On the preposition ‘tho22’ as a temporal marker for two sequential events in the Baoding dialect - synchronic and diachronic perspectives

Alain Peyraube (1, 2, 3) , Na Song (3)

1 EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales
2 CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique
3 CRLAO - Centre de Recherches Linguistiques sur l'Asie Orientale

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.

Domaines: Linguistique

Alain Peyraube, Na Song. On the preposition ‘tho22’ as a temporal marker for two sequential events in the Baoding dialect - synchronic and diachronic perspectives. New Perspectives on Aspect and Modality in Chinese Historical Linguistics, pp.3-21, 2019. ⟨hal-03172782⟩