Doctoral Dissertation Research: From the Distal Demonstrative to a Stance Marker: On na in Mandarin Chinese Conversation

所有语言都有单词来表示所引用的实体。这些词（如this和that）在语言学中被称为指示词，通常用于将听者的注意力集中在言语情境中的实体上。随着时间的推移，这些词中的一些可能会发展出各种新的功能，如连接词和犹豫信号。尽管指示语在语言中具有普遍性，但指示语的变化方式和演变原因却各不相同。虽然指示语一直是语言学的一个重要研究课题，但我们对指示语和指示衍生语用标记语在自发的面对面对话中是如何使用的知之甚少。这是因为语言分析中最常用的类型是书面话语和口头叙事，而不是口头话语。调查结果和记录将有助于应用语言学家和第二语言教育者开发更有效的教材，用于教授美国政府指定的一种重要语言——普通话。该项目数据库将加强与语文有关的研究和教育的基础设施，并将有助于培训学生。本论文项目认识到以往基于文本的分析方法的局限性，并从语篇语用的角度研究汉语日常会话中远指示性na“that”的使用情况。“na”除了作为远指示词的规范用法外，还具有各种扩展和微妙的话语功能。本项目旨在识别和分类na的不同用法，特别关注其以前被忽视的非指涉语用功能。更具体地说，它将揭示顺序上下文，功能帐户，并使用定量方法和定性分析na的位置。主要目标是提供一个系统的分析，说明所有的na出现和功能的发言者在实际的日常对话。第二个目标是更好地理解指示词在语法化和/或语用化方面的强大相似性和微妙的语言特定变化，特别是源自指示词的语用标记的非指示用法。本论文项目将以全新的数据和互动的视角，对人类共同的语言现象进行更深入的理解。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

All languages have words to indicate entities that are being referred to. These words (e.g. this and that), known in linguistics as demonstratives, are typically used to focus the hearer's attention on entities in the speech situation. Over time, some of these words evolve and may develop various kinds of new functions such as connectives and hesitation signals. Despite the universality of demonstratives across languages, demonstratives differ in how they change and why they evolve in certain ways. Although demonstratives have long been a key research topic in linguistics, we know surprisingly little about how demonstratives and demonstrative-derived pragmatic markers are used in spontaneous face-to-face conversation. This is due to the fact that the most commonly used genres in linguistic analysis are written discourse and oral narratives rather than spoken discourse. The results and transcriptions will help applied linguists and L2 educators develop more effective materials for teaching Mandarin Chinese, a critical language designated by the U.S. government. The project database will enhance the infrastructure for language-related research and education, and will contribute to the training of students. This dissertation project recognizes the methodological limitations in previous text-based analyses and investigates how the distal demonstrative na 'that' is used in Mandarin Chinese everyday conversation from a discourse-pragmatic perspective. Apart from its canonical usage as a distal demonstrative, na has various kinds of extended and nuanced discourse functions. This project sets out to identify and classify different uses of na, with a special focus on its previously overlooked non-referential discourse pragmatic functions. More specifically, it will uncover sequential contexts, functional accounts, and positions of na using both a quantitative approach and qualitative analysis. The primary goal is to offer a systematic analysis that accounts for all the occurrences and functions of na by speakers in actual everyday conversation. The secondary goal is to shed light on a better understanding of robust similarities and subtle language specific variations in the grammaticalization and/or pragmaticalization of demonstratives, particularly the non-deictic uses of pragmatic markers derived from demonstratives. This dissertation project will contribute to a deeper understanding of a common human language phenomenon with fresh data and from an interactional perspective.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.