RP and TG Coincide

For the before-pair, a durative TG starts at a certain point, though not clear when, and ends at the point when the RP occurs. In other words, the durative TG is bounded.

Here we give an example of a TG that is a state.

(4-20) (GAMBLE)

208 H: ..我 相信 在 結婚 之前,-

wǒ xiàngxìn zài jiéhūn zhīqián 1SG belive at get.married ZHIQIAN

RP 6 months TG

→209 ..一定 是 非常 甜蜜 的.\

yīdìng shì fēicháng tiánmì de must C/F very sweet NOM

H: “I believe that before you got married, you must have been very much in love.”

The TG here is the state of being very much in love, and this state is construed to end when the RP occurs, i.e., when the addressee in this dialogue got married. We represent this example in Figure 4.3 below. The dashed arrow line pointing to the left stands for the extension sense.

Figure 4.3 The before-pair with a durative TG

Since the before-pair arranges two situations anti-chronologically, we have to process the TG backwards in time: the state of being very much in love extends from the point when they got married into the direction of past. For the before-pair, the endpoint of a durative TG is marked by the occurrence of the RP. The temporal location of the starting point may not be clear, as in this example, but there is always one. The starting point of the TG marks the termination of the extension sense.

For the after-pair, the extension sense is most salient when the TG is a presently ongoing situation. Below is such an example of yǐhòu. The TG here is also a state.

(4-21) (FACTORY)

202 F: ..臺灣 傢俱業 到 那邊 去 hoN,\

táiwān jiājùyè dào nàbiān qù hon Taiwan furniture.industry arrive there go PT

(IUs 203-218 omitted)

TG

RP

219 ..到 那邊 以後,\

dào nàbiān yǐhòu arrive there YIHOU

→220 ..它 還是 當 頭 啊.-

tā háishì dāng tóu ā 3SG still be head PT

F: “After it (i.e., the Taiwanese furniture industry) moves to there, it is still the boss (i.e., plays the leading role).”

In this example, the RP is the Taiwanese furniture industry’s moving or relocating, whereas the TG is the state of being the boss. The RP is linguistically construed as coinciding with the starting point of the TG. The TG starts almost as the RP occurs and extends towards the direction of future. Since the TG here is an ongoing situation that holds true at the speech time and is likely to be so for some time, it does not yet have a definite endpoint.

The extension sense of the after-pair with an ongoing durative TG is diagramed in Figure 4.4. The point labeled as 0 indicates the speech time, which is heuristically depicted in the middle of the time line, though it may be at a random point. The TG is depicted as a stretch. The left end of the stretch, i.e., the starting point, coincides with the RP. The right end is open and represented as an arrow sign pointing to the direction of future to signal that the situation is not bounded and will continue for some time.

Figure 4.4 The extension sense of the after-pair with an ongoing TG

The durative TG extends from the temporal location of the RP towards the direction

RP

TG 0

of future. The dashed arrow line stands for the extension sense. For the after-pair, which arranges two situations according to the time flow, the direction of the extension is the same as the direction of time flow. In pictorial representation, the arrow of the extension line points to the right, the same as the time line and the ongoing TG.

The next example involves a repetitive situation as the TG. Note the preposition zìcóng ‘since’ before the preceding element. We have seen the preposition and a repetitive TG earlier in (4-18) about the encyclopedia. In that example and the following one, the TG is a repetitive situation which occurs multiple times whenever a relevant condition comes into play.

(4-22) (THEFT)

443 J: (0)我 自從 上 次 丟掉 錢 之後,-

wǒ zìcóng shàng cì diū-diào qián zhīhòu 1SG since last time lose-fall money ZHIHOU

→444 ..現在 手邊 有 錢,-

xiànzài shǒu-biān yǒu qián

now hand-side have money

→445 ..就 趕快 拿去 存.\

jiù gǎnkuài ná-qù cún

JIU straight.away take-go save

→446 ...(1.0)<X 免得 X> 一天到晚 在 丟.\

miǎndé yītiāndàowǎn zài diū so.as.not.to all.the.time DUR lose

J: ‘‘After/Ever since I lost money (by accident) last time, now whenever I have cash at hand, I will save it at the bank straightaway, so as to avoid losing money all the time.”

The RP is the money losing event, whereas the TG is saving money at the bank.

Although we determine the TG as a durative situation, it does not mean that speaker J has been saving money into her bank account at every second since the money losing event. The continuation of the TG does not indicate the literal duration, but repetition

under a relevant condition: whenever J has cash at hand, she puts it into her bank account. Alternatively, we may think of this new habit as J’s permanent property, and properties like states literally last for continuous time. The TG, as an ongoing habit, started when the RP happened and has extended up to the speech time and will very likely continue in the future (until speaker J has some reason to terminate this habit).

In (4-18) and in (4-22), the extension sense is compatible with the meaning of the preposition zìcóng ‘since’, and zìcóng and zhīhòu/yǐhòu ‘after’ can be said to form something like a circumposition together.

The ‘since’ sense related to the extension sense does not have to be contributed by the preposition zìcóng. In the next example, the ‘since’ sense is the main point of the story even though without zìcóng or cóng. In this dialogue between two friends, speaker A narrates an experience of being stood up by her elder sister, who promised to wait for A at the dorm room ‘since’ (yǐhòu) six o’clock. But when speaker A arrived around eight o’clock, the elder sister was not there. Angrily, speaker A left the dorm, and then the two sisters bumped into each other on the street when speaker A scolded her sister in public. In this example, the TG is an activity.

(4-23) (CON1CHI)

10 A: .. 她 就 跟 我 說,\

tā jiù gēn wǒ shuō 3SG JIU with 1SG say

→11 ..她 六 點 以後 就 會 在 寢室 等 我.\

tā liù diǎn yǐhòu jiù huì zài qǐnshì děng wǒ 3SG six o’clock YIHOU JIU will at dorm.room wait 1SG

(IUs 12-73 omitted: Speaker A did not find her sister at the dorm at around eight p.m. Later she saw her on the street and scolded her in public.)

74 B: ..可是 你 不 是 約 六 點 嗎?\

kěshì nǐ bù shì yuē liù diǎn ma but 2SG NEG C/F arrange six o’clock Q

75 A: .. 對 啊,_

duì ā

A: “She told me that she would be waiting for me at her dorm room since six o’clock.”

(IUs 12-73 omitted)

B: “But didn’t you agree on six o’clock?”

A: “We did! By that time it was already later than eight o’clock!”

B: “Huh? Six o’clock? Huh? [Eight o’clock]?”

A: “[She said] she would be waiting for my phone call at her dorm room since six o’clock.”

B: OK.

There are two uses of yǐhòu (IU 11 and IU 81). In both cases, the RP (also the RT)

is the temporal point six o’clock, whereas the TG is the sister’s waiting for A (to call) at the dorm room. Speaker A understood the appointment in the sense that, as her sister said she would be waiting for her at the dorm room “since” six o’clock, she could come at any time later than six o’clock. Speaker B, for some reason, seems to understand that the two sisters agreed to meet at exactly six o’clock and thus appears a bit confused why speaker A was angry and scolded her sister when they ran into each other on the street. Speaker A then emphasizes the extension sense: the activity of her sister’s waiting for her at the dorm room was supposed to have held at any given time point later than six o’clock until the moment when A called; the waiting should have started at six o’clock and extended until A called or arrived. This is why A was angry to find her sister not at the dorm room when she called at around eight o’clock.

For this example, we represent speaker A’s expected scenario in Figure 4.5 (a) and the reality in Figure 4.5 (b). In her expectation, the TG (i.e., the sister’s waiting) should have extended from the RP (i.e., six o’clock, also the RT) and stopped only when speaker A arrived or called (labeled as the situation “A”). In reality, the TG stopped sometime before speaker A arrived around eight o’clock.

(a) Expected scenario

(b) Reality Figure 4.5 The expected scenario and the reality in (4-23)

We may say that with a durative TG, the after-pair sometimes has the ‘since’

sense in addition to the ‘after’ sense. The former displays the extension sense,

RP

TG

A RP

TG A A’ A’’

whereas the latter displays the sequence sense.