A discourse-pragmatic functional study of Chinese epistemic markers haoxiang “seem” and keneng “probably”

IF 0.1 4区 文学 0 LANGUAGE & LINGUISTICS
Yan Wang
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引用次数: 0

Abstract

This study investigates the discourse-pragmatic functions of the epistemic markers haoxiang “seem” and keneng “probably” in natural conversations of Mandarin Chinese. By examining 107 cases of haoxiang and 152 cases of keneng in sequential contexts, it demonstrates that both haoxiang and keneng are hedge expressions showing the speaker’s attitude of lack of commitment to the truthfulness of their own utterance, which is often driven by an intersubjective motivation. As epistemic markers, haoxiang tends to mitigate informational certainty that is based on the speaker’s personal but vague experience, while keneng is often used to mitigate the assertiveness of the speaker’s personal speculation deduced from background knowledge, general knowledge or commonly accepted logic. Further, this study claims that both haoxiang and keneng often serve as politeness devices to mitigate various Face Threatening Acts (FTAs) such as disconfirmation, disagreement or negative assessment. In either case, haoxiang and keneng are not merely epistemic markers revealing the speaker’s subjective uncertainty, but also serve as politeness markers for the purpose of intersubjectivity, and their multiple discourse-pragmatic usages are rooted in their semantic meanings, respectively.
汉语认识标记郝翔“似乎”和可能“可能”的语篇语用功能研究
摘要本研究探讨了普通话自然会话中认识标记“似乎”和“可能”的语用功能。通过对顺序语境中107个“好香”和152个“可能”的分析,我们发现“好香”和“可能”都是一种模糊表达,表现出说话人对自己话语的真实性缺乏承诺的态度,这种态度往往是由主体间动机驱动的。作为认知标记,“好象”倾向于减轻基于说话人个人模糊经验的信息确定性,而“可能”则常用于减轻说话人从背景知识、一般知识或公认逻辑中推断出的个人推测的自信。此外,本研究还发现,“好香”和“可能”都是缓解不确认、不同意或负面评价等各种“面子威胁行为”的礼貌手段。在这两种情况下,“好香”和“可能”不仅是揭示说话人主观不确定性的认知标记,而且是主体间性目的的礼貌标记,它们的多种语用用法都植根于它们各自的语义意义。
本文章由计算机程序翻译,如有差异,请以英文原文为准。
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CiteScore
0.60
自引率
0.00%
发文量
6
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