International Journal of Knowledge www.ijklp.org and Language Processing KLP International ⓒ2014 ISSN 2191-2734 Volume 5, Number 3, 2014 pp.31–-50 The Pragmatic Functions of Turning Discourse Markers: “Danshi(但是)”,“Keshi(可是)” and “Buguo(不过)” Zhang Wei International College of Chinese Studies Shanghai Normal University Shanghai, 200234, China [email protected] Selected Paper from Chinese Lexical Semantic Workshop 2014 ABSTRACT. In the traditional sense, the conjunction such as “danshi(但是)”, “keshi(可 是)”and “buguo(不过)”,etc. They have little real value semantics and play pragmatic functions in discourse in certain contexts. In this paper, we make a more comprehensive and in-depth analysis of the turning discourse markers as the representative of the words’ pragmatic functions such as discourse organization and convergence, topic or turns conversion and attention causing, etc. Meanwhile, their formation mechanisms and cognitive foundation are included in the paper. Keywords: semantic reduction; Discourse Markers; pragmatic functions; mechanism of formation; cognitive basis 1. Introduction. The consensus of disjunctive relation studies is that the clauses of disjunctive compound sentences are semantically opposite. The disjunctive connective markers include disjunctive conjunctions (eg. “danshi/ dan”, “keshi/ke”, “buguo”, “ran’er” etc.) and adverbs (eg. “que”, “dao” etc.). Academic explorations and researches have already acquired lots of achievements, however most of them focus on the disjunctive words’ functions when expressing truth value semantic relationship in disjunctive compound sentences. By the corpus-based investigation, it’s carried out that in some contexts those disjunctive conjunctions, which express the traditional meaning, such as “danshi”, “keshi” and “buguo” etc., barely have truth value semantics relationship themselves. They produce influence only when speakers express their communicative intentions, and mainly play the pragmatic function. During the long-term and frequent using process, their original semantics fade out while their pragmatic values reveal and display certain regularity. The examples in this paper contain both written and spoken language. Narrations and The paper is supported by the Projects of National Social Science（13CYY035） and the Innovation Projects of Shanghai Municipal Education Commission（12ZS131）. 31 dialogues from novels of modern and contemporary writers, conversations from plays, spoken language research datum, TV interviews and recorded daily conversations are all included. 2. The Pragmatic Function of the Disjunctive Discourse Markers “Danshi”, “Keshi” and “Buguo”. As mentioned in “Xiandai Hanyu BaBai Ci” (800 words from Modern Chinese), the explanations of these words are: Danshi [conj.] denoting a transition in meaning and educing opposite meaning from the above contexts, limiting or supplying the above contexts. It can connect clauses or sentences as well as conjunctions, phrases and paragraphs. The part to be emphasized is positioned after “danshi”. Keshi [conj.] denoting disjunctive meaning; but Buguo [conj.] denoting disjunctive meaning but the degree is lighter. It is more likely to be used in spoken language. In practical use, these words have grammaticalized tendency at different degree, which manifest as the logical semantic disjunctive relationship weakening or even fading away. For example: (1) 这就是“惩前毖后”的意思。但是我们揭发错误批判缺点的目的，好像医生治 病一样，完全是为了救人，而不是把人整死。（转引自杨月蓉 2000） Zhè jiùshì “Chéngqiánbìhòu” de yìsi. Dànshì wǒmen jiēfā cuòwù pīpàn quēdiǎn de mùdì, hǎoxiàng yīshēng zhìbìng yíyàng, wánquán shì wèile jiùrén, ér búshì bǎ rén zhěngsǐ. This is the meaning of “learning from the past mistakes and avoiding future ones”. But (danshi) the purpose why we exposed mistakes and criticized weaknesses are just like seeing doctors. It is about saving people’s life rather than killing people. (Quoting from Yang Yuerong, 2000) In Yang Yuerong’s opinion, “danshi” in this sentence doesn’t mean the turning in meaning but the turning in mood. Zhang Jianjun, Wu Chang’an (2010) claim that the disjunctive attributes of “danshi2” should be [+ markedness].it marks the semantic emphasis of the words after it. In this paper, we marked the part before “danshi” as p while the part after as q. Therefore in (1) q is the further interpretation of p. If “danshi” is replaced by “huanyanzhi/ huanjuhuashuo” or directly omitted, the meaning of the sentence remain the same. (1)’ 这就是“惩前毖后”的意思。我们揭发错误批判缺点的目的，好像医生治 病一样，完全是为了救人，而不是把人整死。（转引自杨月蓉 2000） Zhè jiùshì “chéngqiánbìhòu” de yìsi. Wǒmen jiēfā cuòwù pīpàn quēdiǎn de mùdì, hǎoxiàng yīshēng zhìbìng yíyàng, wánquán shì wèile jiùrén, ér búshì bǎ rén zhěngsǐ. This is the meaning of “learning from the past mistakes and avoiding future ones”. The purpose why we exposed mistakes and criticized weaknesses are just like seeing doctors. It is about saving people’s life rather than killing people. In fact, “danshi” here has already been tokenized as a discourse marker. It is corresponding to “in fact” or “in other words” in English. Fang Mei (2000: 459) points out that in the practical natural intercourse, quite lot conjunctions only serve as the cohesion, 32 which assists discourse units rather than expresses truth value semantic relationship, such as logical semantic relationship and temporal sequence relationship etc. We call it semantic reduction. Through the investigation of both spoken and written language, we found that “keshi”, “buguo” are similar to “danshi”. They all undergo the semantic reduction or even grammaticalization. In order to show the source, we call them “disjunctive discourse marker” in this paper. Even though the disjunctive meaning of them are reduced even vanished. They make the discourse coherent and provide a clue of showing the communicative intention the conversations carry. Therefore we can tell that the main function of them is pragmatic function. Now we are making a detailed discussion about them. 2.1. “Danshi” and “Dan”. In the various logical relationships, disjunctive relation is the most unexpected one. Typically, p endows the listeners with high psychological expectations. Therefore q is the exact expressive emphasis, which can easily arouse the attention of listeners. Speakers can use “danshi”, “keshi” and “buguo” to attract the listeners’ attention and then make them concern about q so as to exhibit an obvious pragmatic function. The non-truth value semantic usages of “danshi” and “dan” are mainly manifested as attracting the attention, contrast or comparison, conversion of topics, inheritance or accompaniment etc. The analyses are as follows: Attracting Attention. (2) 我的腿力量已经不够，无法将球投入篮筐，我的投篮一直击中篮圈前沿。我马 上就感到很累，但是我命中率降低的最大原因，是我在比赛开始时就将投篮这只手的 食指弄伤了。（姚明《我的世界我的梦》，以下简称《梦》） Wǒde tuǐ lìliàng yǐjīng búgòu, wúfǎ jiāng qiú tóurù lánkuāng, wǒde tóulán yìzhí jīzhòng lánquān qiányán. Wǒ mǎshàng jiù gǎndào hěn lèi, dànshì wǒ mìngzhònglǜ jiàngdī de zuì dà yuányīn, shì wǒ zài bǐsài kāishǐ shí jiù jiāng tóulán zhè zhī shǒu de shízhǐ nòng shāng le. I didn’t have enough strength in my leg. I couldn’t shoot the ball into the hoop. My shooting always hit the rim edge. I felt so tired immediately but (danshi) the biggest reason why my hit rate was so low was that I hurt the forefinger of my shooting hand at the beginning of the game. (Yao Ming, My World My Dream, hereinafter referred to as Dream) (3) 我把其余的 150 个保存下来，以防万一她没有感动，我还可以再试。但是这些 玩意儿真的很好，当我累的时候，我看着它们就回想起那些有趣的奥运会经历，能够 使我不再那么疲劳。（《梦》） Wǒ bǎ qíyú de 150 gè bǎocún xiàlái, yǐfáng wànyī tā méiyǒu gǎndòng, wǒ hái kěyǐ zài shì. Dànshì zhè xiē wányìr zhēnde hěn hǎo, dāng wǒ lèi de shíhou, wǒ kànzhe tāmen jiù huì xiǎngqǐ nàxiē yǒuqù de Àoyùnhuì jīnglì, nénggòu shǐ wǒ búzài nàme píláo. I kept the rest 150 just in case that I could try it again if she was not touched. But (danshi) these stuffs were really good. When I was tired, they recalled my memories of those interesting experience in Olympics, which made me not feeling tired anymore. (Dream) (4) 牛月清说：“你还嫌他堕落得不够？”孟云房说：“但我可以说，在这个城里的文 化圈里，庄之蝶算是最好的！”（贾平凹《废都》，以下简称《都》） Niú Yuèqīng shuō: “Nǐ hái xián tā duòluò de búgòu?” Mèng Yúnfáng shuō: “Dàn wǒ 33 kěyǐ shuō, zài zhè ge chéngli de wénhuàquān li, Zhuāng Zhīdié suànshì zuìhǎo de!” Niu Yueqing said: “So you think he is not corrupting too much?” Meng Yunfang said: “But (dan) I can tell you that in this city’s cultural circle, Zhuang Zhidie is the best!” (Jia Pingwa, Evening Glow of an Imperial City, hereinafter referred to as City) (5) 他蹲在房檐下，一边往嘴里扒拉饭，一边在心里猜测：她之所以也常常最后来 取饭，原因大概和他一样。…… 但他对她的一切毫无所知。因为班上一天点一次名，他现在只知道她的名字叫郝红 梅。（路遥《平凡的世界》第一章，以下简称《平》） Tā dūn zài fángyán xià, yìbiān wǎng zuǐli bālā fàn, yìbiān zài xīnli cāicè: tā zhīsuǒyǐ yě chángcháng zuìhòu lái qǔ fàn, yuányīn dàgài hé tā yíyàng …… Dàn tā duì tā de yíqiè háowúsuǒzhī. Yīnwèi bān shang yì tiān diǎn yí cì míng, tā xiànzài zhǐ zhīdào tā de míngzi jiào Hǎo Hóngméi. He squatted under the cornice, eating and guessing: the reason why she was always the last one coming to get her meal was probably the same as his… But (dan) he knew nothing about her. The roll call was once a day, so the only thing he knew was her name “Hao Hongmei”. (Lu Yao, The Ordinary World, Chapter 1, hereinafter referred to as Ping) In example (2), the p before “danshi” is talking about Yao Ming’s inaccurate shooting, then the discourse marker “danshi” which is used to arouse the readers’ attention rather than referring to the truth value: the following q tells the exact reason. In example (3) “danshi” is also used to arouse the attention. It is used to indicate the advantage of keeping the Olympic badges: Yao Ming uses them to touch Ye Li. Here both “danshi” can be omitted; and the meaning of the sentences won’t be changed. “Dan” has the pragmatic function as well. In example (4) the two people in the conversation evaluated Zhuang Zhidie. Although Meng used “dan”, there is no disjunctive relation between Meng’s words and Niu’s words. It is used to arouse the listener and readers’ attention and state the view.