The Pragmatic Functions and Prosodic Features of the Sentence-Final Particle "ba" in the Imperatives

Dong Fangliang; Chen Xiangyue; He Rui

doi:doi:10.11648/j.cls.20180403.13

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The Pragmatic Functions and Prosodic Features of the Sentence-Final Particle "ba" in the Imperatives

Dong Fangliang, Chen Xiangyue, He Rui

Published in Communication and Linguistics Studies (Volume 4, Issue 3)

Received: 15 August 2018 Accepted: 11 September 2018 Published: 12 October 2018

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Abstract

"Ba" is one of the common used sentence-final particle in Chinese. This paper studies the spoken language of film and television drama to analyze and verify the pragmatic functions of “ba” by means of the multidimensional study of language form, meaning, pragmatics and phonetics. First, from the perspective of different category distribution of the imperative sentence, it probes into the distribution rules of “ba”, the co-occurrence with adverbs, auxiliary verbs etc, and reveals the grammatical meaning. Statistical analysis shows that the use of modal particles is the "marked form" of the imperative sentence. Among them, "ba" is the most frequently used, and its core meaning is "Suggestion Discussion". Secondly, through the semantic analysis of “ba” in terms of Discourse Politeness Theory, it concludes that “ba” can serve the purpose of softening the manner of speaking and the degree of courtesy/discourtesy. Thirdly, from the perspective of phonetic experiment, the phonetic features of the sentence-final particle "ba" under different functions, were observed and analyzed, which again verified the rationality of our pragmatic classification. Thus, it is proved that the elements of language do not exist in isolation, and the characteristics of function words such as sentence-final particle can be better revealed by studying them from the comprehensive perspective of form, meaning, pragmatics and phonetics.

Published in	Communication and Linguistics Studies (Volume 4, Issue 3)
DOI	10.11648/j.cls.20180403.13
Page(s)	80-87
Creative Commons	This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright	Copyright © The Author(s), 2024. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

Sentence-Final Particle, Function Distribution, Semantic Co-Occurrence

References

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[2]	Li Jinxi (1924), New Grammar of Modern Chinese. Changsha:Hunan Education Publishing House.
[3]	Wang Li (1943), Modern Grammar of Chinese. Beijing:The Commercial Press.
[4]	Zhao Yuanren (1979), A Grammar of Spoken Chinese. Beijing:The Commercial Press.
[5]	Zhu Dexi (1982), The Lecture Notes of Grammar. Beijing:The Commercial Press.
[6]	Lü Shuxiang (eds.) (2003), Eight Hundred Words of Modern Chinese Language. Beijing: The Commercial Press.
[7]	Qu Chengxi & Li Bin. Translating mod⁃ ern Chinese utterance-final particles into English:a case study of the discourse function of ba. Foreign Language Research. 2004, pp. 6.
[8]	Sun Rujian. Four functions of the toned words at the end of sentences. Journal of Nantong University (Social Sciences Edition). 2005, pp. 2.
[9]	Xu Jingning. Modality interpretation for the tone particle “ba”. Journal of Peking University (Philosophy and Social Sciences). 2003, pp. 4.
[10]	Zhang Xiaofeng (2003), A Discourse Analysis of Mood Particle ba, ne, and a in Mandarin Chinese. Ph.D. Thesis, Shanghai Normal University.
[11]	Zhao Chunli & Sun Li. On the distributional verification and semantic extraction of the sentence- final particle ba. Studies of the Chinese Language. 2015, pp. 2.
[12]	Hu Mingyang. Modal particle and interjection of Beijing dialect. Studies of the Chinese Language. 1981, pp. 5-6.
[13]	Lu Jianming, Interrogative particles in modern Chinese. Studies of the Chinese Language. 1984, pp. 5.
[14]	Ran Yongping. Pragmatic functions of the Chinese discourse marker ba and its contextual adaptability. Modern Foreign Language. 2004, pp. 4.
[15]	Usami Mayumi. The development of Discourse Politeness Theory1- 12. Gengo Selections. 2002, pp. 1.

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APA Style

Dong Fangliang, Chen Xiangyue, He Rui. (2018). The Pragmatic Functions and Prosodic Features of the Sentence-Final Particle "ba" in the Imperatives. Communication and Linguistics Studies, 4(3), 80-87. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.cls.20180403.13

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ACS Style

Dong Fangliang; Chen Xiangyue; He Rui. The Pragmatic Functions and Prosodic Features of the Sentence-Final Particle "ba" in the Imperatives. Commun. Linguist. Stud. 2018, 4(3), 80-87. doi: 10.11648/j.cls.20180403.13

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AMA Style

Dong Fangliang, Chen Xiangyue, He Rui. The Pragmatic Functions and Prosodic Features of the Sentence-Final Particle "ba" in the Imperatives. Commun Linguist Stud. 2018;4(3):80-87. doi: 10.11648/j.cls.20180403.13

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@article{10.11648/j.cls.20180403.13,
  author = {Dong Fangliang and Chen Xiangyue and He Rui},
  title = {The Pragmatic Functions and Prosodic Features of the Sentence-Final Particle "ba" in the Imperatives},
  journal = {Communication and Linguistics Studies},
  volume = {4},
  number = {3},
  pages = {80-87},
  doi = {10.11648/j.cls.20180403.13},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.cls.20180403.13},
  eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.cls.20180403.13},
  abstract = {"Ba" is one of the common used sentence-final particle in Chinese. This paper studies the spoken language of film and television drama to analyze and verify the pragmatic functions of “ba” by means of the multidimensional study of language form, meaning, pragmatics and phonetics. First, from the perspective of different category distribution of the imperative sentence, it probes into the distribution rules of “ba”, the co-occurrence with adverbs, auxiliary verbs etc, and reveals the grammatical meaning. Statistical analysis shows that the use of modal particles is the "marked form" of the imperative sentence. Among them, "ba" is the most frequently used, and its core meaning is "Suggestion Discussion". Secondly, through the semantic analysis of “ba” in terms of Discourse Politeness Theory, it concludes that “ba” can serve the purpose of softening the manner of speaking and the degree of courtesy/discourtesy. Thirdly, from the perspective of phonetic experiment, the phonetic features of the sentence-final particle "ba" under different functions, were observed and analyzed, which again verified the rationality of our pragmatic classification. Thus, it is proved that the elements of language do not exist in isolation, and the characteristics of function words such as sentence-final particle can be better revealed by studying them from the comprehensive perspective of form, meaning, pragmatics and phonetics.},
 year = {2018}
}

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TY  - JOUR
T1  - The Pragmatic Functions and Prosodic Features of the Sentence-Final Particle "ba" in the Imperatives
AU  - Dong Fangliang
AU  - Chen Xiangyue
AU  - He Rui
Y1  - 2018/10/12
PY  - 2018
N1  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.cls.20180403.13
DO  - 10.11648/j.cls.20180403.13
T2  - Communication and Linguistics Studies
JF  - Communication and Linguistics Studies
JO  - Communication and Linguistics Studies
SP  - 80
EP  - 87
PB  - Science Publishing Group
SN  - 2380-2529
UR  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.cls.20180403.13
AB  - "Ba" is one of the common used sentence-final particle in Chinese. This paper studies the spoken language of film and television drama to analyze and verify the pragmatic functions of “ba” by means of the multidimensional study of language form, meaning, pragmatics and phonetics. First, from the perspective of different category distribution of the imperative sentence, it probes into the distribution rules of “ba”, the co-occurrence with adverbs, auxiliary verbs etc, and reveals the grammatical meaning. Statistical analysis shows that the use of modal particles is the "marked form" of the imperative sentence. Among them, "ba" is the most frequently used, and its core meaning is "Suggestion Discussion". Secondly, through the semantic analysis of “ba” in terms of Discourse Politeness Theory, it concludes that “ba” can serve the purpose of softening the manner of speaking and the degree of courtesy/discourtesy. Thirdly, from the perspective of phonetic experiment, the phonetic features of the sentence-final particle "ba" under different functions, were observed and analyzed, which again verified the rationality of our pragmatic classification. Thus, it is proved that the elements of language do not exist in isolation, and the characteristics of function words such as sentence-final particle can be better revealed by studying them from the comprehensive perspective of form, meaning, pragmatics and phonetics.
VL  - 4
IS  - 3
ER  -

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Author Information

Dong Fangliang

College of Foreign Studies, Jinan University, Guangzhou, China
Chen Xiangyue

College of Foreign Studies, Jinan University, Guangzhou, China
He Rui

School of Translation Studies, Jinan University, Zhuhai, China

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Plain Text BibTeX RIS

APA Style

Dong Fangliang, Chen Xiangyue, He Rui. (2018). The Pragmatic Functions and Prosodic Features of the Sentence-Final Particle "ba" in the Imperatives. Communication and Linguistics Studies, 4(3), 80-87. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.cls.20180403.13

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ACS Style

Dong Fangliang; Chen Xiangyue; He Rui. The Pragmatic Functions and Prosodic Features of the Sentence-Final Particle "ba" in the Imperatives. Commun. Linguist. Stud. 2018, 4(3), 80-87. doi: 10.11648/j.cls.20180403.13

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AMA Style

Dong Fangliang, Chen Xiangyue, He Rui. The Pragmatic Functions and Prosodic Features of the Sentence-Final Particle "ba" in the Imperatives. Commun Linguist Stud. 2018;4(3):80-87. doi: 10.11648/j.cls.20180403.13

Copy | Download

@article{10.11648/j.cls.20180403.13,
  author = {Dong Fangliang and Chen Xiangyue and He Rui},
  title = {The Pragmatic Functions and Prosodic Features of the Sentence-Final Particle "ba" in the Imperatives},
  journal = {Communication and Linguistics Studies},
  volume = {4},
  number = {3},
  pages = {80-87},
  doi = {10.11648/j.cls.20180403.13},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.cls.20180403.13},
  eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.cls.20180403.13},
  abstract = {"Ba" is one of the common used sentence-final particle in Chinese. This paper studies the spoken language of film and television drama to analyze and verify the pragmatic functions of “ba” by means of the multidimensional study of language form, meaning, pragmatics and phonetics. First, from the perspective of different category distribution of the imperative sentence, it probes into the distribution rules of “ba”, the co-occurrence with adverbs, auxiliary verbs etc, and reveals the grammatical meaning. Statistical analysis shows that the use of modal particles is the "marked form" of the imperative sentence. Among them, "ba" is the most frequently used, and its core meaning is "Suggestion Discussion". Secondly, through the semantic analysis of “ba” in terms of Discourse Politeness Theory, it concludes that “ba” can serve the purpose of softening the manner of speaking and the degree of courtesy/discourtesy. Thirdly, from the perspective of phonetic experiment, the phonetic features of the sentence-final particle "ba" under different functions, were observed and analyzed, which again verified the rationality of our pragmatic classification. Thus, it is proved that the elements of language do not exist in isolation, and the characteristics of function words such as sentence-final particle can be better revealed by studying them from the comprehensive perspective of form, meaning, pragmatics and phonetics.},
 year = {2018}
}

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TY  - JOUR
T1  - The Pragmatic Functions and Prosodic Features of the Sentence-Final Particle "ba" in the Imperatives
AU  - Dong Fangliang
AU  - Chen Xiangyue
AU  - He Rui
Y1  - 2018/10/12
PY  - 2018
N1  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.cls.20180403.13
DO  - 10.11648/j.cls.20180403.13
T2  - Communication and Linguistics Studies
JF  - Communication and Linguistics Studies
JO  - Communication and Linguistics Studies
SP  - 80
EP  - 87
PB  - Science Publishing Group
SN  - 2380-2529
UR  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.cls.20180403.13
AB  - "Ba" is one of the common used sentence-final particle in Chinese. This paper studies the spoken language of film and television drama to analyze and verify the pragmatic functions of “ba” by means of the multidimensional study of language form, meaning, pragmatics and phonetics. First, from the perspective of different category distribution of the imperative sentence, it probes into the distribution rules of “ba”, the co-occurrence with adverbs, auxiliary verbs etc, and reveals the grammatical meaning. Statistical analysis shows that the use of modal particles is the "marked form" of the imperative sentence. Among them, "ba" is the most frequently used, and its core meaning is "Suggestion Discussion". Secondly, through the semantic analysis of “ba” in terms of Discourse Politeness Theory, it concludes that “ba” can serve the purpose of softening the manner of speaking and the degree of courtesy/discourtesy. Thirdly, from the perspective of phonetic experiment, the phonetic features of the sentence-final particle "ba" under different functions, were observed and analyzed, which again verified the rationality of our pragmatic classification. Thus, it is proved that the elements of language do not exist in isolation, and the characteristics of function words such as sentence-final particle can be better revealed by studying them from the comprehensive perspective of form, meaning, pragmatics and phonetics.
VL  - 4
IS  - 3
ER  -

Copy | Download