The Process Of Repair In Chinese Conversation

Conversational repair is one field of discourse analysis. It is first brought up by Schegloff, Jefferson and Sacks in 1977. They considered there were three components in a repair and that are trouble source, initiation and output. They classified repair according to who carry out the initiation and output. And then they got the conclusion: there is a preference for self-correction in the organization of repair in conversation. Their theory of repair attracts a lot of scholars. They studied the preference for self-repair, classified repair according to another standard, or specialized in one component of a repair such as trouble source and initiation. But at present they have not paid enough attention to the component of output. Therefore it is the main part in this essay and called process of repair.The author analyzes 2,086 examples of repair and the language material is oral Chinese in written form. Firstly, the process of repair is divided into four components: the item of negation, the item of repair, the item of criticism and the item of suggestion. Secondly each item would be classified according to form and function. As the item of repair is the only necessary item in the process the author have analyzed which items could emerge together in one process and why. The author also realized there are still some special types of repair in communication and have described some features about those repairs but have not analyze yet. It could be a good research project for follow-up discussion.Finally the author wishes this essay could help people with communication especially for those who learn Chinese.