An evolutionary approach to semasiological change : Overt influence attempts through the development of the Mandarin 吧-ba particle

Tantucci, Vittorio (2017) An evolutionary approach to semasiological change : Overt influence attempts through the development of the Mandarin 吧-ba particle. Journal of Pragmatics, 120. pp. 35-53. ISSN 0378-2166

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Abstract

This paper focuses on the pragmatics of overt influence attempts (cf. Reich, 2011, 2012; Tantucci, 2016a) and their cognitive relationship with semasiological change. As a case study, the present analysis is centred on the recent history of the Mandarin 吧-ba sentence-final particle, starting from the Qing Dynasty (1644--1911) up to its present day usage. Corpus-based data from the CCL Peking corpus highlight a progressive shift from an original directive usage towards a later assertive employment. In the latter case, speaker/ writer ‘invites’ addressee/reader to agree with his/her statement on the basis of what is ‘socially’ or ‘interpersonally’ expected to be true/ sensible. The cooperatively ‘expected action’ originally prompted by the particle, will then turn into cooperatively ‘expected certainty’ in later usages. From an evolutionary-psychological angle, at every stage of the cline it emerges the speaker/writer's consistent attempt to exert social influence on addressee/reader in the form of an ‘interested’ co-act proposal (cf. Reich, 2011; Tantucci, 2016b). Crown Copyright © 2017 Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Item Type:
Journal Article
Journal or Publication Title:
Journal of Pragmatics
Additional Information:
This is the author’s version of a work that was accepted for publication in Journal of Pragmatics. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. A definitive version was subsequently published in Journal of Pragmatics, 120, 2017 DOI: 10.1016/j.pragma.2017.08.006
Uncontrolled Keywords:
/dk/atira/pure/subjectarea/asjc/1200/1203
Subjects:
?? evolutionary psychologylanguage changepragmaticsmandarinintersubjectivityspeech actsepistemologycognitive linguisticslanguage and linguisticsartificial intelligencelinguistics and languagediscipline-based research ??
ID Code:
87727
Deposited By:
Deposited On:
13 Sep 2017 10:22
Refereed?:
Yes
Published?:
Published
Last Modified:
28 Feb 2024 00:59