Page 314 - Makino,Tsutusi.DictionaryOfIntermediateJGrammar

240 ni atattelatari

(Mr. Tanaka joined a company soon after graduating from col-
lege.)

Toki can be used to express any time, be it formal or informal, whereas
ni atattelatari is used only in formal style. This contextual difference is
shown in [3].

b. @a {srf/*tZlk~T/*K~t;~I] '/-r'7-~&F&,
(Before going to bed I take shower.)
11. The conjunction mae ni and the compound particle in question are
semantically very close. Both of them allow only Vinf.nonpast because
an action indicated by the verb is incomplete. Yet there is one crucial dif-
ference between them. Ni atattelatari means 'before s.t. signijicant takes
place,' but mae ni means 'before s.t. takes place.' The difference can be
shown by the following examples. (d mae ni (DBJG: 23 1-33))
1 *
[4] %+I&@& {at: l*CZIf;->TI f LFB~L
(Nobuko watches TV before she goes to sleep.)

111. There is another time expression - (no) sai (ni) 1 - ni saishite which is
used to indicate a special occasion on which S.O. does s.t. The crucial
difference between this time expression and - ni attatelatari is that the
latter indicates an occasion in formal sentence, but the former indicates