"過去"屬於時制系統, 若事件在說話時間前或參照事件發生時間前發生, 則可以說他發生於"過去"。 本文認爲, 時制助詞"的""來著"都在句中體現出表示動作或事件發生於"過去"的語法意義, 可視爲專門標記句子"過去"時制意義的語法形式。 此外, 時態助詞"過"和"了"的主要功能是表達時態意義, 也可兼表"過去"的時制意義, 在不同的句法位置呈現出不同的時制功能。
There is a past tense system in Chinese. If a event happened before the saying time or the time when another event happens, we could say it happened in the past. We find that the particle "de"("的") and "laihe"("來著") are past tense markers. in addition, the aspect particle "le"("了") and "guo"(過) have time deictic expression functions, which can present different tense function on different position.
