Proquest Dissertations
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Photographs included in the original manuscript have been reproduced xerographically in this copy. Higher quality 6" x 9" black and white photographic prints are available for any photographs or illustrations appearing in this copy for an additional charge. Contact UMI directly to order. Bell & Howell Information and Leaming 300 North Zeeb Road, Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 USA 800-521-0600 UMI’ FINAL PARTICLES IN STANDARD CANTONESE: SEMANTIC EXTENSION AND PRAGMATIC INFERENCE DISSERTAnON Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University By Roxana Suk-Yee Fung, M.A. ***** The Ohio State University 2000 Dissertation Committee: Approved by Professor Marjorie Chan, Adviser Professor Timothy Light Professor Galal Walker AcMsér Professor Jianqi Wang nt of East Asian Languages and Literatures UMI Number 9971549 Copyright 2000 by Fung, Roxana Suk-Yee All rights reserved. UMI UMI Microform9971549 Copyright 2000 by Bell & Howell Information and Leaming Company. All rights reserved. This microform edition is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17. United States Code. Bell & Howell Information and Leaming Company 300 North Zeeb Road P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 Copyright by Roxana Suk-Yee Fung 2000 ABSTRACT Standard Cantonese has a particularly rich inventory o f final particles. Final particles are bound morphemes situated at clause or sentence final position They are traditionally regarded as obligatory elements in utterances and their use in speech makes an utterance sound more lively and vivid. It is difficult to describe their meaning precisely since they usually exhibit a bewildering array o f senses of syntactic, semantic and pragmatic uses. Furthermore, standard Cantonese has a large number of phonologically similar particles with related meanings. These particles are interchangeable in some contexts but not in others. To capture the nuances among them is particularly challenging. Motivated by the limitations o f previous studies, this thesis attempts to explore the underlying context-independent semantic system of FPs and account for their surface contextual meanings. The current study examines the uses of twenty-five final particles based on a spoken Cantonese corpus. Particles that share the same initial are proposed to be conditioned manifestations belonging to the same particle family. Three particle families are analyzed, labeled here as Z-, L- and G- This thesis first characterizes the core semantic feature associated with each of the particle Amily The core feature for each particle family is shared by all the members, namely [-^-restrictive] for Z-, [-^realization of state] for L-, and [-«-situation given, +fbcus, -«-deictic] for G- The study then demonstrates how these context-independent meanings give rise to previously random-looking senses through semantic extension and pragmatic inference among various linguistic domains, such as sentential, prepositional, discourse, epistemic, speech act, de re and de dicto domains By constructing minimal pairs, co-occurrence restriction tests and felicity tests, the thesis proceeds to suggest a bundle of distinctive, functional primes that can distinguish a given manifestation from those of other members. This thesis provides, for the first time, a systematic account of a subset of final particles in modern standard Cantonese. It is believed the methodology developed in this thesis, with whatever further refinements and changes, can be extended to study the other FPs on the dialect in the future. Ill ACKNOWLEDGMENTS As a result of teaching while woridng on my dissertation, it took me nine years to complete my doctoral studies in Chinese linguistics. During this extended period, many people have given me a great deal of support To them I must offer my sincere thanks. First of all, I wish to express my deepest gratitude to my advisor Maijorie Chan. Without her unfailing encouragement 1 do not think I would have been able to start my career as a linguist and remain in academia. I thank her for awakening my interest in the interface of semantics and phonology of final particles in Standard Cantonese. We started our lively discussion early one evening on the particles zel and zekl. It is precisely on those two particles that my dissertation is built My advisor’s insightful comments and meticulous editing “held my hands” until the last stage of this work. In the process, she showed me how genuine scholarship is done. And I will also never forget our long days and sleepless nights poring over the final draft to make the Grad School deadline Interspersed among the serious discussions on linguistic analysis and IV on how to gloss and translate colloquial Cantonese sentences (e.g., steal a moment of chicken’), are the laughter, candlelight meals, midnight ice-cream treats, and many more ... I am especially indebted to my committee member, Timothy Light, who had spent a tremendous amount of time in reading my messy drafts. His extensive and valuable comments, his mercilessly frank but infinitely constructive criticisms, and his generous and encouraging email messages crucially shaped the revision of my original draft. My special thanks also go to him for taking time from his tremendously busy schedule at Western Michigan University to come to Columbus, Ohio, to participate in the dissertation defense. I am also deeply grateful to Galal Walker, who launched the Cantonese project at OSU. The project financially supported part of my graduate studies and, more importantly, exposed me to a vast amount of authentic Cantonese data. I am forever thankful for his is kind permission for me to use the Kaleidoscope materials for the present study. His support of my research on Cantonese final particles further extends to his enthusiasm and willingness to serve on my dissertation committee. r wfiuîti like to thank Jianqi wanu ibr availing hiiriMcif for iiiy dissertation committee on such short notice. My thanks to hnn tor valuable input during the defense My heartfelt thanks go also to James Tai, my former advisor who had taught me cognitive linguistics and functional grammar before moving back to Taiwan to found the Graduate Institute of Linguistics at National Chung Cheng University. Without his encouraging support during my early years at OSU, 1 may not have been able to begin work on Cantonese final particles. I would like to use this opportunity to also thank other former teachers in DEALL at OSU for their guidance, including Frank Hsueh, Yan-Shuan Lao, Robert Sanders, and Tim Wong I am especially grateful to our Graduate Secretary Debbie Knicely for her unfailing help in every aspect of my stay in Columbus and in taking care of all the defense procedures for me My thanks also go to Tim Chan and Peggy Wong, who helped along the way. No little thanks are due to my alumnae Xiaoqi Wu, Rongrong Liu, Fangyi Chao and Matthew Christensen of OSU. Without their caring friendships my stay in Columbus would not have been so pleasant. Special thanks go to Matthew Christensen VI of Brigham Young Univeisity for correcting and polishing my English. After moving back to Hong Kong in December 1996, I benefited greatly ft^om colleagues in Hong Kong. My thanks to Sam-Po Law for her moral support and many stimulating discussions; Thomas Lee, for sharing his published and unpublished findings; and Van Jiang for introducing me to Relevance Theory. Last but not least, I am very grateful to Kwan-Hin Chetmg, the department head of Chinese & Bilingual Studies of Hong Kong Polytechnic University, who had kindly reduced my teaching and administrative duties to enable me to write up the final draffs of my dissertation before retunung to Columbus for the defence. VII VITA 1987 ...........................................Diploma Chinese Literature & History, Hong Kong Shue Yan College, Hong Kong 1991 ...........................................M. A. History of Chinese Language, Peking University, PR China 1991- 1996 .................................Graduate Teaching and Research Associate, The Ohio State University 1996 - present ........................... Assistant Professor, Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong PUBLICATIONS Roxana Fung, Sam-Po Law, Michelle Yu and Peggy Wong. 1999. Virtual Tutorials in Phonology; A new approach to raise phonological awareness among Hong Kong students. Quality in Teaching & Leaming in Higher Education, 154-159. Hong Kong Polytechnic University. Roxana Fung, Sam-Po Law, Michelle Yu and Peggy Wong. 1999. Wangshang yuyin shiyanshi'