An interpersonal metapragmatic account of the Chinese formulaic disclaimer “bushi wo V(P) ni”

Disclaimers are a hot topic for research in social sciences, with rich literature about it. However, existing research on the Chinese formulaic disclaimer “bushi wo V(P) ni” from pragmatic perspectives has mainly focused on the disclaimer in its own right, rarely examining the various contextual factors involved. Meanwhile, little research has explored the underlying reason why the Chinese formulaic disclaimer “bushi wo V(P) ni” is used to accompany the head acts with reference to contextual particulars of culture, relationship, situation, etc. Thus some problems, such as descriptive inadequacy and explanatory inadequacy, still remain unsolved. In response to the research gaps, the present study, drawing on metapragmatics, interpersonal pragmatics, and interpersonal metapragmatics, and adopting both qualitative and quantitative analyses, supplemented by a case study, aims to formulate a functioning mechanism of the Chinese formulaic disclaimer “bushi wo V(P) ni”. In order to fulfil this research aim, three research questions are addressed: (1) What pragmatic features characterise the head acts accompanied by the Chinese formulaic disclaimer “bushi wo V(P) ni”? (2) What metapragmatic features characterise the use of the Chinese formulaic disclaimer “bushi wo V(P) ni”? (3) Why do speakers use the Chinese formulaic disclaimer “bushi wo V(P) ni” in the observed ways? Drawing on the dataset collected from two large corpora: the BLCU Chinese Corpus (BCC hereafter) and Center for Chinese Linguistics PKU (CCL hereafter), as well as one example from a TV series analysed in the case study, this study examines who uses the Chinese formulaic disclaimer to whom, under what circumstances, and for what reasons. The analysis yields the following major findings: Firstly, the head acts accompanied by the Chinese formulaic disclaimer have the following pragmatic features. The interactants involved are characterised by many different types of relationship dyads, including (i) the superior/elder to the inferior/younger, (ii) the inferior/younger to the superior/elder, and (iii) participants with equal social status. The last one encompasses various types of relationships: strangers; opponents; acquaintances; collaborative partners; friends; and relatives. In addition, there are various different types of speech acts performed in the head acts, including the speech acts of expressives, directives, commissives, and representatives. Fundamentally, these speech-act categories are all relational acts, due to their conspicuous property of relational orientations, even for representatives. Also, the head acts convey the speaker’s various attitudes towards the addressee, including positive, negative, and neutral. Secondly, the use of the Chinese formulaic disclaimer “bushi wo V(P) ni” demonstrates some metapragmatic features as follows. Notably, the V(P)s in the Chinese formulaic disclaimer “bushi wo V(P) ni” can be classified into different types in terms of semantic property and evaluative meaning. Regarding semantic property, the V(P)s can be categorised into two types: specific V(P)s (specifically describing the illocutionary force) and general V(P)s (describing the illocutionary force in general). Regarding evaluative meaning, two types are distinguished: positively oriented ones and negatively oriented ones. The latter constitutes the vast majority of the dataset. “Bushi wo V(P) ni” occurs more frequently among friends, and the general verb shuo (“say”) generally makes up more than half of the data within all related relationship dyads. Besides, these V(P)s also indicate various degrees of indirectness. In comparison with other specific V(P)s, shuo embodies a higher degree of indirectness as a result of its ambiguity of illocutionary force. Moreover, the Chinese formulaic disclaimer “bushi wo V(P) ni” occurs at different locations of the utterance, namely, before, after, and within the head acts. Thirdly, the Chinese formulaic disclaimer accompanied the head acts is mainly motivated by the speaker’s interactional goal of rapport management. Specifically, the Chinese formulaic disclaimer “bushi wo V(P) ni” serves as a means or resource of rapport management at the meta-level in Chinese interaction. The Chinese formulaic disclaimer is employed to accompany the head acts that are characterised as rapport-threatening behaviour in terms of the addressee’s face, rights, interactional goal, emotion, interest, or the speaker’s image. The Chinese formulaic disclaimer hence may be in support of the addressee or the speaker. Furthermore, the Chinese formulaic disclaimer serving as a means of rapport management can be evidenced by its presentation styles, various degrees of indirectness in particular, and interlocutors’ relationship dyads. The change of locations reflects the dynamics of interlocutors’ interpersonal metapragmatic awareness. And different locations correspond to different metapragmatic functions of “bushi wo V(P) ni”, that is, as a disarmer, a conversational increment, and an adjuster respectively. By providing a detailed description and interpretation of the Chinese formulaic disclaimer in interaction, this study has the following implications. Theoretically, the study contributes a functioning mechanism of the Chinese formulaic disclaimer “bushi wo V(P) ni” from the perspective of interpersonal metapragmatics, as a reference, thus promoting a deeper understanding with respect to its characteristics and motivations. Besides, the present study can enrich the research on mitigators by distinguishing two working levels of mitigating devices: the pragmatic level and the metapragmatic level. Meanwhile, this study broadens the scope of research on interpersonal pragmatics, especially the rapport management model by including two more perspectives of rapport-threatening behaviour (i.e. emotion and interest) on the part of the addressee, and image-threatening behaviour on the speaker side. Practically, the findings of the present study, i.e. the distinctive features of the Chinese formulaic disclaimer and the accompanied head acts, and the underlying interpersonal metapragmatic awareness, as well as its dynamics, have some pedagogical implications for teaching and learning Chinese as a foreign language. Hopefully, it contributes to improving the effectiveness of Chinese language teaching and learning. Methodologically, the quantitative and qualitative analyses conducted in the present study can be used to examine other types of disclaimers in interaction. This method facilitates the finding of usage patterns and regularities of disclaimers in interaction. More importantly, a case study, as a supplement to quantitative and qualitative analyses, is presented to provide an in-depth analysis of a TV series example from many and varied angles. Therefore, this study may contribute to the study of disclaimers by providing a mixed methodology for reference.

Jaar van publicatie:2022

Trefwoorden:Doctoral thesis

Toegankelijkheid:Closed