The Subjectivity of Adjectives in Spoken Mandarin

Ph.DDOCTOR OF PHILOSOPH

A CORPUS-BASED CONTRASTIVE ANALYSIS OF SADNESS EXPRESSIONS IN ENGLISH AND CHINESE

Ph.DDOCTOR OF PHILOSOPH

The Use of Perspective Markers and Connectives in Expressing Subjectivity: Evidence from Collocational Analyses

This study explores how subjectivity is expressed in coherence relations, by means of a distinctive collocational analysis on two Chinese causal connectives: the specific subjective kejian ‘so’, used in subjective argument-claim relations, and the underspecified suoyi ‘so’, which can be used in both subjective argument-claim and objective cause-consequence relations. On the basis of both Horn’s pragmatic Relation and Quality principles and the Uniform Information Density Theory, we hypothesized that the presence of other linguistic elements expressing subjectivity in a discourse segment should be related the degree of subjectivity encoded by the connective. In line with this hypothesis, the association scores showed that suoyi is more frequently combined with perspective markers expressing epistemic stance: cognition verbs and modal verbs. Kejian, which already expresses epistemic stance, co-occurred more often with perspective markers related to attitudinal stance, such as markers of expectedness and importance. The paper also pays attention to similarities and differences in collocation patterns across contexts and genres

Language Variation and Social Identity in Beijing

PhDThis thesis investigates language variation among a group of young adults in Beijing, China, with an aim to advance our understanding of social meaning in a language and a society where the topic is understudied. In this thesis, I examine the use of Beijing Mandarin among Beijingborn university students in Beijing in relation to social factors including gender, social class, career plan, and future aspiration. Language variation in this context can further our understanding of Chinese culture in a newlyreformed society while exploring important constructs such as gender and aspiration in China, in part by establishing the social meaning of the local vernacular and its role in identity construction among speakers. The study presents data from both sociolinguistic interviews, conducted with 21 Beijingers who have di erent class backgrounds, career plans, and future aspiration, and self-recordings, from a subset of 10 Beijingers in conversation with their family and/or friends. I focus on three thus far under-examined linguistic variables { neutral tone, classi er omission, and intensi er te { while incorporating an additional variable { erhua (word- nal rhotacisation) in the discussion of stylistic variation in Beijing Mandarin. The results rst provide an overview of language variation in Beijing Mandarin, as shown in the use of di erent features and their linguistic and social constraints. We observe familiar patterns often found in sociolinguistic literature for some social factors (e.g. gender), while more complex interactions exist for others (e.g. aspiration and career path). The ndings suggest that Beijing Mandarin conveys localness and masculinity which is expected for a vernacular variety. Finer distinctions in the social meanings of these variables are found in sub-groups of Beijingers with di erent gender, future career path and/or aspiration. Moreover, speakers are seen to utilise these variables and their meanings in the construction of personae.Economic and Social Research Council and Queen Mary, University of Londo

Modal auxiliaries in learning and teaching Chinese as a second language

Chinese modal auxiliary is one of the most important language elements in the Chinese language. Therefore, to effectively and efficiently fulfil the communicative purpose, learning modal auxiliaries is necessary for second language learners. However, modal auxiliaries are still a) a comparatively weak point in Chinese research as well as b) a challenge for foreign students who learn Chinese as a foreign language. To lay a theoretical foundation for the later empirical study: this study constructs a new definition and categorisations of Chinese modal auxiliaries; 13 Chinese modal auxiliaries are thoroughly studied; a comparison between Chinese modal auxiliaries and English modal verbs is explored; errors that the students made in the application of Chinese modal auxiliaries are analysed, categorised and summarised; the deep reasons behind the errors are explored from a syntactic and pedagogical perspective. The study proves that explicit instructions from the language instructors are a critical countermeasure against CMA application difficulties. Interaction with peers and language partners benefits L2 learners’ acquisition of the second language. After-class exercises and corrective feedback from language instructors are supplementary solutions. And the study points out that language instructors have attached great importance to the unique grammatical structures of the Chinese modal auxiliaries, suggesting that the semantics of different Chinese modal auxiliaries should be the instructional focus in future teaching practice

Manuais de utilizador de eletrodomésticos português/chinês: linguagem controlada e a construção de um modelo integral

Os eletrodomésticos constituem um dos mais importantes produtos de importação e exportação em Portugal e na China. Os manuais de utilizador dos eletrodomésticos (MUE) têm as características de precisão e concisão e pertencem a um género textual específico. Sendo representantes típicos dos textos de comunicação técnica, merecem ser estudados. Esta tese toma os MUE em português (PT) e chinês (CN) como objeto de investigação, constituindo os corpora comparáveis. O enquadramento teórico é baseado nos quadros da Linguística Sistémico-Funcional, Linguística de Corpus e Linguística Comparativa, tendo como objetivo básico identificar a linguagem controlada necessária à construção robusta de modelos de MUE, utilizando as metodologias de investigação qualitativa e quantitativa, de investigação em corpora, de Análise Linguística Comparativa e Análise Discursivo-Funcional, principalmente na perspetiva da análise do género textual, da análise de registos de língua e da análise do discurso multimodal. Visa fazer análises discursivas comparativas dos MUE em PT e CN nas perspetivas da macroestrutura, da microestrutura e da multimodalidade. A macroestrutura refere-se às estruturas que formam o género textual, incluindo conteúdos e sequências estruturais; a microestrutura relaciona-se com as formas estruturadas de expressão da linguagem textual, tais como tipologia da linguagem, morfologia, terminologia, sintaxe etc.; a multimodalidade diz respeito à análise de conteúdo não textual, incluindo sinais, desenhos, diagramas, fotos e layouts, entre outros. Espera-se poder contribuir para o desenvolvimento de um modelo conciso de manuais de eletrodomésticos PT/CN e para o controlo das línguas portuguesa e chinesa neste género textual, de modo a dar apoio à comunicação técnica neste âmbito. A tese estabelece bases para as empresas de eletrodomésticos chinesas e portuguesas produzirem MUE mais eficazes, ajudando os respetivos técnicos a simplificar o processo da sua elaboração, fornecendo ao mesmo tempo referência e metodologia para beneficiar outros tipos de manuais técnicos, o que é, em certa medida, favorável ao avanço da tradução automática PT/CN em prol da promoção da importação e exportação de eletrodomésticos entre a China e Portugal.Home appliances are one of the most important import and export products in Portugal and China. The user manuals of household appliances must have the characteristics of precision and conciseness, genre specificity, and are typical representations of technical communication texts, which are worth studying. The thesis takes user manuals of household appliances PT/CN as the object of investigation, which constitute the comparable corpora. The theoretical framework is based on Systemic-Functional Linguistic theory, Corpus Linguistic Theory, and Comparative Linguistic Theory, with the basic aim of controlling the language and model-building, using the methodologies of qualitative and quantitative research applied to corpus research, the methodology of Comparative Linguistic Analysis, and methods of Functional Discourse Analysis (mainly from the perspective of Genre Analysis, Register Analysis, and Multimodal Discourse Analysis). It aims to perform Comparative Discourse Analysis of user manuals of household appliances generated in Portuguese/Chinese from the macrostructural, microstructural and multimodal perspectives: the macrostructure is the structures that form the textual genre, including contents and sequences; microstructure is the structure of expression of textual language, such as language typology, morphology, terminology, syntax; multimodality is the analysis of non-textual content, including signs, drawings, diagrams, photos, layouts, among others. The work can contribute to the development of a complete model of PT/CN appliance manuals for the control of PT/CN language in this textual genre, thus supporting technical communication. The thesis lays the foundation for Chinese and Portuguese appliance companies to produce more effective user manuals of household appliances, which can help technical writers from Portuguese and Chinese companies to simplify the writing process and a model, while providing reference and methodology to benefit other types of Portuguese/Chinese technical manuals. To some extent, it will promote the development of the import and export dynamics of electrical appliances between China and Portugal.Programa Doutoral em Tradução e Terminologi

Investigating BBC’s and FT’s operations in China through comparison between their Chinese and English online news portals

This study addresses the issue of overseas news production of foreign news media when they enter the market of the Mainland China. By making an in-depth investigation of BBC’s and the FT’s operations in China and comparing the news texts of the two news media’s Chinese online portals with that of their British online portals, differences in terms of narratives, semantics, plot emphasis, and ideologies are identified and analysed, thus revealing the cross-cultural behaviour patterns of the two prominent British news media in terms of balancing between British journalistic ideology and Chinese regulations, western journalistic style and Chinese readers’ tastes, and between moral standards and commercial profit. The four online portals are compared through three Chinese news events that took place in the year 2012: the downfall of Chinese high ranking official Bo Xilai; the large-scale anti-Japan protests in the summer of 2012; and Chinese writer Mo Yan winning the Nobel Prize for Literature. The three news events covered the fields of politics, economy, society and culture. The investigating methods include quantitative analysis and framing analysis of the news reports on the three news events produced by the four online portals, translation study of the translated news reports of the four online portals and semi-structured interviews with journalists and editors of BBC Chinese and the FT. The central argument is that BBC and the FT act differently in China and in the UK so as to cater to local media markets on many aspects including journalistic practice, coverage of local news, and media policy. Such changes in some cases do not remain consistent with their claims to represent the same news media. Consequently, the Chinese branches of the two prominent British news media become neither a British journalistic ideology carrier nor a copycat of a Chinese native news producer but rather a mixture of both cultures

The organization of primary care consultations (acute visits) in Chinese public hospitals

This research is one of the first studies of Chinese primary care doctor-patient communication. The study collected a large data corpus of video-recorded acute-visit consultations from two outpatient clinics of an ordinary Chinese hospital. The analysis uses primarily conversation analysis (CA) method to uncover the moment-by-moment interactional and sequential patterns during primary care encounters; in doing so, contributing to our understanding of the social organization of Chinese primary care medicine