Chapter 5
Some interactional functions of Yinwei-clauses in Mandarin Chinese conversation
Jie Luo | University of Calgary, Canada
Yinwei ‘because’ is a causal conjunction or preposition indicating a causal relation between two clauses, NPs and other discourse units in Mandarin Chinese. Building on the previous research, this study examines how yinwei is used by conversational participants to organize talk and accomplish interactional tasks in Mandarin conversation. Adopting the methodologies of conversation analysis and interactional linguistics, this study examines 11 hours of everyday Mandarin conversational data, and explores the interactional functions of yinwei-clauses. An examination of the data shows that yinwei-clauses have a variety of interactional functions in everyday Mandarin conversation. Two particular interactional functions of yinwei-clauses are accounts for a speaker’s prior action such as disagreement and strong assertion, and parentheticals providing background information related to the ongoing talk.
Article outline
- 1.Introduction
- 2.Theoretical and methodological background
- 3.
Yinwei-clauses as accounts for speakers’ prior actions
- 3.1Accounts for disagreements
- 3.2Accounts for assertion
- 4.
Yinwei-clause as parentheticals to provide background information
- 4.1Within an ongoing TCU
- 4.2Between TCUs
- 5.Conclusions
-
Notes
-
References
-
Appendix
References
Biq, Yung-O.
1995 “
Chinese causal sequencing and yinwei in conversation and press reportage. Berkeley Linguist.”
The Proceedings of the 21st Annual Meeting of the Berkley Linguistics Society, 47–59. Berkeley, CA: Berkeley Linguistic Society.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Chao, Yuen-Ren
1968 A Grammar of Spoken Chinese. University of California Press, Berkeley.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Chang, Miao-Hsia and Hsin-Yi Su
2012 “
To mark or not to mark the cause, that is the question: Causal marking in Taiwanese conversation”
Journal of Pragmatics 44(13): 1743–1763.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Chen, Ping
1999 Modern Chinese: History and Sociolinguistics. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Couper-Kuhlen, Elizabeth
2009 “
On combining clauses and actions in interaction”.
Virittäjä, (
Journal of the Society for the Study of Finnish, Kotikielen Seuran aikakauslehti, 113.)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Couper-Kuhlen, Elizabeth
2011 “
When Turns Start with Because: An Exercise in Interactional Syntax”. In
Connectives in Synchrony and Diachrony in European Languages, Varieng: Studies in Variation, Contacts and Change in English, Volume 8, ed. by
Anneli Meurman-Solin, and
Ursula Lenker.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Couper-Kuhlen, Elizabeth, and Margret Selting
Duvallon, Outi, and Sara Routarinne
Fang, Mei
2000 “
Ziran kouyu zhong ruohua lianci de huayu biaoji gongneng [Reduced conjunctions as discourse markers].”
Zhongguo Yuwen 5: 459–470.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Guo, Yulian
2012 “
Huayu biaojiyu ‘shi zheyang de’ ji qi yuyong gongneng [Discourse marker ‘…is like this’ and its pragmatic function].”
Yuyan Yanjiu 2: 118–123.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Heritage, John
1984 “
A change-of-state token and aspects of its sequential placement”.
Structures of social action: Studies in Conversation Analysis, eds. by
Maxwell Atkinson and
John Heritage, 299–345. Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Heritage, John
1988 “
Explanations as accounts: A conversation analytic perspective”.
Analysing Everyday Explanation. A Casebook of Methods, ed. by
Charles Antaki, 127–144. London: Sage.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Heritage, John
1989 “
Current Developments in Conversation Analysis.” In
Conversation: An Interdisciplinary Perspective, ed. by
Derek Roger, and
Peter Bull, 21–47. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Hsieh, Hsin-yun
1999 “
Coherence via Collaboration: A Study of Chinese Causal Connectives.”
Working Papers in Linguistics, 2: 157–186.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Hutchby, Ian and Robbin Wooffitt
2008 Conversation Analysis. Cambridge: Polity.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Jefferson, Gail
1972 “
Side Sequences.” In
Studies in Social Interaction, ed. by
David N. Sudnow, 294–233. New York, NY: Free Press.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Jefferson, Gail
1984 “
On the Organization of Laughter in Talk about Troubles.” In
Structures of Social Action, ed. by
Maxwell J. Atkinson, and
John Heritage, 346–369. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Kirkpatrick, Andy
1993 “
Information Sequencing in Modern Standard Chinese in a Genre of Extended Spoken Discourse.”
Text 13(3): 423–453.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Li, Charles N. and Sandra A. Thompson
1976 Subject and Topic: A new typology of language. In
Subject and Topic, eds. by
Charles N. Li, and
Sandra A. Thompson, 457–489. New York: Academic Press.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Li, Charles N. and Sandra A. Thompson
1981 Mandarin Chinese: A Functional Reference Grammar. Berkeley, California: 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 58: 51–78.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Lü, Shuxiang
1982 Zhongguo Wenfa Yaolue [
Essentials of Chinese Grammar]. Beijing: Shangwu Yinshuguan.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Lü, Shuxiang
(eds) 1999 Xiandai Hanyu Babai Ci [
800 Words in Contemporary Chinese]. Beijing: Shangwu Yinshuguan.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Pomerantz, Anita
1984 “
Agreeing and Disagreeing with Assessments: Some Features of Preferred and Dispreferred Turn Shapes.” In
Structures of Social Action, ed. by
Maxwell J. Atkinson, and
John Heritage, 57–101. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Sacks, Harvey
1992 Lectures on Conversation. Oxford: Blackwell.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Schegloff, Emanuel A.
1996 “
Turn Organization: One Intersection of Grammar and Interaction.” In
Interaction and Grammar, ed. by
Elinor Ochs,
Emaneul A. Schegloff, and
Sandra A. 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 A.
2007 Sequence Organization in Interaction. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Selting, Margret, Peter Auer, Dagmar Barth-Weingarten, Jörg Bergmann, Pia Bergmann, Karin Birkner, Elizabeth Couper-Kuhlen, Arnulf Deppermann, Peter Gilles, Susanne Günthner, Martin Hartung, Friederike Kern, Christine Mertzlufft, Christian Meyer, Miriam Morek, Frank Oberzaucher, Jörg Peters, Uta Quasthoff, Wilfried Schütte, Anja Stukenbrock, Susanne Uhmann1
2009 “
Gesprächsanalytisches Transkriptionssystem 2 (GAT 2).”
Gesprächsforschung-Online-Zeitschrift zur verbalen Interaktion 10: 353–402.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Song, Zuoyan, and Hongyin Tao
2008 “
Hanyu yinguo fuju shunxu de huayu fenxi yu bijiao [Discourse analysis and comparison of Chinese and English causal clauses].”
Hanyu Xuebao 4: 61–71.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Song, Zuoyan, and Hongyin Tao
Thompson, Sandra A., Barbara A. Fox, and Elizabeth Couper-Kuhlen
2015 Grammar in Everyday Talk: Building Responsive Actions. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Wang, Yu-Fang
2002 “
The Preferred Information Sequences of Adverbial Linking in Mandarin Chinese Discourse.”
Text 22(1):141–172.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Wang, Yu-Fang
1999 “
The Information Sequence of Adverbial Clauses in Mandarin Chinese Conversation.”
Journal of Chinese Linguistics 27(2): 45–89.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Xing, Fuyi
2001 Hanyu Fuju Yanjiu [
A Study of Chinese Complex Sentences]. Beijing: Shangwu Yinshuguan.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Young, Linda W.
1982 “
Inscrutability Revisited.” In
Language and Social Identity, ed. by
John J. Gumperz, 72–84. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Cited by
Cited by 3 other publications
Feng, Liu, Jingting Zheng & Jianyu Zeng
2024.
From causal conjunction to discourse marker: a conversation analysis of mandarin yinwei.
La linguistique Vol. 60:1
► pp. 67 ff.
![DOI logo](//benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
Floyd, Simeon
2021.
Conversation and Culture.
Annual Review of Anthropology 50:1
► pp. 219 ff.
![DOI logo](//benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
Wang, Wei
2021.
Pursuing Common Ground: Nondisaffiliative Rhetorical Questions in Mandarin Conversations.
Research on Language and Social Interaction 54:4
► pp. 355 ff.
![DOI logo](//benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
This list is based on CrossRef data as of 26 june 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.