Chapter published in:

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. 81–103

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

Xiaoting Li | University of Alberta, Canada

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.

Keywords: Mandarin, yinwei, conversation analysis, interactional linguistics, accounts for prior actions, disagreement, parentheticals, assertion

Published online: 15 April 2019
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.

Chao, Yuen-Ren

1968 A Grammar of Spoken Chinese. University of California Press, Berkeley.

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.

Chen, Ping

1999 Modern Chinese: History and Sociolinguistics. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK.

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.)

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.

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.

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.

Fang, Mei

2000 “Ziran kouyu zhong ruohua lianci de huayu biaoji gongneng [Reduced conjunctions as discourse markers].” Zhongguo Yuwen 5: 459–470.

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.

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.

1988 “Explanations as accounts: A conversation analytic perspective”. Analysing Everyday Explanation. A Casebook of Methods, ed. by Charles Antaki, 127–144. London: Sage.

1989 “Current Developments in Conversation Analysis.” In Conversation: An Interdisciplinary Perspective, ed. by Derek Roger, and Peter Bull, 21–47. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.

Hsieh, Hsin-yun

1999 “Coherence via Collaboration: A Study of Chinese Causal Connectives.” Working Papers in Linguistics, 2: 157–186.

Hutchby, Ian and Robbin Wooffitt

2008 Conversation Analysis. Cambridge: Polity.

Jefferson, Gail

1972 “Side Sequences.” In Studies in Social Interaction, ed. by David N. Sudnow, 294–233. New York, NY: Free Press.

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.

Kirkpatrick, Andy

1993 “Information Sequencing in Modern Standard Chinese in a Genre of Extended Spoken Discourse.” Text 13(3): 423–453.

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.

1981 Mandarin Chinese: A Functional Reference Grammar. Berkeley, California: University of California Press.

Li, Xiaoting

2016 “Some Discourse-Interactional Uses of Yinwei ‘Because’ and Its Multimodal Production in Mandarin Conversation.” Language Sciences 58: 51–78.

Lü, Shuxiang

1982 Zhongguo Wenfa Yaolue [Essentials of Chinese Grammar]. Beijing: Shangwu Yinshuguan.

(eds) 1999 Xiandai Hanyu Babai Ci [800 Words in Contemporary Chinese]. Beijing: Shangwu Yinshuguan.

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.

Sacks, Harvey

1992 Lectures on Conversation. Oxford: Blackwell.

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.

2007 Sequence Organization in Interaction. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

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.

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.

2009 “A Unified Account of Causal Clause Sequences in Mandarin Chinese and Its Implications.” Studies in Language 33 (1): 69–102.

Thompson, Sandra A., Barbara A. Fox, and Elizabeth Couper-Kuhlen

2015 Grammar in Everyday Talk: Building Responsive Actions. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Wang, Yu-Fang

2002 “The Preferred Information Sequences of Adverbial Linking in Mandarin Chinese Discourse.” Text 22(1):141–172.

1999 “The Information Sequence of Adverbial Clauses in Mandarin Chinese Conversation.” Journal of Chinese Linguistics 27(2): 45–89.

Xing, Fuyi

2001 Hanyu Fuju Yanjiu [A Study of Chinese Complex Sentences]. Beijing: Shangwu Yinshuguan.

Young, Linda W.

1982 “Inscrutability Revisited.” In Language and Social Identity, ed. by John J. Gumperz, 72–84. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.