A Comparative Study Of Chinese And English Adversative ACs From The Perspective Of Interactional Linguistics

Researches of Chinese and English adversative adverbial conjunctions have been the important project of grammar researches.In recent years,with the introduction of linguistic theories and improvement of research method,it shows the rapid growth in the research of adverbial conjunctions.As one kind of adverbial conjunctions,adversative adverbial conjunctions have been studied and explored abroad and at home from various perspectives,such as cognitive language,typology,applied linguistics.At the same time,the previous researches mostly are based on text,which emphasizes on the explanation of cohesive functions of adversative adverbial conjunctions.However,there are few researches on adversative adverbial conjunctions from the perspective of interactional linguistics,and the comparative researches of Chinese and English from the new perspective are much fewer.Therefore,based on the research status,the thesis aims to compare Chinese and English adversative adverbial conjunctions from the perspective of interactional linguistics.The corpora are elected from Chinese and American news interview programs,CCTV—One on One and FOX News—The O’Reilly Factor.The two talk shows are similar in characteristics,and they are high in the ratings with much popularity.On the basis of functional grammar and conversation analysis,the thesis applies to corpora-based approach,quantitative and qualitative approaches in order to compare Chinese and English adversative adverbial conjunctions.Firstly,the thesis investigates the frequency and distribution of adversative adverbial conjunctions in the spoken corpora,and finds their similarities and differences.In addition,based on the previous researches,we analyze interactional semantic relations of adversative adverbial conjunctions and the relations to presuppositions.Lastly,through the investigation of the corpora,we conclude the interactional functions and mechanisms of adversative ACs and their causes.Through the analysis of natural conversations,we find similarities and differences between Chinese and English adversative adverbial conjunctions in frequency,interactional semantic relations,interactional functions and the mechanisms.The main findings are as follows.Firstly,adversative adverbial conjunctions appear in Chinese spoken language with a higher frequency in that Chinese is always with most short sentences that belongs to the parataxis language.Secondly,Chinese and English adversative adverbial conjunctions mostly appear in the medial position of turns with the function of keeping turns,while the kind of words in the initial and final positions of turns are much fewer.Thirdly,adversative ACs can express various interactional semantic relations,which include negation,complementation,contrast and unexpectedness.In addition,adversative adverbial conjunctions present different features in presuppositions to which they are closely related.Fourthly,in communicative interaction,adversative adverbial conjunctions have the functions of focusing the information,transforming the theme,correcting the information and marking the speakers’ stances.Fifthly,adversative adverbial conjunctions can co-occur with other kinds of words,such as adversative conjunctions,non-adversative conjunctions,negative words,and other adverbial conjunctions.