Managing a suspended course of action
A multimodal study of suoyi ‘so’-prefaced utterances in Mandarin conversation
This study explores interactional functions of the connective suoyi ‘so’ and its
particular role in organizing talk and activity in Mandarin conversation. Adopting the methodologies of
conversation analysis, multimodal analysis, and interactional linguistics, this study examines 14 hours of
naturalistic face-to-face Mandarin conversation. An examination of the data shows that in addition to marking
results and conclusions, suoyi is also used to preface an utterance as a tying device to
manage suspensions, where progressivity of a course of action is halted. Specifically,
suoyi-prefaced utterances can be used to return to a pre-prior course of action at the
possible completion of a side sequence or frame. When performing the function of return,
suoyi-prefaced utterances facilitate the development of the main course of action.
This study contributes to our understanding of the interactional uses of linking adverbials from a
cross-linguistic perspective.
Article outline
- 1.Introduction
- 2.Suoyi and suoyi-clauses in Mandarin conversation
- 3.Methodology and data
- 4.Analysis
- 5.Discussion and conclusion
- Acknowledgments
- Notes
-
References
References (62)
References
Biq, Yung-O.
1995 “
Chinese Causal Sequencing and Yinwei in Conversation and Press Reportage.”
Berkeley Linguistic Society 211: 47–62.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Bolden, Galina
2006 “
Little Words that Matter: Discourse Markers “So” and “Oh” and the Doing of Other-Attentiveness in Social Interaction.”
Journal of Communication 56 (4): 661–688.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Bolden, Galina
2009 “
Implementing Incipient Actions: The Discourse Marker ‘so’ in English Conversation.”
Journal of Pragmatics 41 (5): 974–998.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Couper-Kuhlen, Elizabeth, and Margret Selting
Couper-Kuhlen, Elizabeth, and Margret Selting
2018 Interactional Linguistics: Studying Language in Social Interaction. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Dong, Weiguang
1999 “
句势在复句分类中的地位 [The Statuses of Sentence Structures in the Categories of Complex Sentences].”
语言研究 [
Studies in Language and Linguistics] 21: 37–40.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Drew, Paul, and Elizabeth Holt
1998 “
Figures of Speech: Figurative Expressions and the Management of Topic Transition in Conversation.”
Language in Society 27 (4): 495–522.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Fang, Mei
2000 “
自然后语中弱化连词的话语标记功能 [Reduced Conjunctions as Discourse Markers].”
中国语文 [
Studies of the Chinese Language] 51: 459–470.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Fang, Mei
2012 “
会话结构与连词的浮现义 [Discourse Structure and Emergent Meaning of Conjunctions].”
中国语文 [
Studies of the Chinese Language] 61: 575–585.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Goodwin, Charles
1980 “
Restarts, Pauses, and the Achievement of a State of Mutual Gaze at Turn-Beginning.”
Sociological Inquiry 50 (3–4): 272–302.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Goodwin, Charles
1981 Conversational Organization: Interaction between Speakers and Hearers. Academic Press: London.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Goodwin, Charles
1986 “
Gestures as a Resource for the Organization of Mutual Orientation.”
Semiotica 621: 29–49.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Goodwin, Charles
2017 Co-Operative Action. Cambridge University Press.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Goodwin, Charles, and John Heritage
1990 “
Conversation Analysis.”
Annual Review of Anthropology 19 (1): 283–307.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Goodwin, Charles, and Marjorie Goodwin
1992 “
Assessments and the Construction of Context.” In
Rethinking Context: Language as an Interactive Phenomenon, edited by
Alessandro Duranti and
Charles Goodwin. 147–190. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Heath, Christian
1986 Body Movement and Speech in Medical Interaction. Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Heine, Bernd, Gunther Kaltenböck, and Tania Kuteva
Heinemann, Trine
2017 “
Transitioning between Activities with the Danish Change-of-State Token Nå.”
Journal of Pragmatics 1181: 1–21.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Heritage, John
1984 “
A Change-of-State Token and Aspects of its Sequential Placement.” In
Structures of Social Action: Studies in Conversation Analysis, edited by
Maxwell Atkinson and
John Heritage. 299–345: Cambridge University Press.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Heritage, John, and Marja-Leena Sorjonen
1994 “
Constituting and Maintaining Activities Across Sequences: And-Prefacing as a Feature of Question Design.”
Language in Society 23 (1): 1–29.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Hoey, Elliott
2015 “
Lapses: How People Arrive at, and Deal with, Discontinuities in Talk.”
Research on Language and Social Interaction 48 (4): 430–453.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Holt, Elizabeth
2010 “
The Last Laugh: Shared Laughter and Topic Termination.”
Journal of Pragmatics 42 (6): 1513–1525.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Holt, Elizabeth, and Paul Drew
2005 “
Figurative Pivots: The use of Figurative Expressions in Pivotal Topic Transitions.”
Research on Language and Social Interaction 38 (1): 35–61.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Houtkoop, Hanneke, and Harrie Mazeland
1985 “
Turns and Discourse Units in Everyday Conversation.”
Journal of Pragmatics, vol. 9, no. 5, 595–619.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Howe, Mary Locke
1991 Topic Change in Conversation. Unpublished PhD dissertation, Department of Linguistics, University of Kansas.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Jefferson, Gail
1972 “
Side Sequences.” In
Studies in Social Interaction, edited by
David Sudnow. 294–338. New York: Free Press.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Jefferson, Gail
1984 “
On Stepwise Transition from Talk about A Trouble to Inappropriately Next-Positioned Matters.” In
Structures of Social Action: Studies in Conversation Analysis, edited by
Maxwell Atkinson and
John Heritage. 191–222. Cambridge, U.K., Cambridge University Press.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Johnson, Alison
2002 “
So…?: Pragmatic Implications of So-prefaced Questions in Formal Police Interviews.” In
Language in the Legal Process, edited by
Janet Cotterill. 91–110. Palgrave Macmillan, New York.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Kendon, Adam
2004 Gesture: Visible Action as Utterance. Cambridge University Press.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Kitzinger, Celia
2013 “
Repair.” In
The Handbook of Conversation Analysis, edited by
Jack Sidnell and
Tanya Stivers. 229–256. Oxford University Press, U.K: Wiley-Blackwell.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Li, Charles, and Sandra Thompson
1981 Mandarin Chinese: A Functional Reference Grammar. Berkeley: University of California Press.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Li, Xiaoting
2016 “
Some Discourse-Interactional Uses of Yinwei ‘because’ and its Multimodal Production in Mandarin Conversation.”
Language Sciences 581: 51–78.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Li, Xiaoting
2019 “
Researching Multimodal Chinese Interaction: A Methodological Account.” In
Multimodality in Chinese Interaction, edited by
Xiaoting Li and
Tsuyoshi Ono. 181–212. Berlin: Boston: De Gruyter.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Liao, Qiuzhong
1986 “
现代汉语篇章中的连接成分 [the Connective Elements in Modern Chinese Discourse].”
中国语文 [
Studies of Chinese Language] 61: 413–427.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Local, John, and Gareth Walker
2005 “
Methodological imperatives for investigating the phonetic organisation and phonological structures of spontaneous speech.”
Phonetica 621: 120–130.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Local, John, and Gareth Walker
2004 “
Abrupt-Joins as a Resource for the Production of Multi-Unit, Multi-Action Turns.”
Journal of Pragmatics 36 (8): 1375–1403.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Lü, Shuxiang
1980 现代汉语八百词 [
800 Words in Modern Chinese]. 商务印书馆 [Beijing: Commercial press].
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Mazeland, Harrie
2007 “
Parenthetical Sequences.”
Journal of Pragmatics, vol. 39, no. 10, 1816–1869.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Mazeland, Harrie, and Mike Huiskes
Raymond, Geoffrey
2004 “
Prompting Action: The Stand-Alone “So” in Ordinary Conversation.”
Research on Language and Social Interaction 37 (2): 185–218.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Robinson, Jeffrey
2013 “
Overall Structural Organization.” In
The Handbook of Conversation Analysis, edited by
Jack Sidnell and
Tanya Stivers. 257–280. Oxford, U.K., Wiley-Blackwell.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Rossano, Federico
2013 “
Gaze in Conversation.” In
The Handbook of Conversation Analysis, edited by
Jack Sidnell and
Tanya Stivers. 308–329. Oxford, U.K., Wiley-Blackwell.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Sacks, Harvey
1992 Lectures on Conversation. Oxford, UK: Blackwell.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Sacks, Harvey, Emanuel Schegloff, and Gail Jefferson
1974 “
A Simplest Systematics for the Organization of Turn-Taking for Conversation.”
Language 50, no. 4: 696–735.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Scheflen, Albert
1964 “
The Significance of Posture in Communication Systems.”
Psychiatry 27 (4): 316–331.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Schegloff, Emanuel
1982 “
Discourse as an Interactional Achievement: Some Uses of ‘Uh Huh’ and Other Things that Come between Sentences.” In
Analyzing Discourse: Text and Talk, edited by
Deborah Tannen. 71–93. Washington, D.C.: Georgetown University Press.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Schegloff, Emanuel
1996 “
Turn Organization: One Intersection of Grammar and Interaction.” In
Interaction and Grammar, edited by
Elinor Ochs,
Emanuel Schegloff, and
Sandra Thompson. 52–133. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Schegloff, Emanuel
2002 “
Accounts of Conduct in Interaction: Interruption, Overlap and Turn-Taking.” In
Handbook of Sociological Theory, edited by
Jonathan Turner. 287–321. New York: Plenum Press.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Selting, Margret, Peter Auer, Dagmar Barth-Weingarten, Jörg R. Bergmann, Pia Bergmann, Karin Birkner, Elizabeth Couper-Kuhlen, et al.
2009 “
Gesprächsanalytisches Transkriptionssystem 2 (GAT 2).”
Gesprächsforschung – Online-Zeitschrift zur verbalen Interaktion 101: 353–402.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Seuren, Lucas, Mike Huiskes, and Tom Koole
2016 “
Remembering and Understanding with Oh-Prefaced Yes/no Declaratives in Dutch.”
Journal of Pragmatics 1041: 180–192.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Song, Zuoyan, and Hongyin Tao
Stivers, Tanya, and Jack Sidnell
2005 “
Introduction: Multimodal Interaction.”
Semiotica (1561): 1–20.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Su, Danjie
2016 “
Grammar Emerges through Reuse and Modification of Prior Utterances.”
Discourse Studies, 18(3). 330–353.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Xing, Fuyi
2003 现代汉语 [
Standard Chinese].
华中师范大学出版社 [
Huazhong Normal University Publishing House].
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Yao, Shuangyun
2009 “
口语中“所以”的语义弱化与功能拓展 [Semantic Reduction and Function Expansion of “suoyi” in Spoken Chinese].”
汉语学报 [
Chinese Linguistics] (31): 16–23.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Yao, Shuangyun
2015 “
连词与口语语篇的互动性 [Conjunctions and Interactivity of Spoken Discourses].”
中国语文 [
Studies of Chinese Language] (41): 329–340.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Zhu, Dexi
1982 语法讲义 [
Lectures on Grammar]. 商务印书馆 [Beijing: Commercial Press].
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Cited by (1)
Cited by 1 other publications
Rautiainen, Iira, Pentti Haddington & Antti Kamunen
2023.
Nudging Questions as Devices for Prompting Courses of Action and Negotiating Deontic (A)symmetry in UN Military Observer Training. In
Complexity of Interaction,
► pp. 217 ff.
![DOI logo](//benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
This list is based on CrossRef data as of 19 july 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers.
Any errors therein should be reported to them.