A Discourse Analysis of Cantonese sin~1(先) in Sentence-final Position

Abstract

本文對香港大學香港粵語口語語料庫中出現在句末的“先”字進行考察 ,并從話語結構的角度加以分析。研究發現 ,句末的“先”有兩類 ,一類可還原成普通話的“先” ,另一類不能還原。不能還原的“先”主要的功能是充當話語標記 ,標示話語中暫時需要打斷的地方 ,是一種會話管理的手段。這種較新的用法應該是由表示時間或次序先后的副詞“先”演變而來的。

An investigation of the word sin 1 in a corpus of naturally occurring Cantonese conversations reveals that it has a range of uses which are best understood in terms of discourse structure. The many uses of sin 1 can be classified into two main kinds. The first kind is where it can be translated into Putonghua with the use of either cai 2 or xian 1. The other kind cannot be easily translated into Putonghua. Here, sin 1 is used as a discourse marker, signaling points in a discourse or conversation at which interruption for one reason or anotheroccurs. This use of sin 1 as a means of conversational management has probably come about as a result of the grammaticalization of the adverb sin1 which indicates several meanings relating to time and order.