此篇論文的目的在於探討漢語的時間修飾子句(temporal clause)。相較於英文的when-clause，中文有三種表達方式，「的時候」子句(de shihou clause)、「時」子句(shi clause)、「當」子句(dang clause)。此論文將著重於這些時間修飾子句的句法及其意義。
首先，本文主張「的時候」子句並不是關係子句，而是同位子句。主要原因為「的時候」子句無法通過名詞組省略(NP-ellipsis)之測試。關於「時」子句，在回顧了相關的文獻後，我認為「時」本身為名詞附著字根(bound root noun)。「時」在「時」子句中，是附著詞素(clitic)。而「當」子句，我歸納出「當」和「在」一樣，是介系詞。當通常承接子句或帶有時間意涵的名詞補語。
此外，我們注意到，「當」子句可以有條件句的用法。在“當P，Q”的結構中，P的時間必須先於Q，且P和Q之間，有直接的因果關係。在這樣的條件下，「當」子句才可以是條件句的用法。

The aim of this thesis is to provide a comprehensive account for Chinese temporal “when” clauses. There are three Chinese correspondents to English when-clauses; they are de shihou clauses, shi clauses, and dang clauses. Our focus is to explore the structures and meanings of these Chinese temporal “when” clauses.
First of all, we propose that the de shihou clause is not a typical de relative clause but an appositive clause due to incompatibility with NP-ellipsis. Regarding to the shi clause, after reviewing the characteristics of shi, we conclude that shi is a bound root noun. Furthermore, we assume it is a clitic. The third kind of temporal clauses is the dang clause. We propose that dang is a preposition, similar to zai, and takes either a CP or a NP complement denoting a time interval. Besides, we discover that in conditional dang clauses, namely "dang P, Q", P has to temporally precede Q, and a direct cause-and-effect relation between P and Q is required. Such a relationship is the factor allowing dang to assume the sense of conditionality.

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