Sentence final particles as epistemic modulators in Cantonese conversations: A discourse-pragmatic perspective (original) (raw)

Epistemic, evidential and attitudinal markers in clause-medial position in Cantonese

Studies in Language Companion Series, 2014

This paper examines two types of clause-medial stance markers in Cantonese. 1 We trace the evolution of these stance markers from their lexical origins as complement-taking psych verbs and directional verbs. Similar to English I think parentheticals, the evolution of the Cantonese psych verbs (e.g. gok 3 dak 1 'feel/think'; paa 3 'fear'; m 4 zi 1 'don't know') involves 'insubordination' of the embedded complement clause. However, in Cantonese, subject ellipsis and topic constructions play an important role in the reanalysis of psych verbs into epistemic and negative attitudinal markers in clause-medial position. 2 Directional verbs in Cantonese (e.g. faan 1 'return' and maai 4 'approach'), on the other hand, develop into attitudinal particles via verbal complementation and a disjunctive strategy. Central to the development of both types of stance markers is the first person subject ngo 5 , whether explicitly or implicitly expressed, which makes the process of subjectification possible. 1 We at times use the term 'utterance-medial position' instead of 'clause-medial position' in this paper. This is because, in the course of grammaticalization of some Cantonese stance markers, their position is sometimes ambiguous between clause-initial and clause-medial. As will be shown in our discussion of stance markers derived from complement-taking verbs in section 2, this is often related to the presence of NPs whose syntactic status is ambiguous between a topic and subject. 2 The term 'reanalysis' is often used in grammaticalization theory to refer to shifts in readings arising from ambiguous contexts, while the term 'reinterpretation' is often used to refer to recategorization of functions and is often discussed in relation to polysemy rather than ambiguity. In this paper, we do not always make a strict, clear-cut distinction between these two terms given that both mechanisms are at work, often multiple times, in the grammaticalization of the 'say' construction from complementtaking predicate to quotative, evidential and other pragmatic uses. We wish to thank Elisabeth Leiss for valuable discussion on terminology here.

Stance-taking with Wo Juede in conversational Chinese

2009

The present paper deals with one of the most common Mandarin epistemic phrases, Wo Juede, and demonstrates that in addition to epistemic selfexpression, it has also developed addressee-oriented functions to manage the discourse-pragmatic considerations of everyday talk. Specifically, we find that the mitigative quality of Wo Juede has extended from representing speaker’s epistemic uncertainty to one that focuses on managing recipient’s possible responses. Using quantitative corpus analysis, as well as qualitative conversational analytic methods, this study finds that the use of Wo Juede can often be seen as positioning the speaker’s awareness of the addressee’s possible objection to a proposition. Furthermore, it is argued that such a function is uniquely suited for its frequent performance characterized as a joint-assessment initiator in sequences of collaborative evaluation.

Variation in the use of sentence final particles in Macau Cantonese

This paper considers how meaningful social information is conveyed with the use of sentence final particles in Macau Cantonese. The purpose in this research is to provide a general sociolinguistic account of sentence final particles in Macau Cantonese, and specifically to illustrate that social meanings of SFPs are variable, and do not constitute rigid or fixed meanings and interpretations. These social meanings, this paper argues, are a potential for indicating speaker identity at the individual level, and constitute a rich resource for communicating speaker identity in Macau Cantonese. This study uses an eclectic sociolinguistic approach, and combines elements of distributionist analyses, social network theory and constructionist approaches with a view to accounting for the dynamics underlying sentence final particle variation. Finally, this research considers constraints such as conversation topic, the affective relations between interlocutors, and gender as impinging on the distribution and use of SFPs in Macau Cantonese.

Chinese interrogative particles as talk coordinators at the right periphery

Periphery – Diachronic and Cross-Linguistic Approaches, 2017

This paper examines how utterance-final interrogative particles in Chinese contribute to the management of local and global coherence in conversational discourse. Using Schiffrin’s (1987) model of discourse coherence, and focusing in particular on the Cantonese particleho2we show how an interrogative particle is often also used as an interactional particle. In the case ofho2, we show how this information-seeking particle is frequently recruited as an affirmation-seeking and solidarity-enhancing device. Special attention is given to the extended uses ofho2in terms of Schiffrin’s exchange and action structures, as well as participation frameworks and information states. Our analysis highlights how speakers effectively use utterance particles as exemplified byho2to convey their (inter)subjective footing and in the process negotiate meaningful affiliative/disaffiliative interaction among interlocutors, and thereby achieve discourse coherence for effective communication.

Title Stance-taking with Wo Juede in conversational Chinese

2009

The present paper deals with one of the most common Mandarin epistemic phrases, Wo Juede, and demonstrates that in addition to epistemic selfexpression, it has also developed addressee-oriented functions to manage the discourse-pragmatic considerations of everyday talk. Specifically, we find that the mitigative quality of Wo Juede has extended from representing speaker's epistemic uncertainty to one that focuses on managing recipient's possible responses. Using quantitative corpus analysis, as well as qualitative conversational analytic methods, this study finds that the use of Wo Juede can often be seen as positioning the speaker's awareness of the addressee's possible objection to a proposition. Furthermore, it is argued that such a function is uniquely suited for its frequent performance characterized as a joint-assessment initiator in sequences of collaborative evaluation.

Utterance-final conjunctive particles and implicature in Japanese conversation

Pragmatics (Vol.18, pp.425-451), 2008

According to the received view, connective particles are characterised as "bound grammatical markers" that connect two clauses into a 'sentence' (Matsumoto, Yo 1988: 345). As Fukushima (2005) points out though, these conjunctions have other functions that go beyond intra-sentential usage. Utterance-final conjunctive particles have been analysed thus far, for the most part, as a type of (clausal) ellipsis or as particles that give rise to various pragmatic effects. In this paper, it is suggested that an approach to utterance-final conjunctive particles that is grounded in the notion of implicature may offer a complementary perspective on this phenomenon. The notions of "(im)politeness implicature" and "interactional implicature" are utilised in order to discuss how utterance-final conjunctive particles may trigger inferences leading to various interpersonal and interactional effects. By carefully analysing the projection and uptake of these implicatures apparent in the sequential development of interpretings conjointly co-constituted in Japanese conversation, it is argued that the analysts' and participants' perspectives can be better reconciled to avoid the imposition of an analysis by the researcher which is not contingently relevant to those participants. It is argued that through such an analysis the manner in which linguistic and communicative perspectives on implicature can complement one another can be explored more fully.

From Subjectivity to Intersubjectivity: Epistemic Marker Wo Juede in Chinese

Current Issues in Chinese Linguistics, pp. 129-166. New Castle: Cambridge Scholars Press., 2011

This study examines one of the most used Mandarin epistemic phrases Wo Juede, translatable as I think. While commonly taken to be a speaker-oriented epistemic marker (subjectivity), it is demonstrated that the phrase is routinely deployed in consideration of addressee-oriented problems (intersubjectivity) to manage discourse-pragmatic contingencies of everyday talk. Specifically, the mitigative quality of Wo Juede is often used to manage recipient’s possible objections in conversational next turn. Using conversation analysis (CA), this study focuses on the pre-positioned, opinion-framing use of Wo Juede, and concludes that it can often be seen as positioning the speaker’s pre-emptive awareness of the recipient’s possible objection to a proposition. It is further argued that such an intersubjective stance is well-suited for Wo Juede’s frequent role in initiating sequences of collaborative evaluation, termed a joint-assessment initiator.