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The Subjectivity of Adjectives in Spoken Mandarin THE SUBJECTIVITY OF ADJECTIVES IN SPOKEN MANDARIN SHANG GUOWEN NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF SINGAPORE -2011- THE SUBJECTIVITY OF ADJECTIVES IN SPOKEN MANDARIN SHANG GUOWEN A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF SINGAPORE -2011- Acknowledgements First I wish to extend my sincere gratitude and thanks to my supervisor, Dr. Peter Tan Kok Wan, for his continuous encouragement and support throughout my thesis writing. He is an open-minded scholar, who allows me to explore the linguistic phenomena that cater to my interests. He is patient and always ready to provide assistance whenever I approach him for advice. I have especially valued his efficient, detailed and constructive feedbacks on the drafts of my thesis. Without his kind help, I would not get to this point of completion. Moreover, his rigorous attitude in teaching and research is a role model in my professional and personal life. My thanks also go to my thesis committee members Prof. Ismail S. Talib and Dr. Ho Chee Lick, and my good friends Zhang Ruihua, Liu Yu, Lin Jinzhan and Bai Xiaopeng, for their enlightening perspectives and suggestions. I also owe a debt to Prof. Bao Zhiming, Peter Wignell, Tomasina Oh and Lionel Wee in the Department of English Language and Literature and Prof. Shi Yuzhi and Peng Rui in the Chinese Department, whose lectures, handouts and monographs informed this study. Finally, I wish to express my thanks to my wife and my parents for their unconditional understanding and support for my study. They have undertaken all the household chores during my thesis writing, thus I can concentrate on my study in these years. I would like to dedicate this thesis to them. iii Abstract The syntactic and semantic features of adjectives in the Chinese language have been extensively studied, whereas their pragmatic features are underexplored in linguistics. This thesis takes the category of adjectives primarily as subjectivity markers, investigating how the speakers’ attitudes or evaluations are conveyed in spoken Mandarin. The adjectives in Mandarin can be used to fulfil five basic pragmatic functions, namely subcategorization, identification, evaluation, specification and depiction. Among them, the evaluation function predominates in spoken discourse. The adjectival evaluations in Mandarin are essentially reference-point constructions. That is, people implicitly or explicitly compare with certain standards or values when evaluating the quality or property of entities/events. The nature of the referenced standards or norms determines the subjectivity or objectivity of the adjectival evaluations. As a special type of qualitative adjectives, the affective adjectives in use can be absolutely subjective or relatively subjective. In addition, the typical adjectival constructions in Mandarin such as adjectival negation, intensification and reduplication all demonstrate the speakers’ subjectivity in that the speakers’ construal to the normal property values of entities/events or the speakers’ expectations will be accessed in the evaluation process. In general, the category of adjectives is typically used to register the speakers’ attitudes or emotions in spoken Mandarin. The analysis in this study reveals that the linguistic expressions are not autonomous, but are often motivated or constrained by a wide range of pragmatic and cognitive principles. iv Abbreviations BA marker of the BA construction BEI passive marker bei CL classifier DE pre-nominal modification marker, postverbal resultative marker, or sentence-final particle de EM exclamation markers such as a, wa, and la GUO experiential aspect marker guo LE perfective marker or sentence-final particle le lit. literally means PL plural QM question marker ZHE durative aspect marker zhe 1s first person singular pronoun 1p first person plural pronoun 2s second person singular pronoun 2s(h) second person singuralr pronoun in honorific form 2p second person plural pronoun 3s third person singular pronoun 3p third person plural pronoun v Tables and Figures Tables Table 3.1 Distribution of spoken data………………………………………………………75 Table 4.1 The pragmatic functions of adjectives in Mandarin……………………...104 Table 4.2 Functional distribution of adjectives in spoken Mandarin.........................122 Table 7.1 Features of gradable adjectives and their negation.....................................205 Figures Fig 2.1 “Optimal” and “egocentric” viewing arrangements…………………………51 Fig 5.1 A reference-point construction.......................................................................130 Fig 5.2 Normality and attention.................................................................................136 Fig 5.3 Value cline for fast.........................................................................................160 Fig 5.4 Objectivity-subjectivity continuum...............................................................164 Fig 5.5 An evaluation system.....................................................................................168 Fig 7.1 Conceptualization of limit adjectives.............................................................193 Fig 7.2 Binary scale....................................................................................................196 Fig 7.3 Unary scale.....................................................................................................198 Fig 7.4 Double-closed scale.......................................................................................200 Fig 7.5 Conceptualization of a half glass of water.....................................................202 Fig 7.6 Semi-closed scale...........................................................................................202 Fig 9.1 State adjectives projected on the property scale............................................265 vi Table of Contents Acknowledgements………………………………………………………………..……iii Abstract…………………………………………………………………………………iv Abbreviations ……….………………………………………………………………….v Tables and Figures……………………………………………………………………..vi Chapter 1 Introduction…………………………….………………….…..……….…..1 1.1 Mandarin Adjectives: Preliminaries……….………………….……….……..….1 1.1.1 Positioning the Adjectives in Mandarin……..………….………….……….2 1.1.2 Scope of Adjectives in this Thesis…..………………….…….….…………6 1.1.3 Syntactic and Semantic Features of Mandarin Adjectives…….….……….10 1.1.4 A Review of Mandarin Adjective Studies…………….……….….….……18 1.2 Subjectivity in Language and Linguistics………………………….……..…….22 1.3 The Subjectivity of Mandarin Adjectives ....……………………….……..…….26 1.4 Research Questions……………………………………………………….…….30 1.5 Purpose and Objectives ...………………………………...………….….….…..31 1.6 Organization of the Thesis……………………………………………..…....….33 Chapter 2 An Overview of Subjectivity Studies………………………...…….……..34 2.1 The Notion of Linguistic Subjectivity…………………………………..……...34 2.2 A Brief History of Linguistic Subjectivity Studies……………….………….…37 2.3 Subjectivity Realization Devices………………………………..……………...42 2.4 Speaker Subjectivity and Perspectival Subjectivity.....……...………………….44 2.5 Linguistic Approaches to Subjectivity...………………….…………………….48 2.5.1 Perspective Studies……………………………………………...…………49 2.5.1.1 Langacker’s Construal Approach....………………………………...50 2.5.1.2 Kuno’s Empathy Perspective……………………………………….54 2.5.2 Affect Studies……………………………………………………………57 2.5.3 Evaluation Studies……………………………………………………….58 2.5.3.1 Criteria for Evaluative Language…………………………………...59 2.5.3.2 Linguistic Approaches to Evaluation……………………………….62 2.5.3.2.1 Stancetaking Models……...……………………………………62 2.5.3.2.2 Parameter-based Approaches………….......…...………………64 2.5.3.2.3 Appraisal Theory……………………………………………….67 2.6 What ‘Subjectivity’ Means in this Thesis…………..…………………………..70 Chapter 3 The Data……...………………………………………………………........72 Chapter 4 Basic Pragmatic Functions of Mandarin Adjectives……………...….…77 4.1 Introduction ..……………………………………………………...………......77 vii 4.2 Basic Pragmatic Functions of Mandarin Adjectives ..…………………….…80 4.2.1 The Function of Subcategorization…………………………………….…80 4.2.2 The Function of Identification………………………………………...….85 4.2.3 The Evaluation Function……………………………………………..…...89 4.2.4 The Function of Specification……………………………………….........93 4.2.5 The Function of Depiction………………………………………….…..…98 4.2.6 Co-occurrence of Pragmatic Functions …………………………….….....103 4.3 Relationship between Syntactic and Pragmatic Functions of Adjectives .…...106 4.3.1 The Pragmatic Functions of Attributive Adjectives ...…………...…..…...107 4.3.2 The Pragmatic Functions of Predicative Adjectives……………….….…..110 4.3.3 The Pragmatic Functions of Adverbial Adjectives ....……………..….…..113 4.3.4 The Pragmatic Functions of Complement Adjectives……………..….…..117 4.4 Adjectives of Various Pragmatic Functions: Distributions in Spoken Discourse .................................................................................................................120 4.5 Summary............................................................................................................124 Chapter 5 Adjectival Evaluation as Reference-Point Constructions......................126 5.1 Introduction.......................................................................................................126 5.2 Adjectival Evaluation as Reference-Point Constructions..................................128 5.2.1 Reference Points and Reference-Point Constructions................................128 5.2.2 Adjectival Evaluation as Reference-Point Constructions...........................131
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