[Lingtyp] Encoding "right before" across languages

[Guillaume Jacques]

Dear Pun Ho Lui,

In my Japhug grammar (https://langsci-press.org/catalog/book/295), the
meaning "right before" is treated in the section on what I call "immediate
precedence" ("be about to") §25.3.2.2 p.1399-1400. It seems to me that your
example *Right before I sleep, I brush my teeth*. could be reformulated as *As
I was about to go to sleep, I brushed my teeth*. without changing the truth
conditions of this sentence (if I am mistaken here, please don't hesitate
to comment). In my translations, I sometimes use "just before..." to convey
this meaning. It can be expressed by four main constructions: an adverb
(tɤkʰa), the morphological proximate jɯ- (44), the periphrastic proximate
and a construction with the verb mda "be the time (144).

(44)  [ɕɤr jɯ-jɤ-azɣɯt] tɕe (...) ɯ-kɤrme nɯ pjɤ-ɕɯ-ɴqoʁ \\
night \{prox}-\{aor}-arrive \{lnk} { } \{3sg}.\{poss}-hair \{dem}
\{ifr}-\{caus}-hang
‘Just before the night fell, [the witch] hung her hair [on the window of
the tower].’
p.1400

(144)  tɕe ɯʑo si tɤ-mda kóʁmɯz nɤ nɯ [mɯ-pjɤ-pe] nɯ ko-tso ri ɲɤ-maqʰu
ɲɯ-ŋu.
\{lnk} \{3sg} die:\{fact} \{aor}-be.the.time only.then \{add} \{dem}
\{neg}-\{ifr}.\{ipfv}-be.good \{dem} \{ifr}-understand \{lnk}
\{ifr}-be.late \{sens}-be
‘Just before dying, he understood that [what he had done] was not good,
but it was too late.’
 p.1305

I hope this is what you are looking for, best wishes,

Guillaume

Le lun. 22 avr. 2024 à 04:41, Juergen Bohnemeyer via Lingtyp <
lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org> a écrit :

> Dear Joe Pun Ho Lui – If you are looking for adverbial connectives
> expressing ‘right before’, I got nothing. However, there are languages that
> have anaphoric temporal remoteness markers. In such languages, immediate
> past markers convey ‘right before’ when used anaphorically (as opposed to
> with utterance time). A case in point is Yucatec (Bohnemeyer 2023).
> (Another language in which anaphoric temporal remoteness markers have been
> attested is Luganda (Klecha & Bochnak 2015); however, the Luganda system
> does not include an immediate past marker.)
>
>
>
> Best – Juergen
>
>
>
> Bohnemeyer, J. (2023). Elicitation and documentation of tense and aspect. *Language
> Documentation and Preservation* *Special Publication* 26: 59-98.
>
>
>
> Klecha, P., & M. R. Bochnak. (2015). Temporal remoteness and relativity.
> Talk presented at *NELS 46*.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Juergen Bohnemeyer (He/Him)
> Professor, Department of Linguistics
> University at Buffalo
>
> Office: 642 Baldy Hall, UB North Campus
> Mailing address: 609 Baldy Hall, Buffalo, NY 14260
> Phone: (716) 645 0127
> Fax: (716) 645 3825
> Email: jb77 at buffalo.edu
> Web: http://www.acsu.buffalo.edu/~jb77/
>
> Office hours Tu/Th 3:30-4:30pm in 642 Baldy or via Zoom (Meeting ID 585
> 520 2411; Passcode Hoorheh)
>
> There’s A Crack In Everything - That’s How The Light Gets In
> (Leonard Cohen)
>
> --
>
>
>
>
>
> *From: *Lingtyp <lingtyp-bounces at listserv.linguistlist.org> on behalf of
> Pun Ho Lui via Lingtyp <lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org>
> *Date: *Sunday, April 21, 2024 at 21:31
> *To: *<lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org>
> *Subject: *Re: [Lingtyp] Encoding "right before" across languages
>
> To make things clear, the referred ‘right before’ encodes a temporal
> relationship, as in* Right before I sleep, I brush my teeth*.
>
>
>
> Pun Ho Lui <luiph001 at gmail.com> 於 2024年4月22日 上午9:26 寫道：
>
>
>
> Dear all,
>
> In a number of cross-linguistic works on adverbial subordination (e.g.
> Olguin Martinez, 2022; Kortmann, 1997; Hetterle, 2015), the logically
> possible subordinating connective ‘right before’ is not covered. In my
> experience of reading grammar books, I don’t feel like I have stumbled on
> any dedicated marker/construction for ‘right before’.
>
> To my knowledge, the encoding of ‘right before’ can be, obviously, with an
> adverbial ‘right'+’before’. Another strategy is ‘as soon as…before’ in
> Cantonese.
>
> I am wondering if you have stumbled on ‘right before’ in other languages.
>
> Thank you.
>
> Warmest,
> Joe Pun Ho Lui
>
>
>
>
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-- 
Guillaume Jacques

Directeur de recherches
CNRS (CRLAO) - EPHE- INALCO
https://scholar.google.fr/citations?user=1XCp2-oAAAAJ&hl=fr
https://langsci-press.org/catalog/book/295
<http://cnrs.academia.edu/GuillaumeJacques>
http://panchr.hypotheses.org/
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