Pragmatic Functions Of Tag Questions In Chinese Doctor-Patient Interaction: A Case Study

Interrogatives in Mandarin Chinese have received quite extensive investigation from both formal and functional perspectives. However, among the different types of interrogatives, tag questions have received relatively scarce attention, despite the rich study of discourse functions of tag questions in English.This thesis reports on an empirical study of the forms and functions of tag questions in naturally occurring Chinese doctor-patient interaction from two perspectives: to check whether there is a gender difference in the doctors'use of tag questions and to see the status influence on the patients'use of tag questions.Based on a total of 7.44 hours of digital-tape recording from 73 Chinese medical interviews in which eight doctors (four males and four females) and their patients are involved, 414 tokens of tag questions are identified, categorized and analyzed. In quantitative analysis, a combined functional framework of Holmes (2001) and Algeo (1990) is adopted. Shao Jingmin's formal categories of Chinese tags (1996) are also used. In qualitative analysis, Brown and Levinson's politeness model (1987) provides a basis for understanding how the notion of face-threatening act (FTA) constrains the use of tag questions in medical setting. Based on the quantitative and qualitative analysis, the study has found:(1) Influenced by the professional role, there is no significant gender difference in the use of tag questions between male and female doctors. Male and female doctors use tag questions to effectively elicit information from the patients, summarize and confirm information, express empathy and feedback (positive politeness), and mitigate the treatment suggestions (negative politeness). However, there still exist some variations. For instance, male doctors take more time in giving information(diagnosis, treatment plan etc) , during which, often using tag questions to keep patients'attention and holding the floor by leaving no room for patients to answer. Female doctors employ more facilitative tag questions than male doctors to attract patients to talk, showing solidarity in affective level. For the use of Chinese tags, there is a high tendency to the use of"ba"-ended particle tags by male doctors (75%). Female doctors use A-not-A tags (17.94%),"ma"-ended particle tags (28.71%) and exclamatory tags (26.15%). The result suggests that women doctors'use of tag questions is more patient-centered.(2) By comparing the status influence on the use of tag questions between the doctors and patients, the result shows that the doctors use tag questions far more often than the patients (91.55% versus 8.45%); Facilitative tag questions are almost but not exclusively used by the doctors. 67.55% of the tags used by the doctors are particle tags (showing negative politeness to collect relevant information or negotiate treatment plan), while 62.86% of the tags used by the patients are A-not-A tags (showing positive politeness to get reassurance or permission from the doctors). Most of the tags of the doctors are in the final-position of the sentence, while 31.42% tags of the patients are in initial/middle position of the sentence. Chinese tags"Ming-bu-ming-bai","zhi-bu-zhi","zhi-dao-ba","zhi-mei"only occur in doctor's tag questions, while"ke-bu-ke-yi","yao-bu-yao","de-bu-de","hui-bu-hui"only occur in the patients'tags. The doctors use either falling or rising tone of tag questions to show control over interaction according to the situated context, while the patients'tone of tag questions is basically rising.Two issues could be set for follow-up future studies. First, the sequential positions of tag questions are flexible. Different positions seem to have different effects. Second, the common view that tag questions must have simple oral response seems to be a hasty conclusion. A lot of doctors'tag questions in this study leave no room for the patients to answer, and the doctors'response to the patients'tag questions is also flexible. An analysis of these phenomena will help to reveal more properties of tag questions in Chinese.