An Analysis Of The Function Of Jiushi As A Pragmatic Marker

This research tries to analyze the functions of jiushi,an adverb in mandarin Chinese, as pragmatic markers in the Heart–to-Heart discourse by examining its sequential positions within the TCU(turn-constructional unit) and the associated interactional (both verbal and non-verbal) information. In this way, this research also poses a challenge to the descriptions of jiushi in the traditional Chinese grammar. Such an approach as employed in this research to exploring the functions of jiushi contributes to the view that to analyze the usages of any function word in mandarin Chinese, one should take a broadened framework which incorporates syntax, semantics, pragmatics and interactional sociolinguistics and should also consider the interactive context in which it is used and the pragmatic information associated with it. There are two reasons that this research focuses on this topic. 1.So far, the most orthodox generalizations of jiushi can be found only in Chinese dictionaries, among which A Dictionary of Eight Hundred Words of Modern Chinese(Lüet al.,1999)is the most representative one. These descriptions, however, are challenged by a considerable number of instances in the recorded data. The failure of them to explain these counterexamples is caused by the two weaknesses, both theoretical and methodological, that undermine the validity of these descriptions. The first is that the theoretical approach to generalizing about the functions of jiushi employed in these dictionaries is still confined to syntax and semantics, so the basic finding in pragmatics is neglected that interpreting any linguistic item entails knowing the interactive context in which it is pronounced. The second is that these descriptions of jiushi are based on pre-conceived conversations or examples, so that the analyzing of jiushi is divorced from natural conversational environment where the associated non-verbal information should also contribute to the understanding of its functions. 2. Recent overseas research into linguistic units has begun to examine their various functions on specific social interactive occasions. Following the theory of "language-game"of Wittgenstein, Levinson emphasizes the dynamic study of conversations by saying that "Understanding a language involves knowing the nature of the activity in which the utterances play a role". Little research, however, has ever been conducted in Chinese discourse markers. Although Liao and Ran have provided some general classifications of Chinese discourse markers, the research in the functions of a particular Chinese discourse marker used in a specific context is still very rare. The present research is to improve the previous explanations of jiushi in Chinese dictionaries by analyzing how both the situational variable and other pragmatic information influence its functions as realized in the recorded natural conversations. Although there exist several theoretical approaches to analyzing discourse markers (e.g. discourse-coherence approach, speech-act approach, Relevance-Theory approach, metapragmatic approach), Fraser's framework for pragmatic markers is adapted to interpret the functions of jiushi in this study. According to Fraser, sentence meaning can be analyzed into two separate types of information: content meaning and pragmatic information. The former is truth-conditional, which represents what the state of affairs is, and the latter signals the speaker's potential communicative intentions. Thoselinguistic forms that encode pragmatic information are called pragmatic markers, which are divided into four subcategories: basic markers, commentary markers, parallel markers and discourse markers. The analysis shows that when jiushi occupies different positions within the TCU, it carries different kinds of pragmatic information, thus constituting specific subcategories of pragmatic markers. The data used in this research are tape-recorded conversations by the author from the live program of Heart–to-Heart presented on Channel of Health and Entertainment by the Radio Station of the People of Jilin Province. The total length of the recording is ten hours and the number of the recorded conversations amounts to forty-five. The recorded conversations are interactive and naturally occurring ones only between two partners, the participant and the hostess. Conventions employed in Conversation Analysis are adopted to transcribe the data. In the analysis, conversational turns are considered as the basic units of the recorded conversations. All the turns containing jiushi are segmented into turn-constructional units (TCUs). The notion of Complex Transition-Relevance Place (CTRP), together with non-verbal information, such as prosodic factors and paralinguistic features, is employed in distinguishing different TCUs. All tokens of jiushi are analyzed with respect to its positions in relation to the TCU and the prosodic factors are the major yardsticks to identify different locations of jiushi within the TCU. Other associated pragmatic information is also considered, for example, the characteristics of the interactive Heart–to-Heart discourse, and the presence of other contextualization cues involved, etc.Altogether 1895 tokens of jiushi are found in the data, with its distributions in terms of its sequential positions within the TCU shown in the table below: Sequential positions Numbers % As an independent TCU 712 37.6% Initiating a TCU 444 23.4% Elsewhere within a TCU 739 39.0% Total tokens of jiushi 1895 100% (Note: All the functions of these 739 tokens of jiushi correspond with the descriptions in Lüet al.(1999).) A quantitative and qualitative study of all the remaining 1156 tokens of jiushi shows the following results: 1. when jiushi appears as an independent TCU, it functions either as a parallel marker to signal the speaker's hesitation (469 tokens as hesitation markers) or as a discourse marker to reformulate either the proposition or the implicature of the previous utterance (243 tokens as reformulation markers); 2. when jiushi initiates a TCU, it functions either as a basic marker to reinforce the illocutionary force of the following utterance (286 tokens as reinforcement markers) or as a reformulation marker (158 tokens). In the recorded data, there are several other contextualization cues or backchannel cues that frequently appear with jiushi. Their function is twofold: on one hand, they are conducive to the realization of the functions of jiushi as pragmatic markers; on the other hand, they also indicate the dynamic generation of meaning. This research demonstrates that to study the usages of any function...