The French anteriority pluperfect in contrast to the Czech language

The present study deals with anteriority expressed by the French pluperfect (henceforth PQP), investigating how Czech translators deal with the expression of anterior meaning. 

The anterior pluperfect signifies an action preceding another past action. French includes several anterior past verb forms, of which the pluperfect is the most universal (Grégoire, 2012:144-153). The Czech tense system offers no comparable alternative as the Czech plusquamperfect has died out.

Czech does not use verbs to signify anteriority, posing the question of how it is expressed. Leaving aside instances where the anteriority is left unexpressed, there are various possibilities. Radina (1977:74-81) primarily refers to the lexical level (předtím, kdysi, tenkrát; totiž; už, “before, a long time ago, then; that is why; already”). Further, he lists verb prefixes expressing finished action (špatně se vyspal, “he didn't sleep well”) and framing a situation as a final result. In an endnote, Radina mentions the option of switching the clause order, i.e. presenting the pluperfect action first in the utterance so its anteriority need not be expressly stated. This study aims to specify, quantify and complement this list. 

Our data is primarily sourced from the parallel French-Czech InterCorp corpus, version 12, from which a random sample of 1000 PQP occurrences was extracted. The material for the study comprises exclusively French originals, namely modern fiction by 64 Francophone authors. 

As the French PQP can express multiple meanings, we first identify the anterior PQP occurrences in the data. This is supported primarily by two groups of sources: firstly, by resources on the Triad of temporality, modality and aspect (TMA); secondly, by textual and referential approaches (Kleiber, Weinrich).

We view PQP as a potential of particular values which materialize in text and interact with all pertinent elements. The anterior PQP can convey various types of information at once: (A) aspectual, (B) textual, (C) referential etc. Therefore, we bear in mind the following interrelated methodological requirements: (A) We adhere to the lexicogrammatical requirement (in accordance with Maurice Gross’s lexicogrammatical school), taking into account that the lexical and grammatical levels are necessarily linked. (B) We work on the textual level, observing the syntactic and textual engagement of PQP. (C) We define the French PQP from a text-linguistic viewpoint: as one of several options of referring to an anterior situation as an antecedent. We are thus composing a detailed semantic image of each anterior situation and identifying all anaphoric expressions referring to it. 

The preliminary results of our analysis confirm the presence of temporal (předtím, předcházející, tehdejší “before, previous, the then”) and resultative expressions (už “already”) in Czech. Besides, thanks to the text-linguistic viewpoint, some spatial adverbials can be added to the list of anterior expressions (Peut-être qu’elle rêvait₂ de sa jeunesse₁, (...). Je ne sais pas ce que faisaient ses parents mais c’était₁ en Pologne₁. Elle avait commencé₁ à se défendre là-bas₁ (…) Možná , že se jí zdálo₂ o jejím mládí₁, (...). Nevím, co byli její rodiče zač, ale bylo to₁ v Polsku₁. S obživou začala tam₁ (...). Maybe she dreamt₂ about her young years₁, (...). I do not know who her parents were but it₁ was in Poland₁. She commenced making her living there₁ (...).) 

Last but not least we observe the highly frequent cases where anteriority remains unexpressed. These are subjected to tests through inserting expressions of anteriority or posteriority in the sentence. Surprisingly, an analogous phenomenon is found in French as well, namely among the most basic sentences, encountered already by A2 level students. These include sentences in the passé composé, where the latter passé composé refers to an anterior action (see Venušová, 2021).