Chapter 5
Some interactional functions of Yinwei-clauses in Mandarin Chinese conversation
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 (35)
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.)
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Li, Charles N. and Sandra A. Thompson. 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.
Lü, Shuxiang. (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. 

Schegloff, Emanuel A. 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.
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. 

Wang, Yu-Fang. 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.
Cited by (3)
Cited by three 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.

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

Wang, Wei
2021.
Pursuing Common Ground: Nondisaffiliative Rhetorical Questions in Mandarin Conversations.
Research on Language and Social Interaction 54:4
► pp. 355 ff.

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 29 october 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.