Tham khảo tài liệu 'mandarin chinese a functional reference grammar phần 6', ngoại ngữ, ngữ pháp tiếng anh phục vụ nhu cầu học tập, nghiên cứu và làm việc hiệu quả | ADVERBS 329 A. yòu and zai Zàì again refers to events that have not yet happened whereas yòu again applies either to past or to present events. The following sample sentences will illustrate 30 a. tã yòu 3sg again chĩ eat le CRS 3- S He is eating again. b. tã zuotian you chĩ le 3sg yesterday again eat CRS S He ate again yesterday. c. tã míngtiãn you chĩ le 3sg tomorrow again eat CRS Sentence 30 c is ungrammatical because the presence of míngtiãn tomorrow indicates an event that has not yet occurred. On the other hand zai again can never be used to refer to events that have occurred or are occurring. Thus 31 a is unacceptable 31 a. tã zuotian zai chi 3sg yesterday again eat b. tã míngtiãn zai chi 3sg tomorrow again eat S He ll eat again tomorrow. Zai again can occur in commands the imperative construction where the action is in the future with respect to the time of the utterance 32 ni zai chi you again eat You eat again 332 ADVERBS Again the precise meaning of jiu in a sentence must be determined on the basis of contextual factors. c. zhi Zhi unambiguously means only . Since it is a predicate-modifying adverb in Mandarin it modifies solely the entire predicate phrase as does ji u only for example 0 40 women zhi yào kãfẽi we only want coffee We only want coffee. That is it can never modify a noun phrase alone as only can in English. Thus while sentence 41 a is acceptable English its Mandarin equivalent 41 b is not acceptable 41 a. Only passengers can board the ship. b. zhi ZU0 chuán de kẽyi shàng chuán -A only ride boat NOM can ascend boat Ta D. cái Cái basically has two meanings just now and only then . In the first meaning just now it is synonymous with the adverb gang 42 wỏ cải dào I just arrive I ve just arrived. In the second meaning of cái only then it must refer back to some element specifying a time or a set of conditions under which the predicate with cái holds true. This element can be a word or a phrase earlier in the same clause as in 43 wỏ míngtiân cái
