Xia Guo
College of Foreign Languages and Cultures, Sichuan University
Qing Lai
Chengdu College of Arts and Sciences
Ranhou 'then' is traditionally defined as a conjunction, indicating succession of two events. Adopting the methodology of Interactional Linguistics, this study explores semantic relations of ranhou in Mandarin face-to-face and telephone conversations. An examination of the data shows that besides succession, ranhou can express other nine semantic relations, including causality, progression relation, coordinating relation, adversative relation, additive relation, enumeration, hypothesis, alternative relation, concession and be no practical meaning as well. Meanwhile, prosodic features of ranhou are explored with the help of software Praat and Audacity. It is suggested that eleven semantic relations vary in mean pitch range and mean length. Although each token of ranhou differs from each other in prosody, with respect to loudness, ranhou can be stressed on ran, or hou and also be articulated without loudness. But in a whole, loudness of ranhou is mostly put on hou.
Couper-Kuhlen E and Selting M (2018) Interactional Linguistics: Studying Language in Social Interaction. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Cruttenden A (1997) Intonation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp.2.
Du Bois JW, Schuetze-Coburn S, Cumming S, et al. (1993) An outline of discourse transcription. In: Edwards JA and Lampert MD (eds) Talking Data: Transcription and Coding in Discourse Research. Hillsdale, NJ.: Lawrence Erlbaum, pp.45–89.
Edmondson W (1981) Spoken Discourse: A Model for Analysis. London and New York: Longman.
Fang M (2000) Discourse marker function of weakening conjunctions in natural occurring conversation. Chinese Language (05): 459–470.
Iwasaki S (2009) Initiating interactive turn spaces in Japanese conversation: Local projection and collaborative action. Discourse Processes (46): 226–246.
Iwasaki S (2013) Emerging units and emergent forms of participation within a unit in Japanese interaction: local organization at a finer level of granularity. In: Reed BS and Raymond G (eds) Units of Talk: Units of Action. Amsterdam: John Benjamins, pp.243–276.
Liu H (2004) Analysis of Conversational Structure. Beijing: Peking University Press, pp.46.
Lu P, Lee WJ and Tao HY (2014) Discourse properties of some special sound elements and their transcription treatment. Linguistic Sciences 13(2): 113–130.
Sacks H, Schegloff EA and Jefferson G (1974) A simplest systematics for the organization of turn-taking for conversation. Language 50(4): 696–735.
Selting M (2000) The construction of units in conversational talk. Language in Society 29(4): 477–517.
Su L (1998) Grounding and Coherence in Chinese Discourse. Taipei: Crane.
Tao HY (1996) Units in Mandarin Conversation: Prosody, Discourse, and Grammar. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company.
Tao HY (2001) Fundamentals in spoken language research. Linguistic Sciences 3(1): 50–67.
Tao HY (ed) (2016) Integrating Chinese Linguistic Research and Language Teaching and Learning. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company.
Wang YF (1998) The functions of ranhou in Chinese oral discourse. In: Lin H (ed) Processing of the 9th North American Conference on Chinese Linguistics. Los Angeles: GSIL, University of Southern California, pp. 380–397.
Wang W (2018) Discourse uses and prosodic properties of ranhou in spontaneous Mandarin. Chinese Language and Discourse 9(1): 1–25.
Xing FY (2001) A Study of Chinese Complex Sentences. Beijing: The Commercial Press.
Xu JJ (2009) The discourse marker RANHOU and its functions in spoken Chinese. Foreign Languages Research 114(2): 9–15.
Zhu DY (2017) Default semantics construction of the conversational narrative marker “Ranhou”. Foreign Language Research (05): 50–57.
Copyright © 2021 Xia Guo, Qing Lai
This is an open access article under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
