Abstracts of the Chinese papers in English
Authors: Mingqiang Zhou 
Published: May 2015

Pragmatic function and cognitive characteristics of discourse markers of complaints

Discourse markers of complaints, mainly including ‘zhēnshì/yě zhēnshì’ (‘really / is really’), ‘zhēnshìde /yě zhēnshìde’ (‘really / is really’), ‘hébì ne’ (‘why bother’), ‘hékǔ ne’ (‘why bother’), ‘zhìyù mā’ (‘need you …’), ‘nǐ kàn nǐ’ (‘look at you’), ‘bù shì wǒ shuō nǐ’ (‘I want to remind you’), ‘bù shì wǒ V nǐ’ (‘I want to VERB you’), ‘kàn / qiáo nǐ shuōde’ (‘well, listen to you’), ‘nǐ zhè ge / zhè zhǒng rén a’ (‘oh, the likes of you’), ‘zài zěnme shuō’ (‘anyway’), etc., express complaint feelings.

The pragmatic frame of discourse markers of complaints includes WHOM, WHY and WHAT, among which WHOM and WHAT are two vital factors. People usually complain in three cases: first is to complain behind the back of an interlocutor, which is graver than the second, to complain face to face; third is to complain about oneself, which is usually in a light way or just to boast with sly humor. The cause of complaints is sometimes identical to the content to be complained about, including complaining interlocutors’ behavior and its consequences, interlocutors’ thought and speech, among which the complaints about interlocutors’ behaviors and its consequences are more common than the complaints about interlocutors’ thought and speech. Different discourse markers of complaints might intensify, weaken or even alleviate the complaining feelings. Depending on different complaining interlocutors and the content to be complained about, the speakers choose corresponding discourse markers of complaints to make the complaining content fit their feelings. The sentiments of complaints can be classified into following categories: the first is a self-compliment, a false complaint concealing actual praise; the second is caring displeasure, a tender complaint with sympathy, friendliness and affection to remind the addresser of inappropriateness; the third is blaming in different degrees, a complaint of criticism with an excuse in a stern tone, or that of disapproval with no excuse in the same tone, or that of mocking in a teasing tone, as well as that of self-reproach, of persuasion, of rejection, of marked ellipsis with no gist and ground of the blame, etc. The sentiments of complaint may be expressed with the marked speech with criticism and blame at the fore, while the marked speech is indispensible from the changeable context of complaints due to a wide variety of complainees.

The objects to be complained about can be the interlocutors, the speaker him/herself and the facts. When the object to be complained about is the interlocutor, the speaker may complain to them face to face, or behind their back; when an object to be complained about is facts, the complaints will be with a lighter tone, and only with comments and descriptions on the facts; when the object to be complained about is the speaker him/herself, the complaints will be with lightest tone. The discourse markers of complaints are usually used in the negative contexts, mainly by 4 means: first is to use negative sentences, second is to use contrast expressions, third is to use rhetorical questions, fourth is to use some other special expression, such as Chinese idioms ‘duì niú tán qín’ (‘play the lute to a cow’), ‘diū rén xiàn yǎn’ (‘disgraced’) etc., or commentary adverbs, such as ‘chàdiǎner’ (‘almost’), ‘jiǎnzhí’ (‘simply’), ‘lǎoshì’ (‘always’), ‘hébì’ (similar to ‘why must...’)，or sentence constructions with negative connotation, such as ‘lián…dōu’，‘gēnběn bù…’，‘yě tài…’ etc. When discourse markers are used in the negative contexts, the scale of complaining tone is like this (from heavy to light): rhetorical question sentence ＞ negative sentence ＞ contrast sentence ＞ other sentence.

To choose the right discourse markers of complaints, the speakers must correctly understand the functions of the corresponding discourse markers. Meanwhile, listeners can catch the speakers’ real implication by seizing the characteristics of the discourse markers of complaints.

The discourse markers of complaints can be researched in terms of the following aspects: the impacts of contexts, the common and distinct functions of the complaint markers, and the convergence of cognition on the pragmatic function.