A Pragmatic Approach To Sentence-final Particles In The Bai Language

This research has made a tentative study of sentence-final particles in the Bai language from the perspective of Linguistic Regulation Theory (Huo 2004), which studies how people use language to regulate their social behavior and maintain or improve harmony of different kinds involved therein. By applying such a pragmatic theory to the present study, we attempt to establish a conceptual framework for making pragmatic analysis of the Bai sentence-final particles.Based on Linguistic Regulation Theory, we propose sentence-final particles as pragmatic strategies in communication. Having analyzed a corpus of about 200 data collected from the natural setting, we find that sentence-final particles occur in assertives, expressives, commissives and directives. They serve as mitigating devices and boosting devices in various speech acts, which help the Bai people to regulate the force of utterances and social behavior for keeping social harmony.The research has also led to findings supporting the conceptual framework. First, sentence-final particles occur in speech acts, conveying attitude and emotions to the utterance and the addressee. Secondly, sentence-final particles as pragmatic strategies serve to regulate the force of utterances and human social behavior for communicative interaction and interpersonal relationships. Thirdly, indispensable participation of the Bai culture flows into the usage of sentences, which results in choices of sentence-final particles in daily conversation. Therefore, sentence-final particles play important roles in the Bai language and the Bai socity.