A Study Of Third-party Personal Reference Choice In Chinese Conversation

Reference is one of the core issues of verbal communication. As one important subcategory of it, person reference has been a highly concerned topic in philosophy, linguistics, psychology, etc. Previous studies have explained reference, person reference in particular from various perspectives. However, most of them are based on written English while Chinese conversations are seldom discussed. This thesis aims at exploring the selection of third-party person reference forms in Chinese conversation.Under the theoretical framework of the Accessibility Theory, the author of this thesis attempts to resolve the following three questions:(1) What are the forms of referring expressions that people use to refer to a third party in Chinese conversation?(2) What are the factors that influence the selection of third-party personal reference forms in Chinese conversation?(3) What are the principles that underlie the choice of third-party personal reference forms in Chinese conversation, and what are their relations? The data selected for the present study are collected from three hours of recordings of the conversation in a radio call-in program. We transcribed those recordings and all personal reference forms that are used for third-party reference are then marked out, counted and classified.By examining those personal reference forms in our transcription, we find that people show certain tendencies in personal referential choice for a third-party in the selected conversation:(i) most of the third-party personal reference forms are used in singe form and combined uses indicate markedness;(ii) in locally initial reference positions, NPs are preferred over proper names;(iii) even in locally subsequent reference positions, locally initial reference forms are also heavily used. Linear distances between one referring expression and its antecedent, competition from potential antecedents and the institutional nature of the selected conversation are three powerful influential factors for referential choice, and in selecting reference forms, both the speaker and the addressee conform to four preference principles that previous studies (Sacks&Schegloff,2007; Levinson,2007; Brown&Hanks,2007; Ma,2009) found operative in English conversation:Preference Principle for Recognition, Preference Principle for Minimization, Preference Principle for Association, and there are certain priority ranks among them.This thesis is merely a study of person reference in Chinese conversation taking place in a radio call-in program. It is expected to contribute to the theoretical study and practical application of person reference in Chinese language, and offer backup for bilingual communication as well as translation between Chinese and English.