Re: time distinctions

From: "H. S. Teoh"

> DOUGLAS KOLLER wrote:
> > Wo3 zai4 tan2 qin2.
> >
> > means "I'm playing the piano" or "I'm playing (I'll play) the piano
again."
>
> Not really, at least not for the particular flavor of Mandarin I speak.
I will concede that this isn't the best example, though I do think it works.

> zai4 in this context very rarely means "again". I'd say something like
>         Wo3 you4 zai4 tan2 qin2.
>         "I'll play / I'm playing the piano *yet* again!"
Yup. The "you4" for me implies a sense of boredom, ennui, and general
not-being-into-it-ness: "God, I'm playing this *again*!"

> Or something like
>         Wo3 zai4 tan2 i1 che4 qin2.
>         "I'll play the piano once more."
> Or more simply,
>         Wo3 zai4 tan2 kuo4 i1 pian4.
>         "I'll play that over again." (I'll play that over one more time.)
Yup. Both of these make it unambiguous.

> Hmm... I guess if you stress "zai4" more and draaaag it out, you might
> convey the sense of "again" in that particular context.
Again, I can hear the difference, but can't explain it so well. I don't
think it's *that* over the top pronunciation-wise.

> In imperative
> statements like "hau3, zai4 tan2" (good, play [it] again), the zai4 is
> very clearly "again".
Definitely agreed.

 >However, if zai4 comes after a pronoun like wo3 or
> ta1, it doesn't seem (to my gut feeling at least :-P) to mean "again" but
> rather indicates a progressive action.
Your point about adding an "yi1bian4" or "yi1ci4" is well taken. Maybe I
just haven't noticed them always being there. One gets the impression that
if we were having this conversation in person, these points would converge
quite quickly. Alas, we're stuck with writing essays :)

Kou