Cover not available
Part of
Current Studies in Chinese Language and Discourse: Global context and diverse perspectives
Edited by Yun Xiao and Linda Tsung
[Studies in Chinese Language and Discourse 10] 2019
► pp. 82–103

Chapter 5
Some interactional functions of Yinwei-clauses in Mandarin Chinese conversation

| University of Alberta, Canada
| 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.

Keywords: yinwei , Mandarin, conversation analysis, interactional linguistics, accounts for prior actions, parentheticals, disagreement, assertion
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
Published online: 15 April 2019
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/scld.10.05li
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
Chao, Yuen-Ren
1968 A Grammar of Spoken Chinese. University of California Press, Berkeley.Google Scholar
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 logoGoogle Scholar
Chen, Ping
1999 Modern Chinese: History and Sociolinguistics. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
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
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
Couper-Kuhlen, Elizabeth, and Margret Selting
2001 “Introducing Interactional Linguistics.” In Studies in Interactional Linguistics, ed. by Margret Selting, and Elizabeth Couper-Kuhlen, 1–22. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Duvallon, Outi, and Sara Routarinne
2005 “Parenthesis as a Resource in the Grammar of Conversation.” In Syntax and Lexis in Conversation: Studies on the Use of Linguistic Resources in Talk-in-Interaction, ed. by Auli Hakulinen, and Margret Selting, 45–74. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Fang, Mei
2000 “Ziran kouyu zhong ruohua lianci de huayu biaoji gongneng [Reduced conjunctions as discourse markers].” Zhongguo Yuwen 5: 459–470.Google Scholar
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
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
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
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
Hsieh, Hsin-yun
1999 “Coherence via Collaboration: A Study of Chinese Causal Connectives.” Working Papers in Linguistics, 2: 157–186.Google Scholar
Hutchby, Ian and Robbin Wooffitt
2008 Conversation Analysis. Cambridge: Polity.Google Scholar
Jefferson, Gail
1972 “Side Sequences.” In Studies in Social Interaction, ed. by David N. Sudnow, 294–233. New York, NY: Free Press.Google Scholar
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
Kirkpatrick, Andy
1993 “Information Sequencing in Modern Standard Chinese in a Genre of Extended Spoken Discourse.” Text 13(3): 423–453. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
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
1981 Mandarin Chinese: A Functional Reference Grammar. Berkeley, California: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Li, Xiaoting
2016 “Some Discourse-Interactional Uses of Yinwei ‘Because’ and Its Multimodal Production in Mandarin Conversation.” Language Sciences 58: 51–78. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Lü, Shuxiang
1982 Zhongguo Wenfa Yaolue [Essentials of Chinese Grammar]. Beijing: Shangwu Yinshuguan.Google Scholar
(eds) 1999 Xiandai Hanyu Babai Ci [800 Words in Contemporary Chinese]. Beijing: Shangwu Yinshuguan.Google Scholar
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
Sacks, Harvey
1992 Lectures on Conversation. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
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 logoGoogle Scholar
2007 Sequence Organization in Interaction. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
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
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
2009 “A Unified Account of Causal Clause Sequences in Mandarin Chinese and Its Implications.” Studies in Language 33 (1): 69–102. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Thompson, Sandra A., Barbara A. Fox, and Elizabeth Couper-Kuhlen
2015 Grammar in Everyday Talk: Building Responsive Actions. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Wang, Yu-Fang
2002 “The Preferred Information Sequences of Adverbial Linking in Mandarin Chinese Discourse.” Text 22(1):141–172. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
1999 “The Information Sequence of Adverbial Clauses in Mandarin Chinese Conversation.” Journal of Chinese Linguistics 27(2): 45–89.Google Scholar
Xing, Fuyi
2001 Hanyu Fuju Yanjiu [A Study of Chinese Complex Sentences]. Beijing: Shangwu Yinshuguan.Google Scholar
Young, Linda W.
1982 “Inscrutability Revisited.” In Language and Social Identity, ed. by John J. Gumperz, 72–84. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Cited by

Cited by 2 other publications

Floyd, Simeon
2021. Conversation and Culture. Annual Review of Anthropology 50:1 ► pp. 219 ff. DOI logo
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

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 22 march 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.