後邊的說明前邊的

[ChristopherB]

I came across this phrase, which is taken from the Bibliography and Glossary for Chinese Grammar (William S.Y. Wang and Lillian Liu, 1963). My guess is that it has something do with "explanations that go beyond the surface meaning", but I can't exactly tell, and am rather baffled by this construction!

 

For reference, the simplified is 后边的说明前边的.

[Publius]

What's so baffling?

It's under the title 词的组织，句子, so it's talking about one of the four types of word ordering in a Chinese sentence:

1) 前边的限制后边的

2) 前边的支配后边的

3) 后边的说明前边的

4) 前后并列

 

An example of 3) which I'm sure you're familiar with:

高兴得跳了起来

——后边的短语“跳了起来”补充说明前面的动词“高兴”（结果补语）

[ChristopherB]

Thanks, Publius. I now realize I was interpreting 说明 as noun, not a verb!