Discourse uses and prosodic properties of ranhou in spontaneous Mandarin conversation
This paper examines two emerging discourse uses, topic-shifting and trail-off, of a temporal conjunction ranhou in
spontaneous Mandarin conversation. Unlike traditional approaches that focus exclusively on such textual functions as temporality
and consequentiality of ranhou, the present study considers the role of prosody in making ranhou
recognizable as a topic-shifting and trail-off marker in interaction. Using the framework of conversation analysis, this paper
reveals that, as a topic-shifting marker, ranhou signals both stepwise and disjunctive topic shifts; as a
trail-off marker, it marks the closure of the current turn and invites the recipient’s response. The prosodic analysis
demonstrates that the topic-shifting ranhou shows a significantly longer duration and larger pitch range than its
other uses; the trail-off ranhou features intonational independence, loudness diminuendo, and/or durational
lengthening. These prosodic designs, in collaboration with particular sequential environment, make the new discourse uses and
their associated interactional purposes recognizable by conversation co-participants.
Article outline
- 1.Introduction
- 2.Data
- 3.Basic uses
- 3.1Temporal use
- 3.2Consequential use
- 3.3Additive use
- 4.Topic-shifting use
- 4.1Sequential analysis
- 4.2Prosodic characteristics
- 4.2.1Duration
- 4.2.2Pitch range
- 5.Trail-off use
- 6.Concluding remarks
- Glossing abbreviations
-
References
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