回复: 求hilip, M.K.的a study of discorde markers in japanese conversation
A functional study of Japanese discourse marker- ano
Yan Wang (ywang34@wisc.edu)
University of Wisconsin-Madison
http://japanese.gatech.edu/seatj/Abstracts-2005/Wang2.pdf
An expanding body of research deals with discourse markers, the expressions which have
emotive or expressive functions rather than referential functions (Holker, 1991). However, the
studies on Japanese discourse markers have been focused on sentence-final particles while
paying little attention to so-called “fillers”. Among the few studies, Cook (1992, 1993) claims
that the “filler” ano functions as a positive politeness marker, directly indexing “affective
common ground”. In contrast, this paper argues that affective alignment cannot account for all
the distinct uses of ano. Rather, ano primarily serves as an informational uncertainty marker as
well as an interactional hesitation marker in conversation, and displays multiple pragmatic
functions in various contexts. The purpose of this paper is to provide a more extensive account of
the functions of ano from both cognitive and social aspects.
The database of this study consists of a Japanese native speakers?? presentation, a Japanese
seminar, a TA meeting and two casual conversations. Among the 221 tokens of ano, the analysis
focuses on two subjects who display contrastive distribution of the usage of ano in situations
with different levels of formalities and/or toward addressees with different power/intimacy
relationships. The data findings show that ano tends to occur in contexts in which speakers
introduce new topics, make requests, give negative assessments, disagree with the interlocutor,
give personal propositions, provide complicated explanation or recall past experiences. Also,
remarkably, ano tends to co-occur with uncertain or hedge expressions, such as maa (well),
nanka (like), nan to iu ka (What to say), soo desu ne (let’s see) and is frequently used
immediately prior to English lexicons.
Upon close analysis of different types of examples, the multiple functions of ano are
summarized as follows:
1) as an information highlighter and attention getter, serves to draw the hearer’s attention to
the essential points in the speaker’s talk;
2) as an affective sharedness elicitor and positive politeness marker, used to mitigate facethreatening
acts (Brown & Levison, 1987) such as disagreements by marking the information as
“known” or “shared” and thereby eliciting the addressee’s affective feeling;
3) as an uncertainty indicator and floor keeper, used to mark the insufficiency or uncertainty of
the information, and keep the current turn when the speaker fails to immediately provide a
correct lexical item;
4) as a hesitation marker and negative politeness strategy, used to avoid an imposing
impression when speakers propose personal opinions, give negative responses or make requests.
Therefore, on one hand, the original semantic meaning of alignments as a demonstrative
adjective leaves a trace in the usages of the filler ano, qualifying it to mark informational
sharedness and thereby to contribute to interactional rapport. On the other hand, ano also
functions for speakers to show hesitant or reserved attitudes in the contexts where cognitive
uncertainty is involved or where potential interactional problems exist. In such case, ano has lost
its original semantic meaning and transformed to an uncertainty or hesitation marker. In either
case, the informational functions provide base for the interactional functions.