Browsing results for Wakefield John C.

(2020) Chinese (Cantonese), English – Ethnopragmatics

Published on February 10, 2020. Last updated on February 10, 2020.

Wakefield, John C.; Winnie Chor, Winnie; & Lai, Nikko (2020). Condolences in Cantonese and English: What people say and why. In Kerry Mullan, Bert Peeters, & Lauren Sadow (Eds.), Studies in ethnopragmatics, cultural semantics, and intercultural communication: Vol. 1. Ethnopragmatics and semantic analysis (pp. 35-58). Singapore: Springer.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-32-9983-2_3

Abstract:

This study uses the ethnopragmatics approach to examine the cultural-based knowledge that guides Cantonese and Anglo-English speakers when offering death-related condolences, or what we refer to here as ‘condolence routines’. The data come from discourse completion tasks, the existence of cultural key phrases, and the authors’ native-speaker intuitions. The authors examine condolences that are offered to a good friend who has recently lost someone close to him or her. They present cultural scripts that are proposed to account for the linguistic contrasts in Cantonese versus English condolence routines. The Cantonese script is entirely new while the English script is revised from a previous study.

Based on our analysis, we conclude that the primary contrast is that Anglo-English condolences typically focus on expressing that the condoler feels sad because of the bereaved’s loss, while Cantonese condolences typically focus on telling the bereaved not to be sad and to take care of his- or herself. Knowledge of this contrast in sociopragmatics is not only a meaningful contribution to the study of pragmatics; it is also of practical help to people in regular contact with Cantonese and/or Anglo-English speakers. It can help one understand how to avoid saying something during a condolence routine that may sound inappropriate, or even insensitive, to speakers of these two languages.

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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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(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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(2017) English, Japanese – Ethnopragmatics

Published on June 8, 2017. Last updated on February 9, 2020.

Wakefield, John; Itakura, Hiroko (2017). English vs. Japanese condolences: What people say and why. In Vahid Parvaresh, & Alessandro Capone (Eds.), The pragmeme of accommodation: The case of interaction around the event of death (pp. 203-231). Berlin: Springer.

DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-55759-5_12

Abstract:

This paper uses the ethnopragmatics approach to discover the sociopragmatic knowledge that influences what English and Japanese speakers say when condoling bereaved people who have recently lost someone close to them. Linguistic data are drawn from previous studies on English and Japanese condolences, discourse completion tasks, movies and the authors’ native-speaker intuitions. Analyses from the literature on condolences contribute to the discussion. Cultural scripts — one for English and one for Japanese — are presented as hypotheses to account for the observed verbal and non-verbal behaviour of English and Japanese speakers when offering condolences. It is proposed that the social closeness between the deceased and the bereaved affects what all condolers say, but that this effect is different for English and Japanese speakers. Another key difference is that the perceived role of the condoler is different between the two languacultures: Japanese speakers sense a greater responsibility to share in the mourning process.

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(2014) Chinese (Cantonese), English – Discourse particles and intonation

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

Wakefield, John C. (2014). The forms and meanings of English rising declaratives: Insights from Cantonese. Journal of Chinese Linguistics, 42(1), 109-149.

Open access

Abstract:

The study reported in this paper exploited the existence of a pair of semantically related Cantonese question particles (咩 me1 and 呀 aa4) to learn more about the forms and meanings of the tones that mark declarative questions in English. First each particle was defined using NSM. Cantonese-to-English translations were then elicited from native-bilinguals to discover the English-equivalent forms of the particles. The NSM explications proposed for 咩 me1 and 呀 aa4 are hypothesized to apply equally to their English-equivalent forms. The results of this study provide empirical evidence that suggests there are at least two forms of rising declaratives in English with distinct meanings. It is argued that high-rising (but not mid-rising) declaratives express a prior belief in the negative form of their propositional content.

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(2013) English (USA), Chinese (Cantonese) – Child-rearing values

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

Wakefield, John C. (2013). When cultural scripts collide: Conflicting child-rearing values in a mixed-culture home. Journal of Intercultural Communication Research, 42(4), 376-392.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/17475759.2013.838984

Abstract:

This paper discusses some key differences between the child-rearing values of American-English culture and Hong Kong-Cantonese culture. Evidence is drawn from contrasts in the child-rearing-related speech behaviour of people from the two cultures, including the American English-speaking author and his Hong Kong Cantonese-speaking partner. Speaker-oriented cultural scripts written in NSM are developed in an attempt to articulate and explain these differences in verbal behaviour. It is proposed that a major contrast between the two cultures is whether or not parents believe children can or should determine for themselves what is appropriate to say and do.

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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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(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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(2010) Chinese (Cantonese) – Discourse particles

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

Wakefield, John C. (2010). The English equivalents of Cantonese sentence-final particles: A contrastive analysis. PhD thesis, Hong Kong Polytechnic University.

Open access

Abstract:

Cantonese has a lexical tone system that severely restricts its ability to manipulate pitch. As a result, many of the speaker-oriented discourse meanings that are expressed through intonation in languages such as English are expressed in the form of sentence-final particles (SFPs) in Cantonese. Although this is widely known and accepted by linguists, apparently no study to date has made a systematic attempt to discover whether any of the more than 30 Cantonese SFPs have English intonational equivalents, and if so, what those equivalents are. To work towards filling this research gap, this study examines the English intonational equivalents of four Cantonese SFPs that divide into the following two pairs: particles of obviousness: 咯 lo1 and 吖吗 aa1maa3; question particles: 咩 me1 and 呀 aa4.

The English equivalent form of each of the four SFPs of this study is identified by examining the pitch contours of Cantonese-to-English audio translations, provided by Cantonese/English native-bilingual participants. A definition using Natural Semantic Metalanguage (NSM) is proposed for each SFP, which is hypothesized to apply equally to its English intonational counterpart. Following earlier proposals by Hirst regarding emphatic intonation, these pitch contours are proposed to be floating tones that exist as lexical entries in the minds of native speakers of English. Syntactic positions are proposed for the SFPs and their English equivalents adopting Rizzi‘s split-CP hypothesis.

The findings of this study have far reaching implications regarding the descriptions and classifications of intonation, as well as regarding the classifications of the various forms of suprasegmentals. This study used segmental discourse markers to discover their suprasegmental counterparts in English, exploiting a unique window through which to examine the forms and meanings of English discourse intonation, which is one of the least understood and most difficult to study aspects of English. This research has arguably provided the strongest and clearest evidence to date regarding the forms and meanings of the particular forms of English intonation with which it deals.

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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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