{"title":"追求共同点:普通话会话中的非否定性修辞问题","authors":"Wei Wang","doi":"10.1080/08351813.2021.1974746","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Rhetorical questions have been regularly observed to implement disaffiliative actions in conversations such as challenging, complaining, or retorting. This article, however, reports on nondisaffiliative uses of rhetorical questions based on a particular structure in Mandarin, bushi … ma, which can serve as a conventional question, a disaffiliative rhetorical question, or a nondisaffiliative rhetorical question. Although much less studied, nondisaffiliative uses are by far more frequent in conversations. Integrating discourse-functional linguistics and conversation analysis, this study argues that nondisaffiliative bushi … ma rhetorical questions work to pursue common ground so as to move the activity-in-progress forward. Moreover, it examines the sequential contexts in which they are recurrently produced and identifies the interactional clues—epistemic, sequential, prosodic—that make these rhetorical questions recognizable as seeking common ground. This article contributes to our understanding of the rhetorical question as a grammatical device that maximizes intersubjectivity in conversation, further confirming the mutual influence between grammar and social interaction. Data are in Mandarin Chinese with English translation.","PeriodicalId":51484,"journal":{"name":"Research on Language and Social Interaction","volume":"54 1","pages":"355 - 373"},"PeriodicalIF":3.0000,"publicationDate":"2021-09-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"1","resultStr":"{\"title\":\"Pursuing Common Ground: Nondisaffiliative Rhetorical Questions in Mandarin Conversations\",\"authors\":\"Wei Wang\",\"doi\":\"10.1080/08351813.2021.1974746\",\"DOIUrl\":null,\"url\":null,\"abstract\":\"ABSTRACT Rhetorical questions have been regularly observed to implement disaffiliative actions in conversations such as challenging, complaining, or retorting. This article, however, reports on nondisaffiliative uses of rhetorical questions based on a particular structure in Mandarin, bushi … ma, which can serve as a conventional question, a disaffiliative rhetorical question, or a nondisaffiliative rhetorical question. Although much less studied, nondisaffiliative uses are by far more frequent in conversations. Integrating discourse-functional linguistics and conversation analysis, this study argues that nondisaffiliative bushi … ma rhetorical questions work to pursue common ground so as to move the activity-in-progress forward. Moreover, it examines the sequential contexts in which they are recurrently produced and identifies the interactional clues—epistemic, sequential, prosodic—that make these rhetorical questions recognizable as seeking common ground. This article contributes to our understanding of the rhetorical question as a grammatical device that maximizes intersubjectivity in conversation, further confirming the mutual influence between grammar and social interaction. Data are in Mandarin Chinese with English translation.\",\"PeriodicalId\":51484,\"journal\":{\"name\":\"Research on Language and Social Interaction\",\"volume\":\"54 1\",\"pages\":\"355 - 373\"},\"PeriodicalIF\":3.0000,\"publicationDate\":\"2021-09-30\",\"publicationTypes\":\"Journal Article\",\"fieldsOfStudy\":null,\"isOpenAccess\":false,\"openAccessPdf\":\"\",\"citationCount\":\"1\",\"resultStr\":null,\"platform\":\"Semanticscholar\",\"paperid\":null,\"PeriodicalName\":\"Research on Language and Social Interaction\",\"FirstCategoryId\":\"98\",\"ListUrlMain\":\"https://doi.org/10.1080/08351813.2021.1974746\",\"RegionNum\":1,\"RegionCategory\":\"文学\",\"ArticlePicture\":[],\"TitleCN\":null,\"AbstractTextCN\":null,\"PMCID\":null,\"EPubDate\":\"\",\"PubModel\":\"\",\"JCR\":\"Q1\",\"JCRName\":\"COMMUNICATION\",\"Score\":null,\"Total\":0}","platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Research on Language and Social Interaction","FirstCategoryId":"98","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1080/08351813.2021.1974746","RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"COMMUNICATION","Score":null,"Total":0}
Pursuing Common Ground: Nondisaffiliative Rhetorical Questions in Mandarin Conversations
ABSTRACT Rhetorical questions have been regularly observed to implement disaffiliative actions in conversations such as challenging, complaining, or retorting. This article, however, reports on nondisaffiliative uses of rhetorical questions based on a particular structure in Mandarin, bushi … ma, which can serve as a conventional question, a disaffiliative rhetorical question, or a nondisaffiliative rhetorical question. Although much less studied, nondisaffiliative uses are by far more frequent in conversations. Integrating discourse-functional linguistics and conversation analysis, this study argues that nondisaffiliative bushi … ma rhetorical questions work to pursue common ground so as to move the activity-in-progress forward. Moreover, it examines the sequential contexts in which they are recurrently produced and identifies the interactional clues—epistemic, sequential, prosodic—that make these rhetorical questions recognizable as seeking common ground. This article contributes to our understanding of the rhetorical question as a grammatical device that maximizes intersubjectivity in conversation, further confirming the mutual influence between grammar and social interaction. Data are in Mandarin Chinese with English translation.
期刊介绍:
The journal publishes the highest quality empirical and theoretical research bearing on language as it is used in interaction. Researchers in communication, discourse analysis, conversation analysis, linguistic anthropology and ethnography are likely to be the most active contributors, but we welcome submission of articles from the broad range of interaction researchers. Published papers will normally involve the close analysis of naturally-occurring interaction. The journal is also open to theoretical essays, and to quantitative studies where these are tied closely to the results of naturalistic observation.