Semantic relations and prosodic features of ranhou in spontaneous Mandarin conversation

  • Qing Lai Chengdu College of Arts and Sciences
  • Xia Guo College of Foreign Languages and Cultures, Sichuan University
Ariticle ID: 727
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.18063/FLS.v3i1.1250
Keywords: ranhou; semantic relation; prosodic feature; spontaneous Mandarin conversation; Interactional Linguistics

Abstract

Ranhou ‘then’ is traditionally defined as a conjunction, indicating succession of two events. Adopting the methodology of Interactional Linguistics, this study explores semantic relations of ranhou in Mandarin face-to-face and telephone conversations. An examination of the data shows that besides succession, ranhou can express other nine semantic relations, including causality, progression relation, coordinating relation, adversative relation, additive relation, enumeration, hypothesis, alternative relation, concession and be no practical meaning as well. Meanwhile, prosodic features of ranhou are explored with the help of software Praat and Audacity. It is suggested that eleven semantic relations vary in mean pitch range and mean length. Although each token of ranhou differs from each other in prosody, with respect to loudness, ranhou can be stressed on ran, or hou and also be articulated without loudness. But in a whole, loudness of ranhou is mostly put on hou.

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Published
2020-09-07
How to Cite
Lai, Q., & Guo, X. (2020). Semantic relations and prosodic features of ranhou in spontaneous Mandarin conversation. Forum for Linguistic Studies, 3(1), 67-86. https://doi.org/10.18063/FLS.v3i1.1250
Issue
Vol. 3 No. 1 (2021)
Section
Article

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