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Article In: Interactional Problems and Their Resolutions in Natural Discourse in Languages in Taiwan
Edited by Miao-Hsia Chang
[Chinese Language and Discourse 17:2] 2026
► pp. 257–279

Problems in speaking and case marking

Self-initiated self-repair in Saisiyat narratives

ORCiD logo with link | National Tsing Hua University
This content is being prepared for publication; it may be subject to changes.
Abstract
This study examines how the case marker ka is used in the management of speech production difficulties in Saisiyat narrative discourse. Drawing on a corpus-based analysis of Pear Story retellings and traditional narratives, the study investigates operations of self-initiated self-repair, including replacing, inserting, recycling, and aborting ( 2013. “Ten Operations in Self-initiated, Same-turn Repair.” In Conversational Repair and Human Understanding, edited by Makoto Hayashi, Geoffrey Raymond, and Jack Sidnell, 41–70. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar). While ka has traditionally been analyzed as a case marker or an NP-internal linker, the findings reveal that it also plays a pivotal role at moments of production difficulty, serving as either the trouble source or the initiator of repair during referential specification, lexical search, and narrative planning. The discussion argues that the functions of ka are best understood not as fixed grammatical categories but as emerging dynamically in real-time speech production. By situating ka within the framework of self-initiated self-repair, this study contributes to a usage-based understanding of grammar as a resource for managing problems in speaking, particularly in endangered languages.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Functions of ka in Saisiyat
  • 3.Previous research on problems in speaking
  • 4.Data and methodology
  • 5.ka and problems in speaking
    • 5.1Case-marking ka and self-repair
    • 5.2Linker ka at IU boundaries
    • 5.3Filler ka in self-initiated self-repair
  • 6.Summary and discussion
  • Notes
  • Author queries
  • References
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