说“VP 之前”与“没(有)VP 之前”

A comparison between the temporal expressions"VP-zhiqian"(before VP)and"not VP-zhiqian"(before not VP)

方位词"之前"接在动词短语或小句的后面可以构成一种复合时间短语。该复合时间短语按肯定和否定分为两种,一种记作"VP 之前",另一种记作"没 VP 之前"。本文重点探讨这两种形式在时间意义、语法表现以及相关的语用问题等方面的异同。文章认为,"VP 之前"和"没 VP 之前"都以"VP"事件发生的时间为参照基准,但"VP 之前"以靠近 VP 发生的时间为优选;"没 VP 之前"则表达远离 VP 发生的时间,这是它们的微观时点义。另一方面,"VP 之前"和"没 VP 之前"也可表达宏观时点义,它通过对微观时点的整合,以具有时量含义的整体来表示。此外,"没 VP 之前"还具有一种语用义——VP 未然。从语篇表达的角度来看,"VP 之前"和"没 VP 之前"既有互补的一面,又有同一的一面。

Verb phrases or clauses followed by the postposition'zhiqian'are temporal expressions which are divided into two forms in terms of polarity:one referred to as'VP-zhiqian',the otherreferred to as'not VP-zhiqian'.Although both the temporal expressions have the same timereference,they have more or less different time meanings,which leads to some significantlinguistic phenomena that are to be analysed and explained in this paper.