1a. 他常常去体育馆锻炼。
Tā chángcháng qù tǐyùguǎn duànliàn.
(He often goes to the gym to exercise.)
1b. 老太太不停地抱怨着天气。
Lǎotàitai bù tíng de bàoyuàn zhe tiānq.
(The old lady complained about the weather incessantly.)
1c. 地球永远围着太阳转。
Dìqiú yǒngyuǎn wéi zhe tàiyáng zhuǎ.
(The earth revolves around the sun forever.)
1d. 服务员一再向客人道歉。
Fúwùyuán yīzài xiàng kèren dàoqiàn
(The waiter apologized to the guests again and again.)
1e. 他偶尔去养老院探望{一次}老母亲。
Tā ǒuěr qù yǎnglǎoyuàn tànwàng {yī cì} lǎo mǔqīn.
(He occasionally goes to the nursing home to visit his old mother.)
f. 旧社会那个地区频繁发生水灾。
Jiùshèhuì nà gè dìqū pínfán fāshēng shuǐzāi.
(In the old society, floods frequently happened in that area.)
Expressions denoting an indefinite frequency, like ‘chángcháng’ (often) or ‘pínfán’ (frequently), appear before the verb. They play the same role as adverbials of definite frequency (like ‘měi bànnián’, (every half a year)) in setting up a temporal frame.
[1] Loar, J. K. (2011). Chinese syntactic grammar: functional and conceptual principles. New York: Peter Lang.
