Cover not available

Article published In: Conversation Analysis in Chinese: Part II
Edited by Ni-Eng Lim
[Chinese Language and Discourse 10:2] 2019
► pp. 158–186

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

A study of repeat-formatted repair initiations in Mandarin Chinese conversation

 | Guangdong University of Foreign Studies
 | Xi’an Shiyou University
Published online: 15 January 2020
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/cld.18014.qua
Abstract
Using the methodology of Conversation Analysis (or CA), this study examines three types of other-initiated repair initiators (henceforth OIs) that repeats some element in the trouble-source (henceforth repeats) in Chinese conversation: repeats suffixed with question particles ma (吗), repeats suffixed with question particles a (啊), and question-intonated repeats. It attempts to explore the differences between these typical formats, in terms of their forms/functions and the epistemic stance of the speaker who initiates repair. The main research findings indicate that question-intonated repeat implements an understanding check while repeat suffixed with question particles (ma or a) tends to serve different functions, in that, ma-suffixed repeat is inquiry-implicated while a-suffixed repeat contributes to constructing surprise, (dis)agreement or (dis)belief.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Preliminary work on formats of OIs
  • 3.Data and analysis
    • 3.1The forms and functions of these OI formats
    • 3.2Differing epistemic stance displayed by repeat-formatted OIs
    • 3.3Repeat-formatted OIs as stance-alignment resources
  • 4.Conclusion and further discussion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
References (37)
References
Chang, Y.-C. (1998). Les indices acoustiques et perceptifs des questions totales en Mandarin parle de Taiwan [An acoustic and perceptual study of yes-no questions in Taiwan Mandarin Chinese]. Cahiers de Linguistique Asie Orientale, 271: 51–78. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Chao, Yuan Ren. 1968. A Grammar of spoken Chinese. Los Angeles: University of California Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Drew, Paul. 1997. “Open” class repair initiators in response to sequential sources of troubles in conversation. Journal of Pragmatics 281: 69–101. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2018. Epistemics in social action. Discourse Studies 201: 163–187. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Dingemanse, Mark and Enfield, N. J. 2015. Other-initiated repair across languages: towards a typology of conversational structures Open Linguistics 11: 96–118. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Egbert, Maria. 1996. Context-sensitivity in conversation: Eye gaze and the German repair initiator bitte? Language in Society 251: 587–612. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1997. Some interactional achievements of other-initiated repair in multi-person conversation. Journal of Pragmatics 271: 611–634. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hayashi, Makoto and Kim, Stephnie Hyeri. 2015. Turn formats for other-initiated repair and their relation to trouble sources: Some observations from Japanese and Korean conversations. Journal of Pragmatics: 198–217. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Heritage, John & Raymond, Geoffrey. 2005. The Terms of Agreement: Indexing Epistemic Authority and Subordination in Talk-in-Interaction. Social Psychology Quarterly 681: 15–38. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Heritage, John. 2011. A Galilean moment in social theory? Language, culture and their emergent properties Qualitative Sociology 341: 263–270.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2012b. Epistemics in action: Action formation and territories of knowledge. Research on Language and Social Interaction 451: 30–52. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2013b. Epistemics. In: Sidnell, J. and Stivers, T. (eds) The Handbook of Conversation Analysis. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, pp. 370–394.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hayashi, Makoto and Hayano Kim. 2013. Proffering insertable elements: A study of other-initiated repair in Japanese. In: M. Hayashi, G. Raymond and J. Sidnell (eds) Conversational repair and human understanding. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, pp. 293–321.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hayashi, Makoto and Stephanie Hyeri Kim. 2015. Turn formats for other-initiated repair and their relation to trouble source: Some observations from Japanese and Korean conversations. Journal of Pragmatics 871:198–217). Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hu, Yushu. 2011. Contemporary Chinese Language (7th edition) Shanghai Education Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Keevallik, Leelo & Auli, Hakulinen. 2018. Epistemically reinforced kyl(la)/kull-responses in Estonian and Finnish: Word order and social action. Journal of Pragmatics 1231:121–138. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kendrick, Kobin H. 2015. Other-initiated repair in English. Open Linguistics 11: 164–190. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kim, Mary Shin. and Stephanie, Hyeri Kim. 2014. Initiating repair with and without particles: alternative formats of other-initiation of repair in Korean conversation. Research on language and social interaction 41: 331–352. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kendrick, H. Kobin. 2018. Adjusting epistemic gradients: The final particle ba in Mandarin Chinese conversation. East Asian Pragmatics. vol. 3.1:5–26. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kim, H. 2002. The form and function of next-turn repetition in English conversation. Language Research, 38(1), 51–81.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kitzinger, Celia. 2013. Repair. In Sidnell, Jack & Stiver Tanya (eds.) The Handbook of Conversation Analysis. WILEY-Blackwell:229–256.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Li, Charles and Thompson, Sandra A. 1981. Mandarin Chinese: A functional reference grammar. Los Angeles: University of California Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Robinson, Jeffery D. 2013. Epistemics, action formation and other-initiation of repair: The case of partial questioning repeats. In: M. Hayashi, G. Raymond and J. Sidnell (eds) Conversational repair and human understanding, pp. 261–292.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Robinson, Jeffrey D. & Kevoe-Feldman Heidi. 2010. Using full repeats to initiate repair on others’ questions. Research on Language and Social Interaction 43(3): 232–259. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Schegloff, Emanuel A., Jefferson, Gail, & Sacks, Harvey. 1977. The preference for self-correction in the organization of repair in conversation. Language 531: 361–382. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Schegloff, Emanuel A. 1997. Practices and actions: boundary cases of other-initiated repair. Discourse Processes, 231: 499–545. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2000. When ‘others’ initiate repair. Applied Linguistics 211: 205–243. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2009. One Perspective on Conversation Analysis: Comparative Perspectives. In J. Sidnell (ed.), Conversation Analysis: Comparative Perspectives. Cambridge University Press, 357–406. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2011). Word repeats as units ends. Discourse Studies 13(3): 367–380. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Shen, X. -N. S. (1989). The prosody of Mandarin Chinese. Los Angeles: University of California press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Sidnell, Jack. 2010. Questioning repeats in the talk of four-year old children. In: Gardner, H.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Tsai, I.-N. (2011). Grammar as situated practices: Conversational practices of two Man- darin yes/no question formats in talk-in-interaction (PhD dissertation). University of California at Los Angeles, Los Angeles.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2006. Initiating repair and beyond: The use of two repeat-formatted repair initiations in Mandarin conversation. Discourse Processes 411: 67–109. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2009. Repetition in the initiation of repair. In: Sidnell, J. (ed) Conversation Analysis: Comparative Perspectives. Cambridge University Press. Cambridge, pp. 31–59.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Zhang, Wei. 1998. Repair in Chinese conversation. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Hong Kong. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cited by (1)

Cited by one other publication

Yu, Guodong, Yaxin Wu, Paul Drew & Chase Wesley Raymond
2024. The DIG Mandarin Conversations (DMC) Corpus. Chinese Language and Discourse. An International and Interdisciplinary Journal 15:1 ► pp. 105 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