after playing a few (more?) times

[anonymoose]

Also, if not a 了, then what would you put there? 就不再玩儿 sounds a bit off.

Not sure. I may be wrong. I'll leave this for a native speaker to chime in on.

 

I like this new interpretation from Altair in that it lines up nicely with 控制住自己 as in, he can play, but he is able to control how much he plays, rather than 老不回家.

But the original sentence was 最终我还是控制住了自己, which is clearly referring to that one particular instance, not a general pattern, so that interpretion doesn't fit, given the context.

 

I agree that it is hard to talk about negative habitual, but isn't this like a new vegetarian saying "I don't eat meat (any more)."

 

I'm not a linguist, so forgive me if my terminology isn't accurate. What I mean by "habitual" action isn't so much that the action is or is not performed habitually, but rather that it is a general truth not restricted to a certain timeframe. Yes, "I don't eat meat (any more)" is certainly a habit of not eating meat, but the salient point is that it's not a general truth, but rather only applies to the time after which "I" stopped eating. If we remove the "any more", then it changes meaning, and the Chinese translation is different:

 

我不（再）吃肉了。 I don't eat meat (any more).

我不吃肉。 I don't eat meat. Note: no 了 here.

[Altair]

 

But the original sentence was 最终我还是控制住了自己, which is clearly referring to that one particular instance, not a general pattern, so that interpretion doesn't fit, given the context.

 

Why must this refer to one particular instance?  I read it as simply stating that he got his gaming under control.  "In the end, I managed to control myself/exercise restraint."

 

 

 

I'm not a linguist, so forgive me if my terminology isn't accurate. What I mean by "habitual" action isn't so much that the action is or is not performed habitually, but rather that it is a general truth not restricted to a certain timeframe. Yes, "I don't eat meat (any more)" is certainly a habit of not eating meat, but the salient point is that it's not a general truth, but rather only applies to the time after which "I" stopped eating. If we remove the "any more", then it changes meaning, and the Chinese translation is different:

 

我不（再）吃肉了。 I don't eat meat (any more).

我不吃肉。 I don't eat meat. Note: no 了 here.

 

I think the term you are looking for is "gnomic aspect."  English uses the simple present for this and for habitual actions as well.  By "habitual," I am not just referring to habits, but also to actions that repeat from time to time.  I think what is bothering you is that you are interpreting the Chinese as meaning "any more (for ever)"; however, I think this is unnecessary.  The particle 了is not usual present when discussing habitual actions, but an exception is when the actions represent a new state.  The 再in this case does not have to reference all future occurrences, but just the occurrence referenced by the previous clause.

 

 

Well, now that we have more context, I'm more inclined to believe my interpretation is correct.

 

I assume the game being talked about is one of those long games that takes days/weeks to play. Thus, even playing 几次 is a long time. So the 几次 is the entirety of his game playing, after which he managed to 控制住 himself.

 

Interpreting it this way, the language is perfectly natural and unambiguous.

 

I do not think this interpretation is possible.  Chinese clauses usually follow time order or topic-comment order.  Once we read 最终我还是控制住了自己, everything after has to be something happening later or else something that restates the same circumstances that can be described by 最终我还是控制住了自己.  Because of this, he must have played "a few times" after controlling himself or else as part of controlling himself.  I also think it is possible that the "few times" does not refer to different occasions, but rather to a few run throughs a particular game during a single gaming session.

 

不过，最终我还是控制住了自己，玩儿过几次后就不再玩儿了。

However, in the end, I managed to get myself under control; and after playing (through a game) a few times, I don't/didn't play any more/continue playing.

[anonymoose]

OK, I see what you're getting at. I still am more inclined to believe my own interpretation, but I agree yours is plausible. Maybe the sentence is just too ambiguous to be 100% sure what the author meant.

 

Still, I would be interested to hear what a native speaker would have to say.