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

所有语言都有表示被引用实体的单词。这些词(如这个和那个)在语言学中被称为指示词，通常用于将听话人的注意力集中在言语情景中的实体上。随着时间的推移，这些单词中的一些会演变，并可能发展出各种新的功能，如连接词和犹豫信号。尽管指示代词在不同的语言中具有普遍性，但指示代词的变化方式和为什么会以特定的方式演变是不同的。虽然指示词长期以来一直是语言学的一个重要研究主题，但令人惊讶的是，我们对指示词和指示词衍生的语用标记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体裁是书面语篇和口头叙事，而不是口语语篇。研究结果和转录结果将帮助应用语言学家和二语教育工作者开发更有效的普通话教学材料。普通话是美国政府指定的一种关键语言。该项目数据库将加强与语言有关的研究和教育的基础设施，并将有助于对学生的培训。本论文认识到以往语篇分析的方法论局限性，从语篇语用的角度考察了汉语日常会话中远端指示词NA‘That’的使用情况。NA除了作为远距离指示词的规范用法外，还具有各种各样的延伸和微妙的语篇功能。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代语篇的语用功能。更具体地说，它将使用定量和定性分析来揭示NA的顺序背景、功能描述和位置。主要目标是提供一个系统的分析，说明说话者在实际日常对话中使用NA的所有情况和功能。第二个目标是更好地理解指示词在语法化和语用化过程中的显著相似之处和微妙的语言变异，特别是指示词衍生的语用标记的非指示性用法。这个论文项目将有助于用最新的数据和从互动的角度更深入地理解一个常见的人类语言现象。这个奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势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.