Study Of Increment In Chinese Conversation

Interactional linguistics is a new perspective of language research which came into being early this century. It emphasizes the study of the use of language in naturally-occurring daily interactional conversations and on the study of the interrelations between linguistic structure, functions and interactions. Increment is a type of adjustment measure in everyday conversations. The study of increment is still in its preliminary stage at present, focusing mainly on syntactic structures of increment and the crosslinguistic universality. There exists a great gap in the field of functions of increments in interaction, of the correlations of linguistic structures of increments and their functions, and of the studies of increments in Chinese conversations.In this research the following major work has been done:Firstly, Increment has been redefined and reclassified in this research. Multi-criteria of present classification is adjusted. The lassification of increment in this research is primarily based on the criterion of syntax, and they are classified into Glue-ons, Insertables, Replacements and Free-constituents.Secondly, an analysis on linguistic structures of increments in Chinese conversations is made, which includes syntactic structures and prosodic structures. It is found that the Chinese language presents general preference over particular syntactic types of increments, and each syntactic type of increments presents preference for particular grammatical structures. Prosodically, Increments in Chinese conversations present similar prosodic features–all increments are prosdically dependent on the prior TCU. Strong prosodic dependence of increment on the prior TCU is the unmarked prosodic presentation of increment. Weak prosodic dependence is associated with particular interactional functions of increments.Thirdly, an analysis of functions of increments in interaction is made. Three types of interactional functions are found:1) informational functions–increments could either make informational supplement, repetition or correction;2) interpersonal functions–increment could either highlight speaker s stance or mitigate FTAs;3) conversation structural functions–increments could function to provoke turn transitions in context of recipiency problems or to hold on speaker s current turn in context of narration like story-telling. It is also found that the syntactic presentations and prosodic presentations of increments are closely related to functions of increments in interaction. The function of informational supplement is the unmarked functional presentation of increment, which covers the predominant proportion of increments.Fourthly, The analysis on the correlations of linguistic structures (syntax and prosody) of increments and their functions leads to some discoveries:1) The completion of any functions is the colleborative work of syntax, prosody, semantics and context；2）Increment, as a type of structure of syntactic, semantic and prosodic attachment to the prior TCU, presents its unmarked prosodic presentation of strong dependence on the prior TCU and the unmarked function of informational supplement. The completion of increment s functions is closely and directly related to the prosodic presentations of increment. When the unmarked prosodic form of increment is broken, increment s functions go beyond the unmarked informational supplement. The weak prosodic dependence of increment tends to be assoiciated with new information, strong interpersonal functions and conversation structural functions;3) The correlations of increment s linguistic structures and functions are powerful evidence to prove the inter-shaping relations of linguistic structures and interaction.Significance of this research:This research is a supplement and extension of the studies on increment. It breaks through the limitation of increment studies on linguistic structure, and does systematic and intensive studies on the prosodic structures, interactional functions of increments and correlations of linguistic structures of increments and interaction, where the innovation of this research lies and which surely makes contribution to the researches in Interactional Linguistics. The using of Chinese linguistic data in this research extends the studies of increment to a new language and it will make innovative contribution to the cross-linguistic studies of increment. The author also hopes that this research could more or less promote the development of Interactional Linguistics in Chinese. As a measure of adjustment, increment is commonly used in daily conversational communication. The knowledge of increment and correlation of increment and interaction will surely help speakers to complete communicative tasks effectively and the interaction to go on smoothly.