Discourse Functions of Taiwanese Southern Min Inui and Soyi

• Main Authors: Anne Hsin-Yi Su, 蘇欣儀
• Other Authors: Miao-Hsia Chang
• Format: Others
• Language: en_US
• Published: 2008
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/79254619578099412683

碩士 === 國立臺灣師範大學 === 英語學系 === 96 === The present study analyzes and discusses the functions of Taiwanese inui and soyi in spoken discourse through the approach of Conversation Analysis (CA). The analysis is based on seven and a half hours’ recording of natural spoken data, including native speakers’ conversation in soap opera on TV, telephone dialogues, TV interviews, as well as daily conversations among family members and friends. While the canonical functions of inui and soyi are used to mark cause and consequence respectively in a causal-consequential relation, their discourse functions are asymmetric. The various functions that evolve from these two markers serve different interactional purposes. The functions of inui are highly interactional and mostly other-attentive. These functions are first categorized into causal-marking and non-causal marking. The uses of causal-marking inui are further classified into four, including (1) pure-cause marking, (2) explanation marking, (3) justification marking, and (4) understanding display. The justification-marking inui is further categorized into three types: (1) justifying conflicting statement, (2) justifying FTA and (3) mitigating embarrassment. The non-causal inuis perform the function of information-insertion marking. It is found that in most cases where a cause is to be expressed in a narrative, inui is not used. Although most of the inuis still signal a certain type of causal-relation, inui is under a speaker’s disposal for significant conversational situations. Inui is called for when a speaker recognizes the need to provide the addressee with a better and friendlier ground for conversation as particularly significant and as meriting special emphasis. The employment of inui is sensitive to serious topics, the distant social relation between interlocutors and a speaker’s attitude to the information introduced by inui. In contrast, the functions of soyi are less other-attentive and more content-based. The various functions of soyi are categorized into two major groups: consequential and non-consequential. The consequential uses of soyi can be further classified into local level and global level. The global consequential soyi includes functions of (1) conclusion marking and (2) comment marking. The functions of non-consequential soyi include (1) topic transition marking and (2) framing. Although over eighty percent of the instances of soyi carry a canonical reading—the consequential function, soyi is used more as a rhetoric or a structuring device, rather than a grammatical one, for a speaker to add the tone of seriousness to a speech situation, and to structure the discourse for the speaker’s various expressive purposes. Soyi is only used when a speaker has a specific goal for the talk and is eager to achieve the goal through the talk. The functional distinction between inui and soyi is further discussed and the markedness and unmarkedness of inui and soyi are also addressed to reveal the discourse-pragmatic factors that motivate the use of these two markers. In addition, the study also compares their discourse functions with their English and Taiwan Mandarin equivalents. Most of the functions of Taiwanese inui have corresponding uses of its English and Taiwan Mandarin equivalent. The difference lies in the overall frequency, the motivation of use and the functional distribution. The functions of soyi have similar uses with its English equivalent but wider application for interactional needs. While soyi is closely associated with serious and purposeful talk, its English equivalent does not exhibit such an association. The motivations that trigger the employment of inui and soyi are salient with the comparison.