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Article published In:
Media Language and Discourse in Cultural China
Edited by Doreen D. Wu, Ming Liu and David C.S. Li
[Chinese Language and Discourse 13:1] 2022
► pp. 58–78

‘Suiran danshi’

A memetic contraction of paired connectives on Chinese social media

| Nanjing University
ORCID logo | Nanjing University
‘Suiran danshi (‘although but’)’ used on Chinese social media is a novel variant of ‘suiran (‘although’)…danshi (‘but’)’, a typical pairing of adversative connectives in Mandarin Chinese. This article hypothesizes that ‘suiran danshi’ is a memetic expression resulting from pragmatic ellipsis and repeated use for special functions in the context of online communication. To verify this hypothesis, the authors collected data from Weibo and WeChat, two most widely used social media platforms in China, and analyzed the use of ‘suiran danshi’ in context. It is argued that as an elliptical form, ‘suiran danshi’ complies with the requirements of the Economy Principle and the Politeness Principle. As a meme, the emergence and popularity of the variant are ascribable to its special functions of teasing and facilitating social bonding, as well as to the vagueness of language use and the richness and complexity of cyber-context afforded by the Internet.
Keywords: connectives, pragmatic ellipsis, Economy Principle, Politeness Principle, Internet language, Internet memes
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Theoretical foundations
    • 2.1Pragmatic ellipsis
    • 2.2Internet memes
  • 3.Data description
  • 4.‘Suiran danshi’ as a form of pragmatic ellipsis
    • 4.1Recoverability of ‘suiran danshi’
    • 4.2Motivations for the ellipsis of ‘suiran danshi’
      • A.Motivated by the need to save effort
      • B.Motivated by the need to be polite
    • 4.3The role of social media platforms
  • 5.‘Suiran danshi’ as an Internet meme with special functions
  • 6.Conclusion
  • Note
  • Transcription symbols
  • References
Published online: 29 March 2022
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/cld.21038.che
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