The use of LE 了 in Mandarin Chinese oral discourse

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiaoshi Li ◽  
Wenjing Li ◽  
Yaqiong Cui
Keyword(s):  
Multivariate Analysis ◽  
Sentence Type ◽  
Oral Discourse ◽  
Final Particle ◽  
Discourse Context ◽  
Classroom Speech ◽  
Serial Verb ◽  
Aspect Marker ◽  
Perfective Aspect Marker ◽  
Teacher Classroom

Abstract LE is the mostly widely studied aspect markers in Chinese. In addition to perfective aspect marker to indicate action completion, LE can also serve as sentence final particle to indicate a currently relevant state. This study investigates how Chinese NSs use LE in oral discourse and the factors that influence their use. The data were collected from three discourses including informal conversations, elicited narratives, and teacher classroom speech. Multivariate analysis of 2,359 tokens revealed that verb complement type and verb type have the strongest effects, followed by LE position, serial verb relationship, sentence type, discourse context, and time word presence/absence.

Acquisition of Chinese Aspect

1997 ◽  
Vol 117-118 ◽  
pp. 1-26 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiaohong Wen
Keyword(s):  
Word Meanings ◽  
Advanced Level ◽  
Aspect Marker ◽  
English Speaking ◽  
University Level ◽  
Aspect Markers ◽  
Perfective Aspect Marker ◽  
The University ◽  
Temporal Sequences ◽  
Different Levels

Abstract This study investigates the acquisition of Chinese aspect markers of -le, -guo, and -zhe by English-speaking learners at the university level. The speech and written data produced by students at two different levels of proficiency were collected, compared and analyzed. The results show that English-speaking learners of Chinese acquire the perfective aspect marker -le and the past experience marker -guo before the durative aspect marker -zhe. The process by which learners acquire the aspect markers appears be meaning-based and can be summarized into: 1) looking for logical temporal sequences; 2) using time adverbials and conjunction for the time references; 3) using lexical aspects and word meanings; and 4) using pragmatic cues with the aspect markers of -le and -guo. Learners, especially at the lower level of proficiency, rely more on the time adverbial expressions and lexical aspects than learners at the more advanced level.

Evidentiality in interaction

2015 ◽  
Vol 39 (1) ◽  
pp. 46-84 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mikyung Ahn ◽  
Foong Ha Yap
Keyword(s):  
Main Clause ◽  
New Paradigm ◽  
Matrix Clause ◽  
Final Particle ◽  
Discourse Context ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Complement Clause ◽  
Using Data ◽  
Semantic Scope

This paper examines how hearsay evidential markers in Korean are used within the pragmatic domain to serve a wide range of epistemic and politeness functions. In particular, we focus on a new paradigm of hearsay evidential markers — more specifically, the V-ta ha-X > V-ta-X type, among them -tako, -tamye, -tamyense, -tanun, and -tanta (see Ahn & Yap 2014) — and using data from the Sejong Contemporary Spoken Corpus, we examine the extended uses of these hearsay evidential markers in natural conversations, and show how these ‘say’-derived evidential markers contribute to the expression of different shades of speaker stance. Special attention is also given to their distinctive roles in modulating the strength — as well as pragmatic nuance — of an epistemic claim. This study also examines the role of main-clause ellipsis, in particular its contribution to the reanalysis of the (quoted) complement clause as a stand-alone ‘new main clause’, and the concomitant reinterpretation of the erstwhile ha ‘say’ complement-taking matrix clause as a sentence final particle that often retains an evidential reading but also captures the pragmatic nuance of its discourse context. The findings of this study contribute to a fuller understanding of how ‘say’-derived evidential constructions in Korean (and potentially also in other languages) extend their semantic scope to develop into markers of speakers’ subjective and intersubjective/interpersonal stance.

scholarly journals Represent an issue as open: Mandarin discourse particle ba

2021 ◽  
Vol 30 ◽  
pp. 523
Author(s):  
Yu'an Yang
Keyword(s):  
Lexical Ambiguity ◽  
Final Particle ◽  
Discourse Context ◽  
Discourse Particle ◽  
Strong Contrast

The Mandarin sentence final particle ba has been described as expressing uncertainty or soliciting agreement in declaratives ("weakening" an assertion, Han 1995, Li 2006 a.o.). However, ba-interrogatives appear to be "strengthening" a question to a demand: "you must answer this question," similar to the cornering effects associated with or not questions (Biezma 2009 a.o.). To account for this "weak" and "strong" contrast, some have postulated a lexical ambiguity: ba1 in declaratives and ba2 in interrogatives (Chao 1968, Zhu 1999). In this paper, I discuss new data showing that ba-declaratives are not always less forceful and ba-interrogatives are not always more forceful than their unmarked counterparts, which challenges current theories. I propose that, uniformly, the use of ba represents an issue as open. The "weak" and "strong" effects are results of ba interacting with the discourse context.

Patterns of sociolinguistic variation in teacher classroom speech

2019 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
pp. 163-185 ◽  
Author(s):  
Raymond Mougeon ◽  
Katherine Rehner
Keyword(s):  
Sociolinguistic Variation ◽  
Classroom Speech ◽  
Teacher Classroom

The influence of classroom input and community exposure on the learning of variable grammar

2016 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 21-22 ◽  
Author(s):  
RAYMOND MOUGEON ◽  
KATHERINE REHNER
Keyword(s):  
Advanced Learners ◽  
Student Groups ◽  
Factors Influencing ◽  
Classroom Speech ◽  
Frequency Of Use ◽  
Community Exposure ◽  
Key Dimensions ◽  
French Grammar ◽  
Teacher Classroom

As pointed out by Carroll (Carroll), our team has investigated the influence of input on the spoken French competence of older Ontario bilinguals. Our research has examined the learning of invariant and variable aspects of French grammar. We focus here on the learning of variation, since it is an under-researched topic not covered by Carroll. Our research examines adolescent speakers of Ontario French from French-medium schools (e.g., Mougeon & Beniak, 1991), same-age immersion students (e.g., Mougeon, Nadasdi & Rehner, 2010) and advanced learners from a bilingual university (e.g., Mougeon & Rehner, 2015). Two key dimensions of input are teacher classroom speech and frequency of use of French in the community for the Franco-Ontarian students and amount of extra-curricular interactions with Francophones for the FSL students. Having collected corpora from these student groups, we compared the output of learners with primarily classroom-based input with that of learners with broader ranging (extra-) curricular input. The availability of teacher in-class recordings for these learner groups has been crucial in identifying additional factors influencing these students’ output.

scholarly journals Family Resemblance and the Syncretism of Reflexive Marks: The Case of Georgian.

2015 ◽  
Vol 56 (2) ◽  
pp. 197
Author(s):  
João Paulo Lazzarini-Cyrino
Keyword(s):  
Family Resemblance ◽  
Perfective Aspect ◽  
Aspect Marker ◽  
Cognitive Approaches ◽  
Perfective Aspect Marker

Georgian verbal pre-radical vowel -i- raises many issues for generative and cognitive approaches to the syncretism of reflexive marks. The vowel bears medio-passive functionalities (Nash, 2002), occurring also in full reflexives (Amiridze, 2006) and as a perfective aspect marker for atelic verbs (Holisky, 1981). In this paper I show that any analysis based in valence reduction - the most obvious path for accounting for this kind of phenomenon - is uncapable of foreseeing the distribution of -i-. Alternatively, I propose that the vowel is distributed according to a Wittgensteinian Family Resemblance (Familienähnlichkeit) set.

Reconstructing the development of the aspect marker te ‘to acquire’ in Southwestern Yuè: a missing link between Yuè and Hakka

2016 ◽  
Vol 45 (1) ◽  
pp. 71-104
Author(s):  
Bit-Chee Kwok
Keyword(s):  
Mandarin Chinese ◽  
Developmental Pathway ◽  
Perfective Aspect ◽  
Missing Link ◽  
Nous Pensons ◽  
Aspect Marker ◽  
Perfective Aspect Marker

This paper provides a synchronic description and reconstructs the developmental pathway of the aspect marker te in four Southwestern Yuè dialects of Chinese, located in far western Guǎngdōng. Synchronically, te functions as a perfective aspect marker and a perfect aspect marker (similar to Mandarin Chinese le but different from Cantonese zo). Diachronically, te is believed to have been transferred from the neighboring Hakka dialects through substratum influence. We argue that te is grammaticalized from the verb dé 得 ‘to acquire,’ of the Hakka dialects. This study reveals that the aspectual use of te is an essential part of a missing link between Yuè and Hakka.
Cet article offre des descriptions synchroniques et reconstruit la voie de développement du marqueur aspectuel te dans quatre dialectes chinois de Yuè du sud-ouest, qui se trouvent à l’extrême-ouest de la province de Guǎngdōng. Synchroniquement, te fonctionne à la fois comme un marquer aspectuel du perfectif et du parfait (comparable à le en chinois mandarin mais différent du zo en cantonais). Diachroniquement, nous pensons que te a été emprunté des dialectes voisins de Hakka, et ainsi subi d’une influence de substrat. Nous argumentons en faveur de l’origine Hakka de te : il est grammaticalisé du verbe dé 得 qui signifie ‘acquérir’ dans les dialectes Hakka. Cette étude révèle que l'usage aspectuel de te joue un rôle essentiel du lien manquant entre les groupes dialectaux de Yuè et Hakka.


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