Browsing results for Discourse particles

(2010) French – Discourse particles: QUOI, BEN

Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on January 15, 2022.

Waters, Sophia (2010). The semantics of French discourse particles quoi and ben. In Yvonne Treis & Rik De Busser (Eds.), Selected papers from the 2009 Conference of the Australian Linguistic Society. http://www.als.asn.au/proceedings/als2009.html. PDF (open access)

Discourse particles are strewn throughout natural spoken discourse, revealing the speakers’ attitude towards what they are saying and guiding the interlocutors’ interpretation of that utterance. The majority of works in the area of the French discourse particles quoi and ben provide detailed analyses and place their primary focus on usage. Problems arise, however, when word usage is discussed without a systematic approach to semantics. The present study applies the Natural Semantic Metalanguage (NSM) method of description to these particles, proposing definitive explications that can be substituted into naturally occurring examples of quoi and ben without causing any semantic loss. Explications, framed in the culture-neutral terms of the NSM, capture the subtleties of meaning conveyed by each discourse particle. They are presented in parallel English and French versions and are tested against a corpus of spoken French.


Research carried out in consultation with or under the supervision of one or more experienced NSM practitioners

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(2011) Arabic – Discourse particles: YAᶜNI

Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on September 15, 2018.

Rieschild, Verna (2011). Arabic yaᶜni: Issues of semantic, pragmatic, and indexical translation equivalence. Intercultural Pragmatics, 8(3), 315-346. DOI 10.1515/IPRG.2011.016

This paper explores the idea that some discourse particles are so culturally embedded that they defy translation. Natural Semantic Metalanguage and Conversation Analysis are used to examine the meanings and functions of (a) the polysemous Arabic discourse particle yaᶜni (derived from yaᶜni ‘it means’), translatable as ‘well’, ‘I mean’, ‘that is’, ‘you see’, ‘like’, and ‘so’, and (b) sorta and I mean, the main English translation candidates for yaᶜni. The findings show that yaᶜni’s focus on marking relevance is useful in elaborating, correcting, creating narrative suspense, holding a turn, or, as sole constituent of a turn, hedging a response. Similar English functions are achieved using discourse particles that focus approximation. The analysis also shows that semantic or pragmatic similarity in discourse particles from different languages can predict translation potential. In the same way, similarity in the meaning of a discourse particle and of a speech act predicts translatability. However, despite semantic and pragmatic equivalence (of a sort), culture-specific indices may mean that a word is not a suitable translation candidate. The results augment our understanding of cultural semantics and ethnopragmatics, and have applications to the study of translation and intercultural communication.


Research carried out in consultation with or under the supervision of one or more experienced NSM practitioners

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(2011) Chinese (Cantonese) – Discourse particles

Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on February 9, 2020.

Wakefield, John C. (2011). Disentangling the meanings of two Cantonese evidential particles. Chinese Language & Discourse, 2(2), 250-293.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1075/cld.2.2.05wak

Abstract:

Some linguists have argued that sentence-final particles (SFPs) are only meaningful in relation to discourse content. Adopting as a working hypothesis the idea that SFPs have core meanings independent of the discourse context, this paper proposes definitions for two evidential SFPs in Cantonese with related meanings: 咯 lo1 and 吖吗 aa1maa3.

Corpus-based examples and constructed minimal-pair dialogues are used to demonstrate that the definitions succeed at accounting for all the contexts that allow one, the other, both, or neither of the SFPs to be used based on acceptability judgments from native speakers of Cantonese. In addition to furthering our understanding of the two SFPs under discussion, this paper provides empirical evidence in support of the idea that discourse particles have context-independent meanings.

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(2011) Indonesian – Discourse particles: DONG, SIH

Published on September 15, 2018. Last updated on September 15, 2018.

Sumarni, Laurentia (2011). A semantic and cultural analysis of the colloquial Jakartan Indonesian discourse particles. LLT Journal, 14(1). PDF (open access)

Indonesia is a diglossic speech community, where two significantly different “high” and “low” varieties co-exist. The high variety (Bahasa Indonesia/BI) is the official language of government, education, and formal occasions, while the low variety consists of the non-standard languages commonly spoken in informal ordinary speech. Colloquial Jakartan Indonesian is the most prominent non-standard language, predominant in casual speech and associated with urban youth in the capital city, Jakarta, used by most Generations X and Y in informal communication, novels, TV shows, films, and web-based social networks.

This article discusses the semantic and cultural analysis of two colloquial Jakartan discourse particles (DPs), dong and sih. DPs mark the difference between H and L varieties and are salient features in colloquial speech. However, the usage and meaning of these particles are not considered important in the development of language in Indonesia. Their meanings are hard to pin down because a lot depends on the mood, intonation and tone of voice at the time of utterance. The pragmatic and paralinguistic aspects of the particles are not easily translatable into other languages. NSM is used as a tool for explication to arrive at the semantic core meaning of DPs dong and sih so that they are accessible across languages. Corpus data is taken from 5 novels published between 2004 and 2010.


Sound application of NSM principles carried out without prior training by an experienced NSM practitioner

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(2012) Chinese (Cantonese) – Discourse particles

Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on February 9, 2020.

Wakefield, John C. (2012). A floating tone discourse morpheme: The English equivalent of Cantonese lo1. Lingua, 122(14), 1739-1762.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lingua.2012.09.008

Abstract:

Cantonese linguists have said that Cantonese sentence-final particles (SFPs) express the same kinds of meanings that are expressed by intonation in languages such as English, yet apparently no study has ever systematically attempted to discover whether any SFPs have English intonational equivalents. This study identifies the English intonational counterpart to the SFP 咯 lo1 by looking at the pitch contours of Cantonese-to-English audio translations, which were provided by four Cantonese/English native bilingual participants.

Based on the data, it is concluded that the English equivalent of 咯 lo1 is a high-falling pitch contour. A definition using the Natural Semantic Metalanguage is formulated to define 咯 lo1, and native English-speaker judgments indicate that this same definition also defines the meaning of 咯 lo1‘s English equivalent. Examples are given to demonstrate that this definition succeeds at defining either 咯 lo1 or its English equivalent in any context within which they are used. It is proposed that this 咯 lo1-equivalent pitch contour is a floating tone morpheme in the English lexicon. Linguists have long debated whether or not any forms of intonation have context-independent meanings. This study offers empirical evidence in support of the argument that they do.

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(2012) Chinese (Cantonese) – Particles (laa1)

Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on August 19, 2021.

Leung, Helen Hue Lam (2012). The semantics of the Cantonese utterance particle ‘laa1’. In Maïa Ponsonnet, Loan Dao, & Margit Bowler (Eds.), Proceedings of the 42nd Australian Linguistic Society Conference – 2011 (pp. 245-280). http://langfest.anu.edu.au/index.php/als/als2011. PDF (open access)

This paper will carry out an in-depth semantic analysis of one of the most salient and frequently used Cantonese utterance particles, laa1 (high level tone). Cantonese utterance particles occur in continuous talk every 1.5 seconds on average, and play a very important role in Cantonese speakers’ self-expression.
There are approximately one hundred utterance particles in Cantonese, outnumbering those in Mandarin. However, it has been suggested that the particles have no meaning, and there has not been much comprehensive semantic analysis of individual particles. Where utterance particles have
previously been described, the descriptions do not fully and accurately convey their meanings.
In this study, a range of naturally occurring examples of laa1 from the Hong Kong Cantonese Corpus will be examined, and an invariant meaning of laa1 proposed using the Natural Semantic Metalanguage (NSM). This approach offers advantages over previous descriptions of laa1, and will allow a simple,
precise and translatable definition to be constructed. It is found that laa1 indicates some shared knowledge between a speaker and an addressee. This study addresses the current gap in Cantonese linguistics, and contributes to the understanding of Cantonese utterance particles.

(2013) Chinese (Cantonese) – Particles (gaa3, particle combinations)

Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on September 10, 2018.

Leung, Helen Hue Lam (2013). The Cantonese utterance particle ‘gaa3’ and particle combinations: An NSM semantic analysis. In John Henderson, Marie-Eve Ritz, & Celeste Rodríguez Louro (Eds.), Proceedings of the 2012 Conference of the Australian Linguistic Society (27 pp.). https://sites.google.com/site/als2012uwa/proceedings. PDF (open access)

Cantonese utterance particles occur in ordinary Cantonese conversation every one or two seconds. Speech becomes unnatural when they are omitted. They are often used in combinations of more than one, with ‘basic’ and ‘compound’ particles totalling approximately one hundred. However, it is generally agreed that the particles’ meanings are extremely elusive. This study uses the Natural Semantic Metalanguage (NSM) framework and natural speech data from the Hong Kong Cantonese Corpus to explain the meaning of the utterance particle gaa3 as used in statements. Gaa3  is the second most frequently used utterance particle in the corpus, and the eleventh most frequently used Cantonese word
overall. The NSM explication proposed clearly states what the ‘core’ or invariant meaning of gaa3 is. Furthermore, the explications of gaa3 and two other particles, laa1 and wo3, can reveal why they can
(or cannot) combine, and what their composite meanings are. This is a new approach to the untested idea that the meaning of particle ‘clusters’ is equal to that of the individual particles combined. The explications begin to expose a system with which the vast array and patterns of Cantonese utterance particles can be explained in a logical way.

(2013) Japanese – Discourse particles

Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on May 23, 2019.

Hirakawa, Kimiko (2013). Semantic explications for the sentence-final particles bai and tai of the Japanese Hakata dialect. Osaka Literary Review, 52, 1-15.

Open access

Abstract:

This paper describes and outlines the functions of two sentence-final particles of the Japanese Hakata dialect, bai and tai. The particles in question are especially known for characterizing the Hakata dialect, which is one of the linguistic variations in Fukuoka Prefecture. Taking into account similarities as well as differences, the paper proposes descriptions for the two particles and posits explications using NSM.

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Approximate application of NSM principles carried out without prior training by an experienced NSM practitioner

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(2016) Chinese (Cantonese, Hong Kong) – Particles

Published on December 13, 2017. Last updated on August 16, 2021.

Leung, Helen Hue Lam (2016). The semantics of utterance particles in informal Hong Kong Cantonese (Natural Semantic Metalanguage approach). PhD thesis, Griffith University, Brisbane. PDF (open access)

This study identifies the semantic invariants of some commonly-used Cantonese utterance particles in Hong Kong Cantonese. The particles are a distinctive and ubiquitous feature of informal, everyday Cantonese, occurring every 1.5 seconds on average. The particles are necessary for expressing speakers’ transitory attitudes, assumptions, or feelings connected with an utterance. Although they are not grammatically obligatory, conversation sounds unnatural when they are omitted. There are approximately 30 ‘basic’ particles, which can combine with each other to form ‘clusters’, resulting in roughly 100 variations. This number easily surpasses that of comparable particles in Mandarin, and is matched by very few, if any, other languages. Semantic analysis of Cantonese utterance particles is challenging because their meanings are extremely elusive, even to native speakers. The range of use of each particle is so varied and wide-ranging that some Cantonese speakers and scholars have concluded that the particles have no stable semantic content. Prior research on the particles has produced contradictory, vague, obscure or inaccurate descriptions.

This study demonstrates that particles have meaning, by using the Natural Semantic Metalanguage (NSM) approach to identify the semantic invariants, or ‘core’ meanings, of a selection of commonly-used utterance particles, namely laa1, wo3, gaa3, laa3, and zaa3. NSM expresses the meanings of words and concepts in reductive paraphrases called explications, where the language used is limited to a set of semantic primes. Using this method, each particle’s meaning is identified and stated in versatile explications which are clear, accurate, translatable, and testable. The explications reliably explain each particle’s range of use in the Hong Kong Cantonese Corpus, which comprises 180 000 words of naturally-occurring Cantonese. One of the most significant findings is that explications for Cantonese utterance particles are typically short and simple. The results prove that the particles have stable and identifiable meanings.

In addition, the explications reveal the role of semantics in determining why particles can or cannot combine in particular ways. The particles selected for analysis occur in many common clusters, e.g. gaa3-laa1, gaa3-zaa3-wo3, while other clusters are unacceptable, e.g. *laa1-wo3. The meanings of particle clusters are widely claimed to be the combined meanings of the particles of which they are made up, but there have been no serious attempts to verify this. To do so would first require accurate definitions of the individual particles. The explications proposed in this study shed light on this neglected area. It is found that where particle clusters are acceptable in speech, the combined explications reveal the meanings of the clusters. A semantic critique of sub-morphemic analyses of monosyllabic particles is also presented.

This study also considers the complexities of using NSM for Hong Kong Cantonese. If basic NSM assumptions are correct, any explication should be able to be expressed in simple and natural Cantonese, giving the same meaning as in any other language. This thesis identifies and evaluates Cantonese exponents of all the 65 proposed semantic primes, and explores some Cantonese-specific issues. Each particle explication is presented in English and Cantonese.

 

(2019) Chinese (Cantonese) – Discourse particles

Published on May 19, 2019. Last updated on February 9, 2020.

Wakefield, John C.; Lee, Hung Yuk (2019). The grammaticalization of indirect reports: The Cantonese discourse particle wo5. In Alessandro Capone, Manuel García-Carpintero, & Alessandra Falzone (Eds.), Indirect reports and pragmatics in the world languages (pp. 333-344). Cham: Springer.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-78771-8_16

Abstract:

This paper proposes a definition for the Cantonese sentence-final discourse particle wo5, which marks the proposition contained within a clause as an indirect report that does not belong to the speaker. The methodology for defining wo5 is based on NSM theory and draws on a general model for the investigation of discourse markers, the goal of which is to come up with a formula that would make sense in all the contexts in which the discourse particle can occur, and that could also explain why in some contexts it cannot be used at all. The proposed definition we propose is discussed in light of what other authors have said about wo5, and is tested against a number of examples within which wo5 can and cannot appear.

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(2020) Chinese (Cantonese) – Discourse particles

Published on July 28, 2020. Last updated on July 28, 2020.

Leung, Helen Hue Lam (2020). Combining NSM explications for clusters of Cantonese utterance particles: laa3-wo3 and zaa3-wo3. In Bert Peeters, Kerry Mullan, & Lauren Sadow (Eds.), Studies in ethnopragmatics, cultural semantics, and intercultural communication: Vol. 2. Meaning and culture (pp. 187-206). Singapore: Springer.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-32-9975-7_10

Abstract:

Utterance particles expressing speakers’ attitudes, assumptions or feelings are indispensable in informal Hong Kong Cantonese. Everyday conversation would sound very unusual if they were omitted. There are approximately 30 ‘basic’ (monosyllabic) particles, which can be either used on their own or combined with each other in ‘clusters’, i.e. polysyllabic combinations where two or more particles occur one after the other in immediate succession. Clusters of particles have consistently been claimed to have the combined meaning of the separate particles of
which they are made up; however, in the absence of rigorous semantic analyses of the individual particles involved, evidence for this has been scant at best. Indeed, the range of use of each of the particles is broad and varied, and it is extremely difficult, even for native speakers, to satisfactorily explain their meanings and functions. Most prior studies provide semantic descriptions that are vague, contradictory, and sometimes untrue. The current chapter builds on some of the evidence-based, translatable and testable NSM explications of individual particles put forward in the author’s earlier work, which demonstrated that the particles have stable and identifiable meanings. It shows how, using NSM, the semantic content of clusters of Cantonese utterance particles can effectively be derived from the meaning of individual particles.

Two clusters are examined, laa3-wo3 and zaa3-wo3, which are formed from three ‘basic’ particles: laa3, zaa3 and wo3. The short explications of the individual particles are combined to create ‘joint’ explications, with the resulting cluster definitions tested by substitution into real examples taken from the Hong Kong Cantonese Corpus. It is found that the combined NSM explications adequately portray the meanings of the particle clusters.

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(2020) Chinese (Cantonese), English – Intonational morphology [BOOK]

Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on February 9, 2020.

Wakefield, John C. (2020). Intonational morphology. Singapore, Springer, 2020.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-2265-9

Abstract:

This book discusses the morphological properties of intonation, building on past research to support the long-recognized relationship between the functions and meanings of discourse particles and the functions and meanings of intonation. The morphological status of intonation has been debated for decades, and this book provides evidence from the literature combined with new and compelling empirical evidence to show that specific intonational forms correspond to specific segmental discourse particles. It also describes how intonation is represented in speakers’ minds, which has important implications for first and second language acquisition as well as for theories and approaches to artificial speech recognition and production.

Chapter 6 of the book presents evidence that strongly indicates that six Cantonese sentence-final particles (SFPs) have English intonational equivalents. These six SFPs divide into three pairs of related particles: the evidential particles 咯 lo1 and 吖吗 aa1maa3; the question particles 咩 me1 and 呀 aa4; and the “only” particles zaa3 and ze1. Each SFP’s meaning is described and an NSM explication of it is presented before showing and discussing the data related to its English equivalent. The data comprise Cantonese-to-English oral translations and their accompanying F0 contours. The translators were ambilingual speakers of L1 Cantonese and L1 English. Based on the fact that each SFP translated into English as the same form of intonation by more than one ambilingual translator in more than one context, it is assumed that the definition given to each SFP also applies to its English intonational equivalent. It is further proposed that these English forms of intonation are tonal morphemes that reside in native-English speakers’ lexicons.

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(Forthcoming) English – Discourse particles and intonation

Published on February 9, 2020. Last updated on February 9, 2020.

Wakefield, John C. (Forthcoming). It’s not as bad as you think: An English tone for ‘downplaying’. In Wentao Gu (Ed.), Studies on tonal aspects of languages. Hong Kong: Journal of Chinese Linguistics Monograph.

More information:

A version of this paper is part of the final chapter of the author’s book Intonational morphology, Singapore, Springer, 2020.

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