Cover not available

Article published In: Chinese Language and Discourse
Vol. 9:1 (2018) ► pp.1–25

Get fulltext from our e-platform
JBE logo with link
PDF logo with download linkDownload PDF
authorization required

Discourse uses and prosodic properties of ranhou in spontaneous Mandarin conversation

 | Georgia Institute of Technology |
Published online: 27 August 2018
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/cld.00006.wan
Abstract
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
References (39)
References
Barth-Weingarten, Dagmar, and Elizabeth Couper-Kuhlen. 2002. “On the Development of Final Though: A Case of Grammaticalization?” In Ilse Wischer and Gabriele Diewald (eds.), New Reflections on Grammaticalization, 345–361. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Chafe, Wallace, 1976. “Givenness, Contrastiveness, Definiteness, Subjects, Topics, and Point of View.” In C. N. Li (ed.), Subjects and Topics, 26–56. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cruttenden, Alan. 1997. Intonation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Du Bois, John W., Stephan Schuetze-Coburn, Susanna Cumming, and Danae Paolino. 1993. “Outline of Discourse Transcription.” In J. Edwards and M. D. Lampert (eds.), Talking Data: Transcription and Coding in Discourse Research, 45–89. New York: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Fang, Mei. 2000. “Ziran Kouyu zhong Ruohua Lianci de Huayu Biaoji Gongneng. 自然口语中弱化连词的话语标记功能 [Discourse Functions of Bleached Conjunctions in Natural Mandarin Conversation].” Studies of the Chinese Language 51: 459–470.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ford, Cecilia A., Barbara A. Fox, and Sandra A. Thompson. 2002. “Constituency and the Grammar of Turn Increments.” In C. E. Ford, B. A. Fox, and S. A. Thompson (eds.), The Language of Turn and Sequence, 14–38. Oxford: Oxford University.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Halliday, M. A. K., and R. Hasan. 1976. Cohesion in English. London: Longman.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Heritage, John, and Geoffrey Raymond. 2005. “The Terms of Agreement: Indexing Epistemic Authority and Subordination in Talk-in-Interaction.” Social Psychology Quarterly 68 (1): 15–38. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hopper, Paul J. 1991. “On Some Principles of Grammaticization.” In E. C. Traugott and B. Heine (eds.), Approaches to Grammaticalization, Volume 21, 17–35. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Howe, Mary. 1991. “Collaboration on Topic Change in Conversation.” In K. Ichihashi and M. S. Linn (eds.), Kansas Working Papers in Linguistics, 161: 1–14.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Jefferson, Gail. 1984. “On Stepwise Transition from Talk about a Trouble to Inappropriately Next-positioned Matters.” In: J. M. Atkinson, J. Heritage (eds.), Structures of Social Action: Studies in Conversation Analysis, 191–222. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1993. “Caveat Speaker: Preliminary Notes on Recipient Topic-Shift Implicature.” Research on Language and Social Interaction 26 (1): 1–30. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Koivisto, Aino. 2012. “Discourse Patterns for Turn-Final Conjunctions.” Journal of Pragmatics 44 (10): 1254–1272. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Li, Charles N. and Sandra A. Thompson. 1976. “Subject and Topic: A New Typology of Languages.” In C. N. Li (ed.), Subject and Topic, 457–490. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Local, John, and John Kelly. 1986. “Projection and ‘Silences’: Notes on Phonetic and Conversational Structure.” Human Studies 9 (2–3): 185–204. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lü, Shuxiang, Linding Li, Jian Liu, Jiyan Fan, Youwei Shi, Fanglian Fan, Cong Meng, Shujun Ma, Zhu Li, Jianmin Chen, Kaidi Zhan, Huaide Zheng, and Baoxiang Tao (Eds.). 1980. Xiandai Hanyu Babaici [Modern Chinese 800 words]. Beijing: Shangwu Yinshuguan.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mulder, Jean, and Sandra A. Thompson. 2008. “The Grammaticization of but as a Final Particle in English Conversation.” In R. Laury (ed.), Crosslinguistic Studies of Clause Combining: The Multifunctionality of Conjunctions, 179–204. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Nakajima, Shinya, and James F. Allen. 1993. “A Study on Prosody and Discourse Structure in Cooperative Dialogues.” Phonetica 50 (3): 197–210. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ong, Fui Ping and Phua, Chiew Pheng. 2011. “ Ranhou: A Semantic Map Approach.” In Yufahua yu Yufa Yanjiu [Studies on Grammaticalization], 254–311. Beijing: Shangwu Yinshuguan.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Sacks, Harvey. 1992. Lectures on Conversation, Volume 21. Edited by G. Jefferson with Introductions by E. A. Schegloff. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Sacks, Harvey, Emanuel Schegloff, and Gail Jefferson. 1974. “A Simplest Systematics for the Organization of Turn-Taking for Conversation.” Language, 696–735. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Schegloff, Emanuel A., 1982. “Discourse as an Interactional Achievement: Some Uses of ‘uh huh’ and Other Things that Come between Sentences.” In D. Tannen (ed.), Analyzing Discourse: Text and Talk, 71–93. Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
1996. “Turn Organization: One Intersection of Grammar and Interaction.” In E. Ochs, E. A. Schegloff, and S. A. Thompson (eds.), Interaction and Grammar: Studies in Interactional Sociolinguistics, 52–133. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Schiffrin, Deborah. 1986. “Functions of and in Discourse.” Journal of Pragmatics 10 (1): 41–66. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1987. Discourse Markers. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Su, L. I-wen. 1998. Grounding and Coherence in Chinese Discourse. Taipei: Crane.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Taboada, Maite, and Loreley Wiesemann. 2010. “Subjects and Topics in Conversation.” Journal of Pragmatics 42 (7): 1816–1828. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Thompson, Sandra A., and Anthony Mulac. 1991. “A Quantitative Perspective on the Grammaticization of Epistemic Parentheticals in English.” In E. C. Traugott and B. Heine (eds.), Approaches to Grammaticalization, Volume 21, 313–329. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Traugott, Elizabeth Closs. 1995. “The Role of the Development of Discourse Markers in a Theory of Grammaticalization.” Paper presented at ICHLl XII, Manchester , 1–23.
Walker, Gareth. 2010. “The Phonetic Constitution of a Turn-Holding Practice.” In D. Barth-Weingarten, E. Reber, and M. Selting (eds.), Prosody in Interaction, 51–72. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2012a. “Coordination and Interpretation of Vocal and Visible Resources: ‘Trail-off’ Conjunctions.” Language and Speech 55 (1): 141–163. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2012b. “Phonetics and Prosody in Conversation.” In J. Sidnell and T. Stivers (eds.), The Handbook of Conversation Analysis, 455–474. Malden, MA, USA/Oxford, UK: Wiley Blackwell. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Wang, Chueh-chen and Lillian M. Huang. 2006. “Grammaticalization of Connectives in Mandarin Chinese: A Corpus-Based Study.” Language and Linguistics 7.41:991–1016.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Wang, Yu-Fang. 1998. The Functions of Ranhou in Chinese Oral Discourse. In H. Lin (ed.) Proceedings of the 9th North American Conference on Chinese Linguistics, 380–397. Los Angeles: GSIL, University of Southern California.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Xiao, Yang. 2010. Discourse Markers in Chinese Conversational Narrative. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Hawaii.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Xu, Jiajin. 2009. “Hanyu Ziran Huihua zhong Ranhou de Huayu Gongneng Fenxi [The Discourse Marker Ranhou (然后) and Its Functions in Spoken Chinese].” Foreign Languages Research 21: 9–15.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Yang, Li-chiung. 2006. “Integrating Prosodic and Contextual Cues in the Interpretation of Discourse Markers.” In K. Fischer (ed.), Approaches to Discourse Particles, 265–97. Amsterdam: Elsevier.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2010. “Harmony and Tension in Mandarin Chinese Prosody: Constraints and Opportunities of Lexical Tones in Discourse Markers.” In Speech Prosody 2010-Fifth International Conference.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Zellers, Margaret. 2012. “Prosodic Variation for Topic Shift and Other Functions in Local Contrasts in Conversation.” Phonetica 69 (4): 231–253. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cited by (4)

Cited by four other publications

Huang, Shu-Yu
2025. Establishing joint attention to embodied actions with zheyang(zi) in Taiwan Mandarin cooking demonstrations. Chinese Language and Discourse. An International and Interdisciplinary Journal 16:2 ► pp. 271 ff. DOI logo
谷, 伟明
2021. The Exploration of the Function of ranhou in Interpersonal Interaction of Emotion Counseling. Modern Linguistics 09:03 ► pp. 737 ff. DOI logo
Zhu, Dongyi
2020. Conversational narrative marker. In Analysing Chinese language and discourse across layers and genres [Studies in Chinese Language and Discourse, 13], ► pp. 37 ff. DOI logo
Lim, Ni-Eng
2019. Introduction. Chinese Language and Discourse. An International and Interdisciplinary Journal 10:2 ► pp. 127 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 7 december 2025. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.

Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue