On The Use Of Aizuchi In Chinese And Japanese Talk Show

In recent years, studies on Japanese aizuchi have increased. These studies have addressed the expression form, function and frequency of aizuchi as well as their relation with turn-taking. Although each researcher has different views on the definition of aizuchi, there is a universal consensus that aizuchi plays an important role in facilitating communication between speankers.Language phenomena similar to aizuchi also exist in other languages, such as'附和表现'(echoing performance) in Chinese, or reactive token and backchannels in English. In recent years, though there are many studies on the aizuchi, there are few studies on the echoing performance in Chinese (in this paper, echoing performance is referred to as Chinese aizuchi). And there are even fewer studies on the comparison of the echoing performance between Japanese and Chinese. In view of this, my research carried out a comparative study on the aizuchi appearing in conversations between participants of Japanese and Chinese talk shows. The study is centered on form, function and structural system of the aizuchi in the Chinese conversation scenes (hereinafter referred to as CC) and Japanese conversation scenes(hereinafter referred to as JJ),The findings of this research can be summarized as follows:in the talk shows, though there are no substantial differences between JJ and CC in using aizuchi, many small differences still exist in some ways. First, from the perspective of expression form, in both JJ and CC there exist verbal aizuchi (like'ぅん','嗯')and gestures which function as "non-verbal aizuchi" (like nodding and smiling), and both languages mainly use the verbal aizuchi. But, non-verbal aizuchi gestures are used more often in CC, and there are often accompanied by verbal aizuchi. Another difference concerns content related and affective related aizuchi; in my study, in CC Sentimental aizuchi and Conceptual aizuchi exist with a ratio of 2:1 while in JJ, sentimental aizuchi have a higher ratio. So, if we use one word to describe the characteristics of Japanese and Chinese aizuchi, Chinese aizuchi is"声情并茂"(''extremely rich in voice and act") while the Japanese counterpart is rather''暖 昧"("ambiguous").Second, aizuchishi,which has a regular form different from other aizuchi, is the most frequently occurring aizuchi. For the type of aizuchishi, according to the data analysis, there are twice as many types in JJ as in CC. And further analysis shows that there tend to be less types of aizuchishi in the talk show conversations than in free talk. The use of aizuchishi is also considered as a turn-taking indicator and in relation to the roles and responsibilities of TV program hosts and guests, thus expanding the view of the functions of aizuchishi.Finally, from a macro point of view and from the perspective of the functions of aizuchi, the overall functionality features in CC and JJ are basically the same. However, subtle differences exist and, if improperly used, communication could be hindered, so special attention is needed. This study hopes to have useful applications for Chinese students learning Japanese and Japanese students learning Chinese to help them further their understanding of the aizuchi in each language and stengthen their cross-cultural communication skill.