The Discourse Functions of the Distal Demonstrative he in Taiwanese Southern Min

• Main Authors: Hsu, Huai-Tung, 徐懷彤
• Other Authors: Miao Hsia Chang
• Format: Others
• Language: en_US
• Published: 2014
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/02106212042026247799

碩士 === 國立臺灣師範大學 === 英語學系 === 102 === This study is to examine the discourse functions of the distal demonstrative he in Taiwanese Southern Min from a pragmatic perspective. The analysis of this study is based on 3.4 hour natural spoken data, including daily conversation, radio interview, and telephone calls. In this study, the uses of the distal demonstrative fall into four categories, namely the situational use, the discourse deictic use, the anaphoric use, and the recognitional use. The situational use signifies the use of demonstratives to identify an entity from others in the surrounding situation and establish the referring entity into the universe of discourse. The discourse deictic demonstrative marks reference to the preceding, current, or the following segments in discourse. Discourse deictic demonstratives focus on the propositional contents instead of forms. The anaphoric demonstrative refers to a noun phrase, mainly to a major participant in the preceding discourse. In the recognitional use, the demonstrative refers to a referent that is assumed by the speaker to be identifiable based on specific shared knowledge between the speaker and the hearer exclusively. Concerning the four discourse functions, it shows that the use of the distal demonstrative does not necessarily encode deictic information, as in the discourse deictic use and the anaphoric use. The distal demonstrative does not refer to any entity in the physical world but points out a referent in discourse. In addition, the distal demonstrative in the recognitional use may not encode the spatial contrast. The use of the distal demonstrative refers to a referent which is assumed by the speaker to be identifiable to the hearer. Moreover, the speaker employs the recognitional demonstrative to point out the focal status of the referent or to express s/he attitudes. Therefore, the distal demonstrative is developed from its basic use as a space deixis to refer to referent in discourse, to mark a focal status, or even to express attitudes. In this way, the distal demonstrative is said to be under the path of grammaticalization.