On the Chinese Interactional Particle ba
Abstract
In this paper,we analyzed the discourse functions of particle ba in natural spoken Chinese. Based on the phenomena which we observed, we deal with the particle ba as a marker of alignment. We also demonstrated how ba contextualizes participant's mutual interactional alignment as a relevant concern that must be adjusted over the developing course of ongoing interaction. The alignment will be set up between the participants if the speaker compromise on what the listener want to do by an imperative sentence with ba, or if the speaker let listener to judge what the speaker said true or not by an interrogative sentence with ba or a declarative sentence with ba.This paper also claims that ba which is used for building on-line alignment always occur in the beginning and final position of turns. And the beginning one is always used for initiating a new turn to ask participant's advice, while the final one for answering response.
Key words
ba;on-line alignment;interactional marker;discourse analysis