ZHIQIAN

‘before (I) left Britain for the last time’

(2-10) Durative reference point (Gu 2010: 23) (a) Temporal noun of duration

(i) 幾 個 月 以前

jǐ ge yuè yǐqián several CL month YIQIAN

‘several months ago’

(ii) 在 一 段 連續 假日 之前

zài yī duàn liánxù jiàrì zhīqián at one CL consecutive holiday ZHIQIAN

‘before a period of consecutive holidays’

(b) Verb or phrase denoting duration No example given in Gu (2010)

Gu discovers that the reference points associated with yǐqián are equally likely to be punctual or durative (50% vs. 50%), while those associated with zhīqián tend to be punctual rather than durative (84.2% vs. 15.8%). There is no explanation given or intended regarding this difference between zhīqián and yǐqián. X. Li points out that temporal expressions of duration cannot be reference points (1997: 44); instead, in the first example in (2-12a), the real reference point is the speech time or now.

The other parameter that Gu examines for the before-pair concerns the reference point when zhīqián and yǐqián are used in the bare form. Based on the corpus data, Gu argues that the reference point of yǐqián in the bare form may be now or some other time mentioned in previous context, but the reference point of zhīqián has only the second kind. In other words, Gu is suggesting that zhīqián in the bare form has only relative time reference use (cf. 3.2 in this thesis). This conclusion accords with the explanation of zhīqián in the CCD and is observed in other studies. For instance, C.

Liu (2007) claims that the reference point associated with bare-form zhīqián (termed zhīqián2 by Liu) is found in the previous clause or in the previous discourse, indirectly rejecting the possibility that bare-form zhīqián may also take the speech time or now as the reference point. However, some of the examples given by C. Liu are ambiguous as to what the reference point should be identified with. Consider the following sentence uttered by a guest on a TV show, which is spoken data (example from C. Liu (2007), boldface added, glossing and translation mine):

(2-11) (C. Liu 2007: 32)

学到了 一些 自己 之前 不 太 了解 的

xué-dào-le yīxiē zìjǐ zhīqián bù tài liǎojiě de learn-arrive-PFV some self ZHIQIAN NEG too understand NOM 知识

zhīshì knowledge

‘I learned some knowledge that I did not understand very well before.’

Since C. Liu does not provide the prior context, judging from this sentence alone it is equally adequate to say that the reference point of zhīqián here is the speech time, as indicated by the English translation before in the sense of “before now” instead of

“before something else.” We disagree with CCD, C. Liu (2007) and Gu (2010) and argue that zhīqián in the bare form may also take the speech time or the present moment as the reference point (or the reference time, cf. 3.2.2 in this thesis).

In terms of yǐhòu and yǐhòu, Gu (2010) points out three important differences.

First, yǐhòu is more likely to occur in the bare form than zhīhòu (37% vs. 7%). Second, yǐhòu in the bare form tends to modify future situations (73.4%) and collocate with conditional connectors (e.g., rúguǒ ‘if’), expressions marking epistemic modality (e.g., kěnéng ‘maybe’ and hǎoxiàng ‘seemingly’), or with speech act verbs (e.g., verbs expressing expectation, advice, request, promise, etc.).²³ In contrast, zhīhòu in the bare form tends to modify past situations. Finally, as many as 70% of yǐhòu used in the bare form are found in dialogues, whereas zhīhòu is almost always used in

“written genre” whether in the attached form or bare form. The last observation concurs with many dictionary explanations (e.g., CWN and Lü 1999), although we should bear in mind that the so-called “dialogues” in Gu’s corpus are dialogues in novels, not dialogues in spontaneous speech.