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3.3.4. The past perfect form of the before clause
"Before" means the antecedent past, therefore, the main clause expresses more past than the before clause. For example, "Before she sent to college she took a shower." of (33) of the previous section means the main clause is the antecedent past and it can be paraphrased "Before she went to college she had taken a shower."

But it is sometimes seen that PaPF is used in the before clause and the past tense is used in the main clause. See the following example.

(34)
a. The workers stopped striking before the situation had come to a head.
b. John ran away before he had got hurt.
(Matsumura : 1996)

The above can be thought a discrepant time relation. See the following figure of PaPF.

(35)


The before clause is parallel to M and the main clause is to E. (*17)

*17 The relationship between M and the time adverb clause is explained in the note of the previous section.


See the following figure which expresses the time relation with the time representation and the example of (34a).

(36)
The workers stopped striking before the situation had come to a head.



It might be odd, but the time representation is correct.
Actually PaPF of the before clause has the completive meaning rather than the time order. Thus, it means the event before another event has done.
(34) is taken one more below in (37).

(37)
a. The workers stopped striking before the situation had come to a head.
b. John ran away before he had got hurt.

(37a) means the strike is stopped before the crucial stage has occurred and (37b) means he leaves before he has got hurt.


Time feeling






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