Conversation analysis
In their introductory article to Conversation Analysis (CA), Wilkinson and Kitzinger (2011) mention six key structural features of talk-in-interaction:
 Turn-taking

Action formation
 Sequence organization
 Repair
 Word selection
 Overall structural organization
Presumably, if we follow this analytical model and obtain an anatomical view of the Chinese conversation, we will also get a highly desirable, overall understanding of the Chinese discourse. Thus, we will use the above components to examine some conversation data to see how much this model can help reveal the nature of Chinese talks. First we look at the turn-taking structures in Chinese conversations.
(1)
蔡康永： 請問 你 是 學生 嗎？ cai4kang1yong3 qing3wen4 ni3 shi4 xue2sheng1 ma5
‘Cai Kangyong’ ‘please-ask’ ‘you’ ‘are’ ‘student’ QM
‘Host: Please, are you a student?
柯柯： 休學 了。 ke1ke1 xiu1xue2 le5
‘Ke Ke’ ‘quit-school’ AM
‘Guest: I already quitted school’
蔡康永： 然後 你 在 做 甚麼？ cai4kang1yong3 ran2hou4 ni3 zai4 zuo4 she2mo5
‘Cai Kangyong’ ‘then’ ‘you’ AM ‘do’ ‘what’
‘Host: What do you do then?’
柯柯： 外送。 ke1ke1 wai4song4
‘Ke Ke’ ‘external-deliver’
‘Guest: I am a delivery boy’
(kx20130715)
Example (1) shows a clear turn-taking structure of Q-A-Q-A. When the host of the show finishes asking the first question (‘Are you a student’), it is clear signal for the guest named
Ke Ke to take over the floor. When the answer is succinctly given (‘I quitted school’), the host immediately asks the second question which is again answered succinctly without any substantial pause. All turn taking is conducted in a seamless fashion. The smoothness of turn taking in this dialogue is greatly helped by the Question-Answer structure, which is a kind of

adjacency pair. When the question is asked, a so-called Transition Relevance Place (TRP) is automatically generated, where a change of speaker can take place. When the answer is given, the adjacency pair is completed and a new strand of talk continues. In this case, another Q-A pair follows.
When an exchange structure like the Q-A adjacency pair is initiated, the speaker forcefully demands the listener to take over the floor. Other kinds of TRPs seem less compelling but they still exist. For example, when the current speaker finishes a short statement with no obvious sign of elaborating, the listener can take over the floor by responding to that statement. This is what happens in example (2) below.
(2)
關忠仁： 農村 真的 很 苦 的。 guan1zhong1ren2 nong2cun1 zhen1de5 hen3 ku3 de5
‘Guan Zhongren’ ‘farming-village’ ‘truly’ ‘very’ ‘bitter’ ED
‘Male Guest: Life in the countryside is really hard’
閻曉曉： 我 就是 從 農村 來 的，其實我 真的 不 在乎 這個。 yan2xiao3xiao3 wo3 jiu4shi4 cong2 nong2cun1 lai2 de5 qi2shi2 wo3 zhen1de5 bu2 zai4hu1 zhe4ge5
‘Yan Xiaoxiao’ ‘I’ ‘exactly’ ‘from’ ‘village’ ‘come’ ED ‘actually’ ‘I’ ‘really’ ‘not’ ‘care’ ‘this-CLA’
‘Female Guest: I come from a village and I really don’t care about this’
(fcwr 20130720)
Guan and Yan are a matched couple from the dating show 非誠勿擾 fi1cheng2wu4rao3
(FCWR) ‘Do not disturb if you are not sincere’. Guan works as a civil servant in a relatively poor rural area but Yan is determined to follow him. After their successful match, Guan reiterates the hardship of the countryside with a brief statement; whereupon Yan shows no hesitation in taking over the turn and reconfirms her determination to follow Guan.
When there is a longer narration followed by a summary, it is also a cue for the listener to take over the turn. The same matched couple from example (2) make the ensuing conversation in (3).
(3)
關忠仁： 其實 我 這 一身 衣服 呢，呃，算 上 鞋 才 一百六。 guan1zhong1ren2 qi2shi2 wo3 zhe4 yi1shen1 yi1fu2 ne5 er1 suan4 shang4 xie2 cai2 yi1bai3liu4
‘Guan Zhongren’ ‘in fact’ ‘I’ ‘this’ ‘one-body’ ‘clothes’ DM PF ‘count’ ‘up’ ‘shoes’ ‘only’ ‘160’
‘Male Guest: Actually my entire outfit, er, including the shoes costs only 160’
挺， 挺 艱難 的。 ting3 ting3 jian1nan2 de5
‘rather’ ‘rather’ ‘difficult’ ED
‘It is quite, quite hard’
閻曉曉： 沒事， 我 不 在乎。 yan2xiao3xiao3 mei2shi4 wo3 bu2 zai4hu1
‘Yan Xiaoxiao’ ‘no-matter’ ‘I’ ‘not’ ‘care’
‘Female Guest: It doesn’t matter. I don’t care’

(fcwr 20130720)
In dialogue (3), the male guest illustrates the hardship of country life with the cheap clothing he wears. The summarizing conclusion (‘It is really hard’) after the description signals the end of the turn, and the female guest again takes over the floor timely with another reassuring comment (that she is willing to follow him no matter what).
A current speaker sometimes leaves an utterance open by prolonging the delivery of a conjunction. This also constitutes a TRP – a potential place for the listener to take over the turn. Example (4) illustrates this mechanism.
(4)
華婷婷：這個女生，你是希望她霸道一點， hua4ting2ting2 zhe4ge5 nv3sheng1 ni3shi4 xi1wang4 ta1 ba4dao4 yi4dian3
‘Hua Tingting’ ‘this-CLA’ ‘girl’ ‘you’ ‘be’ ‘hope’ ‘she’ ‘peremptory’ ‘one-drop’
‘Female Guest: This girl, do you wish her to be a little bit peremptory’
還是 黏人 一點， 就是－ hai2shi4 nian2ren2 yi4dian3 jiu4shi4
‘or’ ‘sticky-person’ ‘one-bit’ ‘that is’
‘or to be on the clingy side? That is…’
鍾士軍： 對 我 …… 霸道 一點。 zhong1shi4jun1 dui4 wo3 ba4dao4 yi4dian3
‘Zhong Shijun’ ‘to’ ‘me’ ‘peremptory’ ‘one-bit’
‘Male Guest: (She should) be overbearing to me’
華婷婷： 看來 你 是 自謔 型。 hua4ting2ting2 kan4lai2 ni3 shi4 zi4nue4 xing2
‘Hua Tingting’ ‘look-come’ ‘you’ ‘are’ ‘self-abuse’ ‘type’
‘Female Guest: Looks like you are the self-abusing type’
(fcwr 20130720)
In (4), the female guest asks the male guests about his preferred type of dating partner. The conjunction 就是 jiu4shi4 ‘that is’ is used to fill in a space from which an elaboration of the question can be provided should it be required. However, the male guest quickly spots the
TRP and offers his answer – that he prefers the dominant type.
When no TRP is present but the listener feels compelled to speak, they can interrupt the current speaker at practically any point. On television it is often the dominant speaker (i.e. the interviewing reporter, the host of the show, etc.) who interrupts the guest’s speech rather than the other way round. Such interruption, however, is often introduced by a special device to signpost the listener’s intention to take over the floor at an unconventional place. In Chinese, one of the interrupting device is the fixed phrase 等一等 . Example (5) shows how this device is used to interrupt an ongoing speech.
(5)

關欣： 我 是 從來 沒－交 過 男朋友， 但是 談 過 一次 戀愛， guan1xin1 wo3 shi4 cong2lai2 mei2 jiao1 guo4 nan2peng2you3 dan4shi4 tan2guo4 yi1ci4 lian4ai4
‘Guan Xin’ ‘I’ ‘am’ ‘ever’ ‘not’ ‘link’ EM ‘boyfriend’ ‘but’ ‘talk’ EM ‘once’ ‘in love’
‘Female Guest: I have never had a boyfriend, but I have been in love once’
所以說 我的 爺兒們 性格 造成 我 現在 這樣。 suo3yi3shuo1 wo3de5 ye2er5men5 xing4ge2 zao4cheng2 wo3 xian4zai4 zhe4yang4
‘therefore’ ‘my’ ‘masculine’ ‘character ’ ‘cause’ ‘I’ ‘now’ ‘this way’
‘therefore it is my masculine disposition that put me in my current state’
我 來到 非誠勿擾 呢── wo3 lai2dao4 fei1cheng2wu4rao3 ne5
‘I’ ‘come-arrive’ ‘not-sincere-do not-disturb’ DM
‘I came to FCWR program…’
孟非： 等一等 等一等 等一下！ 信息 量 太大 了 meng4fei1 deng3yi1deng3 deng3yi1deng3 deng3yi1xia4 xin4xi2 liang4 tai4da4 le5
‘Meng Fei’ ‘wait a minute’ ‘wait a minute’ ‘wait a bit’ ‘information’ ‘volume’ ‘too big’ DM
‘Host: Wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a moment! The volume of information is too high’
(fcwr 20130728)
In (5), the female guest has finished her first Turn Construction Unit (TCU), which is an account of how she becomes what she is now. As she moves on to her second TCU – to describe what she attempts to achieve on the stage – the host of the show uses three quick instances of ‘wait a moment’ to stop her in order to get an emergency turn. The host uses the turn to stop the girl from giving more indigestible information.
In analyzing conversation, it is important to identify the action the speaker means to achieve via the utterance, that is, the intended speech act. For example, in a Q-A adjacency pair, we need to know what linguistic devices are used to mark the contribution as being an answer to a question. Often, words or phrases are repeated in the second pair part for this function.
Example (6) shows this linguistic device at work.
(6)
孟非： 我 想 問 一下 財神 兄， 你 年輕 的 時候 啊， meng4fei1 wo3 xiang3 wen4 yi2xia4 cai2shen2 xiong1 ni3 nian2qing1 de5 shi2hou4 a5
‘Meng Fei’ ‘I’ ‘think’ ‘ask’ ‘once’ ‘fortune-god’ ‘older brother’ ‘you’ ‘young’ AD ‘moment’ PF
‘Host: I would like to ask Mr Cai Shen – When you are young,’
搭訕 的 這個 成功 率 高 嗎？ da1shan4 de5 zhe4ge5 cheng2gong1 lv4 gao1 ma5
‘accost’ PD ‘this’ ‘success’ ‘rate’ ‘high’ QM
‘was the success rate of approaching (females) high?’
寧財神： 搭訕 的 成功 率 為 零， 一般。 ning4cai2shen2 da1shan4 de5 cheng2gong1 lv4 wei2 ling2 yi4ban1
‘Ning Caishen’ ‘accost’ PD ‘success’ ‘rate’ ‘is’ ‘zero’ ‘in general’
‘Specialist: the success rate of approaching is zero, in general’
從來 沒有 成功 過。 cong2lai2 mei2you3 cheng2gong1 guo4
‘ever’ ‘not’ ‘success’ EM
‘(I) have never succeeded’

(fcwr 20130714)
The host of the dating show in (6) asks the residing specialist a light-hearted question regarding his success rate of approaching a woman when he was young. Mr Ning answers the question by first repeating a key phrase in the question – ‘the success rate of approaching’. This overlapping clearly signposts the relationship between the current and the previous utterances; that is, an answer is offered for the question. The phrase is carrying out an important action even though it does not encode any new information.
Partial overlapping is of course not the only way to signal the connection between the current and the previous utterance. The second speaker can offer a summary of some sort to what the first speaker has said, thereby drawing the connection between the current contribution and the ongoing conversation.
(7)
曾子航： 孟 老師 啊，我 突然 有 一個 新奇 的 發現。 zeng1zi3hang2 meng4 lao3shi1 a5 wo3 tu2ran2 you3 yi2ge5 xin1qi2 de5 fa1xian4
‘Zeng Zihang’ ‘Meng’ ‘teacher’ DM ‘I’ ‘suddenly’ ‘have’ ‘one’ ‘novel’ AD ‘discover’
‘Specialist: Teacher Meng, say, I suddenly discovered something interesting’
就是 咱們 節目 啊，最近 突然 來 了 一批 胖子。 jiu4shi4 zan2men5 jie2mu4 a5 zui4jin4 tu2ran2 lai2 le5 yi4pi1 pang4zi5
‘that is’ ‘we’ ‘program’ DM ‘recently’ ‘suddenly’ ‘come’ AM ‘one-lot’ ‘fat person’
‘that is, recently a batch of fat persons suddenly appear on our show’
孟非： 平均 每 場 一個。 meng4fei1 ping2jun1 mei3 chang3 yi2ge5
‘Meng Fei’ ‘average’ ‘each’ ‘field’ ‘one-CLA’
‘Host: On average one (fat person) per show’
曾子航： 對。 zeng1zi3hang2 dui4
‘Zeng Zihang’ ‘right’
‘Specialist: Correct’
(fcwr 20130713)
In (7), the residing specialist makes the observation that quite a few fat persons have come to the show recently. Upon that, the host of the show immediately remarks that, on average, it is one fat person per show. This comment is semantically related to the previous utterance in being a summary of its gist. This semantic relation then warrants the speaker’s intention of using the utterance as a response to the previous utterance.
In terms of sequence organization (otherwise referred to as ‘exchange structure’), we have seen how participants of conversations take turns to form a Q-A adjacency pair. There are two kinds of answers to a question: Preferred Responses and Dispreferred Responses. A dispreferred response is more likely to trigger another question to form a Q-A- Q-A

structure consisting of two Q-A adjacency pairs. Such sequential organization is shown in (8) below.
(8)
孟非： 我們 今天 剛 來 的 五號 女生， meng4fei1 wo3men5 jin1tian1 gang1 lai2 de5 wu3hao4 nv3sheng1
Meng Fei’ ‘we’ ‘today’ ‘just’ ‘come’ DM ‘No. 5’ ‘girl’
‘Host: Our No. 5 girl who just arrived today’
是 生化 方面 的 博士。 shi4 sheng1hua4 fang1mian4 de5 bo2shi4
‘is’ ‘biochemistry’ ‘aspect’ DM ‘PhD’
‘is a PhD in biochemistry.’
你 有 話 要 跟 她 交流 嗎？ ni3 you3 hua4 yao4 gen1 ta1 jiao1liu2 ma5
‘you’ ‘have’ ‘words’ ‘want’ ‘with’ ‘her’ ‘communicate’ QM
‘Would you like to have a chat with her?’
尚興然： 不 跟 她 交流。 shang4xing1ran2 bu4 gen1 ta1 jiao1liu2
‘Shang Xingran’ ‘not’ ‘with’ ‘her’ ‘communicate’
‘Male Guest: (I am) not communicating with her’
寧財神： 為甚麼 呢？ ning4cai2shen2 wei4she2mo5 ne5
‘Ning Caishen’ ‘why’ DM
‘Specialist: Why so?’
尚興然： 說 錯 了 丟人。 說 對 了 也 沒有 獎勵 啊。 shang4xing1ran2 shuo1 cuo4 le5 diu1ren2 shuo1 dui4 le5 ye3 mei2you3 jiang3li4 a5
‘Shang Xingran’ ‘say’ ‘wrong’ AM ‘lose-person’ ‘say’ ‘right’ AM ‘also’ ‘no’ ‘prise’ DM
‘Male Guest: I lose face if I say something wrong. I get no prise even if I say something correct.’
(fcwr 20130714)
In example (8), the first turn consists of two Turn Construction Units, where the host of the show makes a statement and asks a question respectively. The question is an invitation for the male guest to make a move (i.e. initiating a conversation with a female guest) rather than a genuine question. The male guest does not follow the suggestion but answers the question with a dispreferred response instead. This triggers Ning’s question ‘Why?’ whereupon the male guest offers a very cogent reply. The Q-A- Q-A structure can potentially go on forever until all doubtful points are clarified.
An adjacency pair can sometimes be separated by an intervening pair to form a complicated structure with embedded structures. For example, a Q-A sequence can be inserted into a larger Q-A sequence to form a Q(Q-A)A structure. An example of this type of structure is shown in (9) below.
(9)
于志濤： 七月 二十八 號 就 放假 了，會 有 兩個 月 的 假期。

yu2zhi4tao1 qi1yue4 er4shi2ba1 hao44 jiu4 fang4jia4 le5 hui4 you3 liang3ge5 yue4 de5 jia4qi2
‘Yu Zhitao’ ‘ July’ ‘ 28’ ‘number’ ‘soon’ ‘on holiday’ AM ‘will’ ‘have’ ‘two’ ‘month’ AD ‘holiday’
‘Male Guest: Holiday starts on July 28. There will be a two-month holiday’
我們 一起 去 愛琴海 吧！ wo3men5 yi4qi3 qu4 ai4qin2hai3 ba5
‘we’ ‘together’ ‘go’ ‘Aegean Sea’ DM
‘Let’s go to the Aegean Sea together!’
穆懷林： 到 了 愛琴海，你 會 給 我 念詩 嗎？ mu4huai2lin2 dao4 le5 ai4qin2hai3 ni3 hui4 gei3 wo3 nian4shi1 ma5
‘Mu Huailin ’ ‘arrive’ AM ‘Aegean Sea’ ‘you’ ‘will’ ‘give’ ‘me’ ‘recite-poem’ QM
‘Female Guest: When we are at Aegean Sea, would you recite poems for me?’
于志濤： 當然 會 了！我們 可以 一起 吟詩 看 風景， yu2zhi4tao1 dang1ran2 hui4 le5 wo3men5 ke3yi3 yi4qi3 yin2shi1 kan4 feng1jing3
‘Yu Zhitao’ ‘certainly’ ‘will’ DM ‘we’ ‘may’ ‘together’ ‘recite-poem’ ‘see’ ‘scenery’
‘Male Guest: Of course I will! We can recite poems together and view the scenery’
欣賞 落日。 一起 體驗 面 朝 大海， xin1shang3 luo4ri4 yi4qi3 ti3yan4 mian4 chao2 da4hai3
‘admire’ ‘drop-sun’ ‘together’ ‘body-examine’ ‘face’ ‘toward’ ‘big-sea’
‘admire the setting sun. Together (we) experience facing the sea’
春暖花開 的 那種 感覺。 chun1nuan3hua1kai1 de5 na4zhong3 gan3jue2
‘spring-warm-flower-open’ AD ‘that-CLA’ ‘feeling’
‘flowers blossoming in warm spring, that kind of feeling’
穆懷林： 好～ mu4huai2lin2 hao3
‘Mu Huailin ’ ‘good’
‘Female Guest: ok…’
(fcwr 20130721)
After a successful match, the male guest in (9) invites the female guest to make the trip to
Aegean Sea in the holiday period after July 28 – a trip sponsored by the program for certain matched couples. The invitation marked by 吧 ba5 typically requires the listener to confirm the acceptability of the proposition. The second TCU of the male guest’s first turn is thus equivalent to a question – Let’s make the trip to Aegean Sea, shall we? The female guest, however, does not offer the desirable confirmation. Instead, she asks a question wanting to make sure the male will perform a service (i.e. recite poems) once they get there before she agrees to go. The male offers a preferred answer marked by ‘of course’ to that question; whereupon the female gives the final consent to join in the action.
In conversation we often make a false start and correct ourselves when we feel it problematic to go on. These repairs we make during conversation may involve insertion or deletion of words, a change of word or a reformulation of the entire expression. In the following example, the speaker first uses a conjunction for elaboration but changes her mind and replaces it with a conjunction for causal relations.
(10)

呂菁：是 不 是 因為 你 太 彬彬有禮 了，就是──所以 導致 lv3jing1 shi4 bu2shi4 yin1wei4 ni3 tai4 bin1bin1you3li3 le5 jiu4shi4 suo3yi3 dao3zhi4
‘LU Jing’ ‘is’ ‘not’ ‘is’ ‘because’ ‘you’ ‘too’ ‘courteous’ DM ‘that is’ ‘therefore’ ‘cause’
‘Female Guest: Is it because you are too polite? That is – therefore causing’
女生 覺得 可能 你 並 不 是 那麼 的 愛 她？ nv3sheng1 jue2de5 ke3neng2 ni3 bing4 bu2 shi4 na4mo5 de5 ai4 ta1
‘girl’ ‘feel’ ‘possible’ ‘you’ ‘even’ ‘not’ ‘is’ ‘so much’ AD ‘love’ ‘her’
‘the girl to feel probably you do not love her that much’
(fcwr 20130721)
In (10), the female guest finishes her first TCU – a possible account of why the male guest’s former girlfriend chose to leave him. Then she uses the wrong conjunction 就是 ‘that is’ to help build the second TCU. She realizes the mistake and replaces 就是 with 所以 ‘therefore’, which leads smoothly to the construction of the second TCU and the completion of the turn.
Phonetically, the last syllable of the replaced unit (i.e. 就是 in this case) is abruptly terminated when the repair mechanism is activated. Another example of repair is shown in
(11) below.
(11)
鄭人安： 男 嘉賓， 你 是 不是 有點 肚子 啊？ zheng4ren2an1 nan2 jia1bin ni3 shi4 bu2shi4 you3dian3 du4zi5 a5
‘Zheng Renan’ ‘male’ ‘good-guest’ ‘you’ ‘are’ ‘not-are’ ‘have-bit’ ‘belly’ DM
‘Female Guest: Male good guest, do you have a little beer belly?’
李昕蔚： 呃－有 一點點， 沒錯。 您 眼睛── li3xin1wei4 er5 you3 yi1dian3dian3 mei2cuo4 nin2 yan3jing1
‘Li Xinwei’ PF ‘have’ ‘a little bit’ ‘not-wrong’ ‘you’ ‘eye’
‘Male Guest: er… a little bit, correct. Your eyes’
鄭人安： 呃，可──就是， 看起來 還 蠻 好看 的。 zheng4ren2an1 er5 ke3 jiu4shi4 kan4qi3lai2 hai2 man2 hao3kan4 de5
‘Zheng Renan’ F ‘but’ ‘that is’ ‘look-rise-come’ ‘still’ ‘rather’ ‘good-look’ ED
‘Female Guest: er… but – that is, looks quite good-looking’
李昕蔚： 謝謝。 li3xin1wei4 xie4xie5
‘Li Xinwei’ ‘thanks’
‘Male Guest: Thanks’
(fcwr 20130720)
In (11), the female guest asks the male to clarify a piece of information (whether he has a little potbelly or not) in her first turn. The male gives a partially preferred answer and makes an attempts to ‘switch topic’. The female, however, apparently does not want to change the topic. She uses a pause filler (er) to forcefully take over the turn. However, she seems illprepared so the first word she says is a false start. She repairs by replacing the 可是 ‘but’ with 就是 ‘that is’ to change the logic relation between the two propositions ‘having a pot belly’ and ‘looking good’ from a contrastive relation to an additive one. The corrected

conjunction helps achieve the effect that the beer belly is thought by her to be an advantage rather than a weakness.
In the next example, the speaker starts to say something but then realizes he has left out an important component – a time phrase that provides background information to his proposition. A repair process is initiated and the missing structure is reinserted.
(12)
寧財神： 你 可能 要 稍微──在 以後 的 生活── ning4cai2shen2 ni3 ke3neng2 yao4 shao1wei2 zai4 yi3hou4 de5 sheng1huo2
‘Ning Caishen’ ‘you’ ‘possible’ ‘want’ ‘slightly’ ‘at’ ‘hereafter’ AD ‘living’
‘Specialist: You probably must somehow—in your future life’
稍微 有點 節制。 shao1wei2 you3dian3 jie2zhi4
‘slightly’ ‘have-speck’ ‘restriction’
‘somehow show a little restraint’
(fcwr 20130728)
In (12), the residing specialist is giving final advice to a departing female guest who is a video game addict. At the point where the word 稍微 ‘little bit’ is uttered, he feels the need to insert an adverbial phrase – which in the Chinese syntax normally comes before the main verb. Thus 稍微 is cut off from the verb phrase it modifies (‘have a little restraint’) and a prepositional phrase ‘in future life’ is inserted before it. Note the word 稍微 is repeated after the insertion of the time phrase as, in this context, it is an inseparable part to the verb phrase. When we plan discourse and construct sentences, we manipulate entire structures rather than individual words (See Fromkin and Ratner 1998). Example (12) is a good illustration of this principle as it shows why 稍微 has to be repeated, since the first 稍微 has become invalid with the interruption of the prepositional phrase, and the entire VP structure need to be restarted.
The next example is also an instance of repair involving insertion of a new element.
(13)
李莉娜：我 真的 是 被 男 嘉賓 感動 了。然後 ， li3li4na4 wo3 zhen1de5 shi4 bei4 nan2 jia1bin1 gan3dong4 le5 ran2hou4
‘Li Lina’ ‘I’ ‘real’ ‘am’ PB ‘male’ ‘guest’ ‘move’ AM ‘then’
‘Female Guest: I am really moved by the male guest. And then –’
就 覺得 他的 真誠 能夠 感動 台上 的── jiu4 jue2de5 ta1de5 zhen1cheng2 neng2gou4 gan3dong4 tai2shang4 de5
‘that is’ ‘feel’ ‘his’ ‘sincerity ’ ‘able to’ ‘move’ ‘stage-up’ AD
‘(I) feel his sincerity can move those on stage’
台上 台下 的 每 一個 人。 tai2shang4 tai2xia4 de5 mei3 yi2ge5 ren2
‘stage-up’ ‘stage-down’ AD ‘every’ ‘one-CLA’ ‘person’
‘everyone on the stage and down the stage’
(fcwr 20130728)

In (13), the female guest starts to say ‘your sincerity moved everybody on stage’ but realizes halfway that people under the stage should also be included in the ‘being moved’ category.
She therefore breaks the sequence of 台上的 ‘those on stage’ and inserts another prepositional phrase 台下 ‘under stage’ between 台上 and 的 to become 台上台下的 ‘those on stage and under the stage’.
We have seen that words can be inserted during the repair process. Words can also be removed in the repair process. Sometimes an entire structure constituting the false start is given up, giving way to a completely new formulation. This is illustrated by example (14) below.
(14)
李璐：我 說 我 昨天 晚上 在 吃飯 的 時候 li3lu4 wo3 shuo1 wo3 zuo2tian wan3shang4 zai4 chi1fan4 de5 shi2hou4
‘Li Lu’ ‘I’ ‘say’ ‘I’ ‘yesterday’ ‘evening’ ‘at’ ‘eat-cooked rice’ AD ‘moment’
‘Female Guest: I say yesterday evening when I was having a meal’
跟 媽媽 打電話， 然後 說── gen1 ma1ma5 da3dian4hua4 ran2hou4 shuo1
‘with’ ‘mother’ ‘hit-telephone’ ‘then’ ‘say’
‘I telephoned my mother, and said’
她 就 直接 把 電話 關機。 ta1 jiu4 zhi2jie1 ba3 dian4hua4 guan1ji1
‘she’ ‘promptly’ ‘direct’ OM ‘telephone’ ‘shut-machine’
‘She then turned off the phone directly ’
(fcwr 20130728)
In (14), the female guest tells a story of telephoning her mother while having a meal. When she comes to the point where she has made the phone call, the next thing she should mention is her mother’s reaction. However, the words she actually says are 然後說 ‘then say’ which is a misfire since she did not actually say anything. The female guest quickly corrects the mistake by giving up the false start and beginning with a new, full sentence.
Word choice is an important task in making conversations. For a speaker’s contribution to appear relevant to the ongoing conversation, some kind of cohesive device is normally required. The simplest kind of cohesion is to repeat a word spoken in the previous round.
Conversation (15) shows how this works.
(15)
孟非： 呃，你 以前 這個 說 快板， 這個 … 演出 過 沒有？ meng4fei1 er5 ni3 yi3qian2 zhe4ge5 shuo1 kuai4ban3 zhe4ge5 yan3chu1 guo4 mei2you3
‘Meng Fei’ SF ‘you’ ‘before’ ‘thus’ ‘say’ ‘clapper’ ‘thus’ ‘perform’ AM ‘not’
‘Host: er you used to tell stories with a clapper. Did you ever perform (in public)?’
馮海： 演出 過。 feng2hai3 yan3chu1 guo4

‘Feng Hai’ ‘perform’ AM
‘Male Guest: I did perform’
孟非： 你 介意 現場 來 段 快板 嗎？ meng4fei1 ni3 jie4yi4 xian4chang3 lai2 duan4 kuai4ban3 ma5
‘Meng Fei’ ‘you’ ‘mind’ ‘on the spot’ ‘come’ ‘section’ ‘clapper’ QM
‘Host: Do you mind giving a clapper show right now?’
馮海： 只要 大家 不 吝嗇 掌聲， 我就不介意。 feng2hai3 zhi3yao4 da4jia1 bu4 lin4se4 zhang3sheng1 wo3 jiu4 bu4 jie4yi4
‘Feng Hai’ ‘only-want’ ‘everybody’ ‘not’ ‘stingy’ ‘palm-sound’ ‘I’ ‘thus’ ‘not’ ‘mind’
‘Male Guest: as long as people are not stingy with their applause, I will not mind’
(fcwr 20130720)
In example (15), the host of FCWR asks the male guest, Mr Feng, whether he has ever performed the Chinese clapper talk show in public. Feng answered yes by repeating the word 演出 ‘perform’ marked by the experiential marker 過 . The host then goes on to ask if
Feng minds performing in front of the current audience. Feng again repeat the word 介意
‘mind’ marked by the negative morpheme 不 ‘not’. In both cases, repetition of a key word allows the conversation to move on in a well-coordinated fashion.
In the next example, a key word extracted from the previous turn is repetitively used by the next speaker to maintain the focus of the conversation.
(16)
李璐：我 是 覺得 他－就是 li3lu4 wo3 shi4 jue2de5 ta1 jiu4shi4
‘Li Lu’ ‘I’ ‘am’ ‘feel’ ‘he’ ‘that is’
‘Female Guest: What I feel is he, that is’
一 上來 就是 那種 樸素 工人 的 感覺， yi2 shang4lai2 jiu4shi4 na4zhong3 pu2su4 gong1ren2 de5 gan3jue2
‘one’ ‘up-come’ ‘exactly is’ ‘that-kind’ ‘plain’ ‘worker’ AD ‘feel’
‘Female Guest: giving that kind of feel of a simple worker’
然後 我 覺得 我 應該 留燈， 支持 一下。 ran2hou4 wo3 jue2de5 wo3 ying1gai1 liu2deng1 zhi1chi2 yi2xia4
‘then’ ‘I’ ‘feel’ ‘I’ ‘should’ ‘keep-light’ ‘support’ ‘one bit’
‘And then I feel I should keep the light to show a bit of support’
鍾士軍： 謝謝你。其實 我，我 就是 工人。 zhong1shi4jun1 xie4xie5ni3 qi2shi2 wo3 wo3 jiu4shi4 gong1ren2
‘Zhong Shi4jun’ ‘thank you’ ‘actually’ ‘I’ ‘I’ ‘exactly is’ ‘worker’
‘Male Guest: Thank you. In fact, I, I am exactly a worker’
我 是 維修 中央 空調 的 呃－工人 師傅。 wo3 shi4 wei2xiu1 zhong1yang1 kong1tiao2 de5 er5 gong1ren2 shi1fu4
‘I’ ‘am’ ‘maintain-fix’ ‘central’ ‘air conditioning’ AD PF ‘worker’ ‘master’
‘I am the master worker (responsible) for maintaining the central air-conditioning system’
(fcwr 20130720)

The female guest in (16) has been appointed by the host of the show to share her initial impression of the new male guest in the current round. Miss Li summarizes her impression of the male with the phrase ‘simple worker’. When it is the male guest’s turn to respond to
Li’s comment, he repeats the word ‘worker’ and uses it as the key concept in his contribution. He first agrees to Li’s observation by stating he is indeed a worker, and then elaborates on what job he does. As a matter of fact, the male guest appears to be an engineer or technician in air-conditioning. Nevertheless, he sticks to the word ‘worker’ (a little laboriously, judging from the hesitation shown by the pause filler before the final utterance of the word) in order to stay on the main theme of the conversation – the female’s comment that he is a simply-dressed working class person.
In the next episode, not only a keyword from the previous turn is repeated by a designated speaker, a word related to this keyword is subsequently chosen to frame the next Turn
Construction Unit.
(17)
孟非： 我 想 問 一下 財神 兄， 你 在 戀愛 的 時候， meng4fei1 wo3 xiang3 wen4 yi2xia4 cai2shen2 xiong1 ni3 zai4 lian4ai4 de5 shi2hou4
‘Meng Fei’ ‘I’ ‘think’ ‘ask’ ‘one bit’ ‘Cai Shen’ ‘older brother’ ‘you’ ‘at’ ‘fall in love’ AD ‘moment’
‘Host: Mr Cai Shen, I’d like to ask, when you were in love’
幹 過 最 丟人 的 事 是 甚麼？ gan4 guo4 zui4 diu1ren2 de5 shi4 shi4 she2mo5
‘do’ AM ‘the most’ ‘shameful’ AD ‘matter’ ‘is’ ‘what’
‘what is the most shameful thing you did?’
寧財神： 我 戀愛 的 時候 還好， ning4cai2shen2 wo3 lian4ai4 de5 shi2hou4 hai2hao3
‘Ning Caishen’ ‘I’ ‘fall in love’ AD ‘moment’ ‘still-good’
‘Specialist: I was alright when being in love’
失戀 的 時候 幹 過 丟人 的 事。 shi1lian4 de5 shi2hou4 gan4 guo4 diu1ren2 de5 shi4
‘out of love’ AD ‘moment’ ‘do’ AM ‘shameful’ AD ‘matter’
‘(I) did embarrassing things when falling out of love’
(fcwr 20130720)
In example (17), the host of the show, Mr Meng, asks the residential specialist, Mr Ning, what embarrassing things he might have done as a young lover Ning repeats the keyword 戀
愛 ‘being in love’ in his turn so as to situate his talk in the current discourse frame. However, his first TCU is a dispreferred answer – that he didn’t do anything embarrassing when he was in love. His second TCU, on the other hand, does offer a preferred answer. The keyword selected in this TCU is 失戀 ‘falling out of love’, which is an antonym of 戀愛 and helps maintain the connection (or cohesion) throughout this short interaction.

In the next example, a speaker uses a series of two attributes to describe a person. The next speaker absorbs the content and comes up with a new term which is a special kind of person subsuming those attributes.
(18)
閻曉曉： 你 就 放心 吧。我 肯定 是 支持 你 工作 的 那個 人， yao2xiao2xiao3 ni3 jiu4 fang4xin1 ba5 wo3 ken3ding4 shi4 zhi1chi2 ni3 gong1zuo4 de5 na4ge5 ren2
‘Yan Xiaoxiao’ ‘you’ ‘just’ ‘set-heart’ DM ‘I’ ‘positive’ ‘am’ ‘support’ ‘you’ ‘work’ AD ‘that’ ‘person’
‘Female Guest: You just relax. I definitely am the person who support your work’
也 是 你 心 裡面 想 的 那個 人。 ye3 shi4 ni3 xin1 li3mian4 xiang3 de5 na4ge5 ren2
‘also’ ‘is’ ‘you’ ‘heart’ ‘inside’ ‘think’ AD ‘that’ ‘person’
‘(I) am also the person you think of in your heart’
關忠仁： 希望 你 是 我的 女神。 guan1zhong1ren2 xi1wang4 ni3 shi4 wo3de5 nv3shen2
‘Guan Zhongren’ ‘hope’ ‘you’ ‘are’ ‘my’ ‘woman-god’
‘Male Guest: (I) hope you are my goddess’
(fcwr 20130720)
In example (18), the female guest, Miss Yan, repetitively emphasizes her loyalty to and suitability for the male guest, Mr Guan. That is, she will support his work for life and will be constantly in his heart. Guan seems equally impressed by his newly matched partner. To endorse the correctness of the two descriptions offered by Yan, Guan chooses the word 女
神 ‘goddess’ to represent what all the attributes put together means to him. Not only does the keyword summarize the meaning of the ongoing discourse in an elegant way, its semantic relation to the previous keyword (goddess vs. human) also helps maintain the integrity of the discourse.
The last point we will address in this section is the overall structural organization of conversation. Depending on types of interaction, the overall structure of one conversation will be different from that of another. For example, the organization of a doctor-patient talk will be different from a friendly chat between neighbors. In terms of the TV reality dating show whose language we have been sampling, each matching event normally starts with the male guest introducing himself, followed by a formal greeting from the host of the show, as example (19) shows.
(19)
楊爾： 大家 好！我 是 第一次 來到 北京。 yang2er3 da4jia1 hao3 wo3 shi4 di4yi1ci4 lai2dao4 bei3jing1
‘Yang Er’ ‘everyone’ ‘good’ ‘I’ ‘am’ ‘first time’ ‘come-reach’ ‘Beijing’
‘Male Guest: Hello everyone! This is the first time I come to Beijing’
初來乍到， 希望 大家 多多 關照， 謝謝！ chu1lai2zha4dao4 xi1wang4 da4jia1 duo1duo1 guan1zhao4 xie4xie5
‘first-come-sudden-arrive’ ‘hope’ ‘everyone’ ‘much-much’ ‘look after’ thanks’

‘Being a newcomer here, I hope everybody could look after me. Thank you!’
孟非： 楊爾， 歡迎 你。 meng4fei1 yang2er3 huan1ying2 ni3
‘Meng Fei’ ‘Yang Er’ ‘welcome’ ‘you’
‘Host: Yang Er, welcome!’
(fcwr 20130713)
As example (19) shows, a formal greeting from the host of a certain event may consist of the sounding out of the guest’s name followed by the word ‘welcome’. At least this is the routine followed by the host of the FCWR show. After this ice-breaking exchange, the matching process begins in which the lone male guest and the 24 female guests explore each other by questioning, commenting and even arguing from time to time. A typical short exchange between the male and female is shown in (4) and (11), where the female asks a question, the male answers, and the female offers a follow-up with or without a concluding
‘Thank you’ from the male guest. The host may also interact with the male or female guests or invite the two residing specialists to contribute from time to time.
When the male-female interaction session ends, the male either gets to pick one out of the intending females, or has to leave alone if no female is interested in him. In the case of male leaving alone, (20a) is the closing statement from the host of the show, or something like. In the case of a successful match, something like (20b) is used to formally conclude the session.
(20) a. 孟非：很 遺憾。再見！ meng4fei1 hen3 yi2han4 zai4jian4
‘Meng Fei’ ‘very’ ‘regret’ ‘goodbye’
‘Host: It is regretful. Goodbye!’ b. 孟非： 恭喜 男女 嘉賓 獲得 了 愛琴海 之 旅！再見！ meng4fei1 gong1xi3 nan2nv3 jia1bin1 huo4de2 le5 ai4qin2hai3 zhi1 lv3 zai4jian4
‘Meng Fei’ ‘congratulation’ ‘male-female’ ‘good-guest’ ‘obtain’ AM ‘Aegean Sea’ DZ ‘trip’ ‘goodbye’
‘Host: Congratulations to male and female guests for securing the trip to Aegean Sea. Goodbye!’
As can be seen from (20), whether the outcome is negative or positive, the host always uses the ending phrase 再見 ‘goodbye’ to terminate a male courting session. In general, the organization of a recurrent conversation follows a routine which contains both fixed patterns and flexible elements.
Politeness and impoliteness
Brown & Levinson (1987) propose a politeness model to account for certain features of talk.
The basic concepts underlying this model are quite intuitive, such as Face, Face Threatening

Act (FTA), face want, politeness strategies (McCabe 1998) and so on. When people interact with each other, some acts necessarily damage or threaten faces (e.g. making a suggestion, giving a command, refusing a proposal…). When such acts cannot be avoided, politeness strategies are often used to redress the action (e.g. apologizing, using hedges, impersonalizing, being indirect…). Some examples are offered below showing the use of politeness strategies in Chinese.
(21)
胡夢婷： 男 嘉賓， 不好意思， 我 覺得 你的 肚子 太大 了。 hu2meng4ting2 nan2 jia1bing1 bu4hao3yi4si4 wo3 jue2de5 ni3de5 du4zi5 tai4da4 le5
‘Hu Mengting’ ‘male’ ‘good-guest’ ‘not-good-meaning’ ‘I’ ‘feel’ ‘your’ ‘belly’ ‘too-big’ DM
‘Female Guest: Male guest, I’m sorry but I think your tummy is a little too big’
我 害怕 你 到 四十 歲 五十 歲 的 時候，肚子 會 更大。 wo3 hai4pa4 ni3 dao4 si4shi2 sui4 wu3shi2 sui4 de5 shi2hou4 du4zi5 hui4 geng4da4
‘I’ ‘fear’ ‘you’ ‘reach’ ‘forth’ ‘year’ ‘fifty’ ‘year’ AD ‘moment’ ‘belly’ ‘will’ ‘even bigger’
‘I fear that when you reach 40 or 50 years of age, your tummy will become even bigger’
(fcwr 20130713)
In example (21), the female guest uses the apologetic phrase 不好意思 bu4hao3yi4si4 ‘I am embarrassed’ to neutralize her criticism about the male guest’s beer belly. This is her way of showing politeness despite the need to reveal her reason for rejecting the male. 不好意思 is a phrase frequently used by Chinese speakers to show their regrets in having to say or do something unpleasant to the hearer.
(22)
蔡暘： 不好意思， 不是 你 不好 不帥。 你 也 挺好。 cai4yang2 bu4hao3yi4si4 bu2shi4 ni3 bu4hao3 bu2shuai4 ni3 ye3 ting3hao3
‘Cai Yang’ ‘not-good-meaning’ ‘not-is’ ‘you’ ‘not-good’ ‘not-handsome’ ‘you’ ‘also’ ‘very good’
‘Female Guest: I am sorry. It’s not that you are no good or not handsome. You are quite alright’
只 不過 我 對 你 的 期望值 太高 了。 zhi3 bu2guo4 wo3 dui4 ni3 de5 qi2wang4zhi2 tai4gao1 le5
‘only’ ‘but’ ‘I’ ‘toward’ ‘you’ AD ‘expected value’ ‘too high’ DM
‘It’s only because my expectation for you is too high’
(wmyhb 20130710)
Example (22) shows the verbal rejection from another female who is not interested in the current male candidate. The rejection is intrinsically face-threatening. To mitigate the threat, several redressing devices are used. First, the apologetic phrase 不好意思 is said.
This is followed by a double negative to deny the cause of rejection being the male being not good or not handsome enough. There is then a compliment of the male being ‘quite good’. Finally, the true reason for rejection surfaces – that the female has expected too much of the male guest. This statement is partially dismissed by the leading phrase 只不過

‘only but’ as a trivial matter, so as to minimize the face threat to the male guest. The same pattern of apologizing and then giving reason for rejection in a mitigated fashion is repeated in the next example.
(23)
李姍姍： 對不起， 男 嘉賓。真的， li3shan1shan1 dui4bu4qi3 nan2 jia1bin1 zhen1de5
‘Li Shanshan’ ‘sorry’ ‘male’ ‘good-guest’ ‘real’
‘Female Guest: I am sorry, male guest. Really’
你 跟 我 心裡 那個 白馬王子 的 形象， 還是 有 差距 的。 ni3 gen1 wo3 xin1li3 na4ge5 bai2ma3wang2zi5 de5 xing2xiang4 hai2shi4 you3 cha1ju4 de5
‘you’ ‘with’ ‘I’ ‘heart-inside’ ‘that’ ‘Prince Charming’ AD ‘image’ ‘still’ ‘have’ ‘difference’ EM
‘You are somehow different from the Prince Charming image in my heart’
但是 我 願意 我們 當 朋友， 先 相處。 dan4shi4 wo3 yuan4yi4 wo3men5 dang1 peng2you3 xian1 xiang1chu3
‘but’ ‘I’ ‘willing’ ‘we’ ‘be’ ‘friend’ ‘ahead’ ‘get along’
‘But I am willing to get along with you as friends in the first instance’
(wmyhb 20130710)
In (23), the female guest gives her reason for rejecting the male following a formal apology -
- 對不起 ‘I am sorry’. The reason itself is given in an indirect way. To be direct the female would have said ‘I dislike your look’, but she refers to a non-existent Prince Charming instead, and points out the gap between the male candidate and the ideal image in her mind. In this way she minimizes the damage done to the male candidate’s face. Moreover, a life-saving proposal is made at the end of her turn – that she is willing to become friend with him in the first instance (which may open up other possibilities). This enhances the male’s profile generally and helps save his face despite the earlier rejection.
The next example shows the use of a hedge while giving the reason for rejecting a male suitor.
(24)
羅安迪：他比較喜歡姊弟戀， luo2an1di2 ta1 bi3jiao4 xi3huan1 jie3di4lian4
‘Luo Andi’ ‘he’ ‘comparatively’ ‘like’ ‘sister-brother-romance’
‘Female Guest: He likes the old sister-younger brother kind of love’
可能 因為 我 沒有 辦法 給 他 帶來 那種 感覺， ke3neng2 yin1wei4 wo3 mei2you3 ban4fa3 gei3 ta1 dai4lai2 na4zhong3 gan3jue2
‘possible’ ‘because’ ‘I’ ‘not-have’ ‘method’ ‘give’ ‘him’ ‘bring-come’ ‘that-kind’ ‘feel’
‘Probably because I have no way of bringing him that kind of feeling’
所以 我 就 比較 識相 的 滅燈 了。 suo3yi3 wo3 jiu4 bi3jiao4 shi4xiang4 de5 mie4deng1 le5
‘therefore’ ‘I’ ‘then’ ‘comparatively’ ‘sensibly’ AD ‘extinguish-light’ AM
‘therefore I rather sensibly turned off my light’

(wmyhb 20130710)
In explaining why she turned her light off, the female guest in (24) uses a hedge word
‘possible’ to precede the account of the cause. This seems to detach herself from the facethreatening act of giving reasons for rejection. The mild degree adverb 比較 ‘comparatively’ appears twice in her turn, which also helps to reduce the provocative nature of the statements.
In the next example, a female guest offers her observation and suggestion to the male candidate in a polite way.
(25)
呂菁：是 不 是 因為 你 太 彬彬有禮 了，就是──所以 導致 lv3jing1 shi4 bu2shi4 yin1wei4 ni3 tai4 bin1bin1you3li3 le5 jiu4shi4 suo3yi3 dao3zhi4
‘LU Jing’ ‘is’ ‘not’ ‘is’ ‘because’ ‘you’ ‘too’ ‘courteous’ DM ‘that is’ ‘therefore’ ‘cause’
‘Female Guest: Is it because you are too polite? That is – therefore causing’
女生 覺得 可能 你 並 不 是 那麼 的 愛 她？ nv3sheng1 jue2de5 ke3neng2 ni3 bing4 bu2 shi4 na4mo5 de5 ai4 ta1
‘girl’ ‘feel’ ‘possible’ ‘you’ ‘even’ ‘not’ ‘is’ ‘so much’ AD ‘love’ ‘her’
‘the girl to feel probably you do not love her that much’
于志濤： 我 覺得 有 可能。 現在 不是 …… yu2zhi4tao1 wo3 jue2de5 you3 ke3neng2 xian4zai4 bu2shi4
‘Yu Zhitao’ ‘I’ ‘feel’ ‘have’ ‘possibility’ ‘now’ ‘not-is’
‘Male Guest: I think it is possible. Isn’t it the case that nowadays’
有 句 話 叫 男人 不 壞， 女人不愛嗎？ you3 ju4 hua4 jiao4 nan2ren2 bu2 huai4 nv3ren2 bu2 ai4 ma5
‘have’ ‘sentence’ ‘talk’ ‘call’ ‘man’ ‘not’ ‘bad’ ‘woman’ ‘not’ love’ QM
‘there is a saying “Men who are not bad, women don’t love”?’
呂菁：我 覺得 男生 可能 在 感情 上 稍微 lv3jing1 wo3 jue2de5 nan2sheng1 ke3neng2 zai4 gan3qing2 shang4 shao1wei2
‘LU Jing’ ‘I’ ‘feel’ ‘boy’ ‘possible’ ‘at’ ‘emotion’ ‘up’ ‘slightly’
‘Female Guest: I think in terms of affection probably boys should somehow’
在 霸道 中 帶 點 溫柔， 會 更 吸引 女生。 zai4 ba4dao4 zhong1 dai4 dian3 wen1rou2 hui4 geng4 xi1yin3 nv3sheng1
‘at’ ‘domineering’ ‘middle’ ‘bring’ ‘speck’ ‘gentle’ ‘will’ ‘more’ ‘attract’ ‘girl’
‘mix gentleness within dominance, then he will be more attractive to girls’
于志濤： 謝謝 女 嘉賓 的 建議。 yu2zhi4tao1 xie4xie5 nv3 jia1bin1 de5 jian4yi4
‘Yu Zhitao’ ‘thank’ ‘female’ ‘good-guest’ PD ‘suggestion’
‘Male Guest: I thank the female guest for the suggestion’
(fcwr 20130721)
The female guest in (25) first offers her observation of the male’s weakness in the form of a yes/no question. The question is framed in a polite and tentative way, to which the male guest readily agrees. The female then offers her suggestion as to how the male can improve

his courting behavior. Two hedges are embedded in the suggestion -- 可能 ‘possible’ and 稍
微 ‘slightly’ – to make the suggestion less threatening. The next example also shows how to make suggestions in a polite way.
(26)
孟非： 在 接著 往 下 聊 之前，我 個人 建議， meng4fei1 zai4 jie1zhe5 wang3 xia4 liao2 zhi1qian2 wo3 ge4ren2 jian4yi4
‘Meng Fei’ ‘at’ ‘continue’ ‘toward’ ‘down’ ‘chat’ ‘before’ ‘I’ ‘personal’ ‘suggest’
‘Host: Before carrying on with the chat, I personally suggest’
你 換 一個 姿勢 拿 這個 話筒── ni3 huan4 yi2ge5 zi1shi4 na2 zhe4ge5 hua4tong2
‘you’ ‘change’ one-CLA’ ‘posture’ ‘hold’ ‘this’ ‘microphone’
‘Host: you hold the microphone in another way’
只是 建議 啊！ zhi3shi4 jian4yi4 a5
‘only-is’ ‘suggestion’ DM
‘This is only a suggestion!’
(fcwr 20130803)
In example (26), the host of the show tries to get the male guest to change his unusual and somewhat aggressive way of holding the microphone (upside down). To make his remarks sound less offensive to the listener, Mr Meng first dismisses his suggestion as merely a personal thing (i.e. not representing a group or the institution). Then at the end of his turn, he tries again to reduce the comments to ‘merely a suggestion’ – that is, it is not a command and the guest is under no obligation to follow the suggestion.
The next example shows how the host of a dating show uses another politeness strategy to make a request.
(27)
男嘉賓： 我 願意 為 那個 人 去 改變。 nan2jia1bin1 wo3 yuan4yi4 wei4 na4ge5 ren2 qu4 gai3bian4
‘male-good-guest’ ‘I’ ‘willing’ ‘for’ ‘that-CLA’ ‘person’ ‘go’ ‘change’
‘Male Guest: I am willing to change for that person’
邱啟明： 此處 應該 有 掌聲 對 不 對？ qiu1qi3ming2 ci3chu4 ying1gai1 you3 zhang3sheng1 dui4 bu2 dui4
‘Qiu Qiming’ ‘this-place’ ‘should’ ‘have’ ‘palm-sound’ ‘correct’ ‘not’ ‘correct’
‘Male Guest: There should be applause at this point, right?’
(wmyhb 20130716)
In (27), the male guest announces his intention to transform into a better person if he meets the right person. To reward the male guest for his good determination, the host of the show invites the surrounding female guests to give a round of applause. However, he gives this instruction in a tactful way, by alluding to the fact that applauses are normally given on such occasions. This indirect request is understood and the females give a round of applause.

Indirectness may not always sound polite. A rhetorical question like Have you no shame? is extremely face-threatening. In the next example, a disapproval is given in a form of a rhetorical question.
(28)
聶倩：…我 也 呼籲 一下 我們 這個 國家 也 好， nie4qian4 wo3 ye3 hu1yu4 yi2xia4 wo3men5 zhe4ge5 guo2jia1 ye3 hao3
‘Nie Qian’ ‘I’ ‘also’ ‘appeal’ ‘one-bit’ ‘we’ ‘this-CLA’ ‘nation’ ‘also’ ‘good’
‘Female Guest: I want to make an appeal whether it is our nation’
還有 城市 也 好， 建設 的 時候， hai2you3 cheng2shi4 ye3 hao3 jian4she4 de5 shi2hou4
‘moreover’ ‘city’ ‘also’ ‘good’ ‘construct’ AD ‘moment’
‘or the city, when we start new constructions’
不要 把 我們 那些 古 建築 給 拆掉。 bu2yao4 ba3 wo3men5 na4xie1 gu3 jian4zhu2 gei3 chai1diao4
‘not-want’ OM ‘we’ ‘those’ ‘ancient’ ‘building’ ‘give’ ‘tear-drop’
‘do not tear down those our heritage buildings’
孟非： 你 猜 你 這麼 說 有用 嗎？ meng4fei1 ni3 cai1 ni3 zhe4mo5 shuo1 you3yong4 ma5
‘Meng Fei’ ‘you’ ‘guess’ ‘you’ ‘such’ ‘speak’ ‘have-use’ QM
‘Host: Do you think it is useful for you to say so?’
聶倩： 呃 … 可能 沒 太 大 用， nie4qian4 er5 ke3neng2 mei2 tai4 da4 yong4
‘Nie Qian’ PF ‘possible’ ‘not’ ‘too’ ‘big’ ‘use’
‘Female Guest: er… probably not too useful’
但是 我 只是 想 發表 自己 的 觀點。 dan4shi4 wo3 zhi3shi4 xiang3 fa1biao3 zi4ji3 de5 guan1dian3
‘but’ ‘I’ ‘only’ ‘think’ ‘publish’ ‘self’ PD ‘viewpoint’
‘However, I only wish to express my own view’
(fcwr 20130713)
The female guest in (28) is making a public appeal to save the Chinese heritage buildings.
The host, however, does not think it useful to do so in the current setting. He uses a rhetoric question to challenge the proposal, rather than a straightforward comment such as ‘I think it is useless for you to say so’. The rhetorical question not only seems to dismiss the proposal as pointless but also calls the female’s common sense into question (i.e. she should have known better not to deliver that speech on the show). Another example of impolite rhetorical question is shown in (29) below.
(29)
關穎： 就是 譬如 說 可以 像 寬姊 那樣 罵 髒話 啊， guan1ying3 jiu4shi4 pi4ru2 shuo1 ke3yi3 xiang4 kuan1jie3 na4yang4 ma4 zang1hua4 a5
‘Guan Ying’ ‘just’ ‘for example’ ‘say’ ‘may’ ‘resemble’ ‘Kuan- sister’ ‘that way’ ‘curse’ ‘dirty-words’ DM
‘Movie Star: For example, I can then use dirty language to curse just like older sister Kuan’

然後 有 的 沒 的。 ran2hou4 you3 de5 mei2 de5
‘then’ ‘have’ AD ‘none’ AD
‘and so on and so forth’
蔡康永： 寬姊 沒有 罵 髒話 啊！ cai4kang1yong3 kuan1jie3 mei2you3 ma4 zang1hua4 a5
‘Cai Kangyong’ ‘Kuan-sister’ ‘not’ ‘curse’ ‘dirty-words’ DM
‘Host: Older sister Kuan did not use dirty language!’
關穎： 她 不 罵 髒話 那 誰 罵 髒話？ guan1ying3 ta1 bu2 ma4 zang1hua4 na4 shei2 ma4 zang1hua4
‘Guan Ying’ ‘she’ ‘not’ ‘curse’ ‘dirty-words’ ‘then’ ‘who’ ‘curse’ ‘dirty-words’
‘Movie Star: If she does not use dirty language, who would use dirty language?’
(kxll 20130802)
In (29), the female film star answers the chat show host’s question about her newly married life. One of the advantages Guan mentions is being able to swear, just like the other older guest Kuan often does, according to her. The male host protests that Kuan did not swear, to which Guan counters with a rhetorical question – who else swears if not Kuan? By using a rhetorical question, Guan not only reiterates her belief in what she said earlier, but also treats her claim as a self-evident truth. This utterance is also extremely impolite to Kuan, who sits a few seats away. However, in the context of a fun-making chat show, the offensive side of this remark is largely ignored.
Impoliteness is a common phenomenon on media nowadays. (See Bousfield 2008 for example for a general account of impoliteness.) With the popularity of reality TV shows such as chat shows, dating shows and singing competition shows in Taiwan and China, language on TV has become less formal and celebrities and ordinary people on TV are getting bolder in their speech. Impolite language used occasionally and appropriately may help achieve a dramatic effect that no ordinary speech can emulate. Also, because of the unequal power relationships on TV, the dominant groups are more likely to use impolite language. For example, hosts of the shows, referees of singing competitions and female candidates on dating shows are more powerful than the guests, the competitors, and the male suitors respectively. The first group is more likely to produce impolite language than the second.
There are a variety of impolite words and expressions that can be heard on Chinese media today which are often spoken without redressing. Impolite language targeting others may sound like accusing, condemning, challenging, criticizing, belittling, threatening, or insulting.
Impolite language may also center on oneself and does the act of bragging, complaining, self-effacing and so on. Some examples are discussed below to illustrate the range of impolite languages observable from Chinese media today.
(30) a. 徐熙娣：我 覺得 你 講話 很 傷人 耶！

xu2xi1di4 wo3 jue2de5 ni3 jiang3hua4 hen3 shang1ren2 ye5
‘Dee Hsu’ ‘I’ ‘feel’ ‘you’ ‘talk’ ‘very’ ‘hurt-person’ DM
‘Hostess: I think you talk in a harmful way’
(kxll 20130802) b. 徐熙娣：之前 你 在 化妝間 一直 講 她 壞話 你 忘 了 啊？
xu2xi1di4 zhi1qian2 ni3 zai4 hua4zhuang1jian1 yi4zhi2 jiang3 ta1 huai4hua4 ni3 wang4 le5 a5
‘Dee Hsu’ ‘before’ ‘you’ ‘at’ ‘dressing room’ ‘straight’ ‘say’ ‘her’ ‘bad-words’ ‘you’ ‘forget’ AM DM
‘Hostess: Have you forgotten you kept speaking ill of her earlier in the dressing room?’
(kxll 20130725) c. 蔡康永： 她 還沒 跳舞，你 就 把 她 弄 哭！
cai4kang1yong3 ta1 hai2mei2 tiao4wu3 ni3 jiu4 ba3 ta1 nong4 ku1
‘Kevin Tsai’ ‘she’ ‘not het’ ‘dance’ ‘you’ ‘already’ OM ‘her’ ‘handle’ ‘cry’
‘Host: She has not perform dancing yet and you already made her cry!’
(kxll 20130806)
It is customary for the host (Kevin Tsai) and hostess (Dee Hsu) to use impolite language on the popular Taiwan chat show 康熙來了 kang1xi1lai2le5 ‘Kang Xi has come’ to create certain effects which contribute to the distinct character of the show. In (30a), Hsu attacks a guest of the show by accusing him to use harmful language. In (30b) she accuses Kang of speaking ill of a guest on the show in private. In turn, Kang also accuses Hsu from time to time, like that in (30c), where he blames her for making a female guest cry by dwelling on an issue unpleasant for her. Impolite language used like this is for making fun and for creating a tension that makes viewers want to keep on watching. It creates a dramatic effect that cannot be achieved by ordinary, polite language.
(31)
李璐：意思 就是 希望 他 找到 一個 比 自己 差 的 老婆。 li3lu4 yi4si4 jiu4shi4 xi1wang4 ta1 zhao3dao4 yi2ge5 bi3 zi4ji3 cha1 de5 lao3po2
‘Li Lu’ ‘meaning’ ‘just is’ ‘hope’ ‘he’ ‘find-reach’ ‘one-CLA’ ‘compare’ ‘self’ ‘poor’ AD ‘wife’
‘Female Guest: Meaning I hope he would find a wife who is not as good as I am’
孟非： 好 歹毒 的 女人 啊！ meng4fei1 hao3 dai3du2 de5 nv3ren2 a5
‘Meng Fei’ ‘so’ ‘bad-poisonous’ AD ‘woman’ DM
‘Host: What a venomous woman you are!’
(fcwr 20130720)
In (31), the female guest explains her mind-set when breaking up with a boyfriend (that is, wishing his next woman to be a worse person than she is). Upon this, the host of the show condemns her with an overwhelmingly negative word, although this is said in a joking mood accompanied with a smile in the hope of creating a humorous effect rather than a genuine accusation of her character.
(32)
孟非： 黃 老師 這 是 我 認識 她 以來 她 說 過

meng4fei1 huang2 lao3shi1 zhe4 shi4 wo3 ren4shi4 ta1 yi3lai2 ta1 shuo1 guo4
‘Meng Fei’ ‘Huang’ ‘teacher’ ‘this’ ‘is’ ‘I’ ‘know’ ‘her’ ‘since’ ‘she’ ‘say’ EM
‘Host: This is the words Teacher Huang ever said since I knew her’
這 一輩子 我 聽 過 最 不 厚道 的 一 句 話。 zhe4 yi2bei4zi5 wo3 ting1 guo4 zui4 bu4 hou4dao4 de5 yi2 ju4 hua4
‘this’ ‘one life time’ ‘I’ ‘hear’ EM ‘the most’ ‘not’ ‘kind’ AD ‘one’ CLA ‘words’
‘the most unkind sentence I have ever heard in my life’
(fcwr 20130804)
Mr Meng, the host of the dating show, openly attacks the female specialist on the show with the word ‘unkind’ as seen from (32). Again this is interpreted as a fun-making move rather than a serious accusation due to the now established show convention (i.e. the frequent use of banters) and the good-natured smile that accompanies this remark.
(33)
劉真： 小 Ｓ，我 有 出 進階 的，我 送 妳 進階 的。 liu2zhen1 xiao3 S wo3 you3 chu1 jin4jie1 de5 wo3 song4 ni3 jin4jie1 de5
‘Liu Zhen’ ‘small’ ‘S’ ‘I’ ‘have’ ‘issue’ ‘advanced’ AD ‘I’ ‘give’ ‘you’ ‘advanced’ AD
‘Female Guest: Little-S, I also published advanced version; I’ll give you the advanced version’
徐熙娣：少 囉嗦！我 還 需要 妳 教 嗎？我 還 需要 嗎？ xu2xi1di4 shao3 luo1suo5 wo3 hai2 xu1yao4 ni3 jiao1 ma5 wo3 hai2 xu1yao4 ma5
‘Dee Hsu’ ‘few’ ‘wordy’ ‘I’ ‘still’ ‘need’ ‘you’ ‘teach’ QM ‘I’ ‘still’ ‘need’ QM
‘Hostess: Shut up! Do I really need your instruction? Do I need it?’
(kxll 201090429)
Dee Hsu speaks in her provocative style in example (33), where she is interacting with a celebrity dancer who has just published a ballroom dancing book. It is customary for such celebrities to give newly published books or CDs to hosts of TV shows in their promotion tour, but Hsu refuses to accept the gift on the ground that she is no less a good dancer than the guest. She challenges Liu, the dancer, with a series of rhetorical questions and exaggerating dancing movements. The result is both of them start to dance vigorously in competition, creating a rather unique entertaining effect.
(34)
寧財神： 我 覺得… 兩百 出頭。 ning4cai2shen2 wo3 jue2de5 liang3bai3 chu1tou2
‘Ning Caishen’ ‘I’ ‘feel’ ‘two-hundred’ ‘emerge-head’
‘Male Specialist: I think a little more than two hundred’
黃菡： 你 到底 是 不會 算術 啊， huang2han4 ni3 dao4di3 shi4 bu2hui4 suan4shu4 a5
‘Huang Han4’ ‘you’ ‘reach-bottom’ ‘are’ ‘not-able’ ‘arithmetic’ DM
‘Female Specialist: Are you able to do arithmetic at all?’
還是 不 關心 非誠勿擾？ hai2shi4 bu4 guan1xin1 fei1cheng2wu4rao3
‘or’ ‘not’ ‘care’ ‘not-sincere-do not-disturb’

‘Female Specialist: or do you not care about the FCWR program?’
(fcwr 20130804)
Example (34) is an excerpt from an episode of FCWR, where the host of the show and the two residential love-and-marriage specialists discuss how many couples the program has matched since broadcasting. The newly joined male specialist has little idea and offers an estimate (200), which the female senior specialist thinks unreasonable (the actual number at that time is 511). The female specialist therefore criticizes the male specialist on two grounds: either he is poor at arithmetic or he has not paid enough attention to the program.
This is of course another ‘faked’ impolite remark offered for its entertainment value rather than to put the male specialist on the spot. However, all these examples give us a good idea of what real impolite languages are like in Chinese society.
(35)
蔡康永： 邱瓈寬 酒品 怎麼樣？ cai4kang1yong3 qiu1li2kuan1 jing3pin3 zen3mo5yang4
‘Kevin Tsai’ ‘Qiu Likuan’ ‘wine-character’ ‘how about’
‘Host: How about Qiu Likuan’s drinking personality?’
徐熙娣：她 酒品 好像── xu2xi1di4 ta1 jiu3pin3 hao3xiang4
‘Dee Hsu’ ‘she’ ‘wine-character’ ‘seem’
‘Hostess: Her drinking personality seems’
她 就 算 不 喝酒， 品 也 很 差 啊！ ta1 jiu4 suan4 bu4 he1jiu3 pin3 ye3 hen3 cha1 a5
‘she’ ‘as soon’ ‘count’ ‘not’ ‘drink-wine’ ‘character’ ‘also’ ‘very’ ‘bad’ DM
‘Even if she does not drink, her personality is also bad’
(kxll 20130802)
In example (35), the host of the chat show asks his co-host what she thinks of the drinking personality of one of the guests. Hsu starts to answer, apparently thinking while she talks, and quickly makes a repair, rephrasing her answer in a different direction. The new answer she comes up with is more degrading than the severed original response – that the guest’s personality is bad regardless of whether she drinks or not. This kind of impolite talk is not peculiar to the show business setting. Dialogues (35) with slight modifications can very well happen among ordinary people, whether as a joke or with a real intention to hurt.
(36)
徐熙娣：我 最 怕 氣球 耶。你 如果 敢 爆炸 你 就 完蛋 了！ xu2xi1di4 wo3 zui4 pa4 qi4qiu2 ye5 ni3 ru2guo3 gan3 bao4zha4 ni3 jiu4 wan2dan4 le5
‘Dee Hsu’ ‘I’ ‘most’ ‘afraid’ ‘balloon’ DM ‘you’ ‘if’ ‘dare’ ‘explode’ ‘you’ ‘then’ ‘finish-egg’ AM
‘Hostess: I am most afraid of balloons. If you dare blow it up, you are finished!’
(kxll 20130726)

Example (36) shows impolite language of a threatening kind. Hsu uses the subjunctive sentence If you… then… and fill it in with the derogatory term 完蛋 ‘done for’ – a result the listener would suffer if he blows up the balloon and frightens her. The threatening act would be less powerful and dramatic without the support of the derogative term. Again, this expression could happen in ordinary life, either as a joke among people who are very familiar with each other or by persons giving serious warning before inflicting harm.
(37) a. 徐熙娣： 周定緯 真的 會 覺得 你們 很 賤 吧。
xu2xi1di4 zhou1ding4wei3 zhen1de5 hui4 jue2de5 ni3men5 hen3 jian4 ba5
‘Dee Hsu’ ‘Zhou Dingwei’ ‘really’ ‘will’ ‘feel’ ‘you-PM’ ‘very’ ‘despicable’ DM
‘Hostess: Zhou Dingwei will definitely consider you despicable, won’t he?’
(kxll 20130807) b. 沈玉琳： 搞 甚麼 啊？你 這個 下三濫 的 東西！
shen3yu4lin2 gao3 she2mo5 a5 ni3 zhe4ge5 xia4san1lan4 de5 dong1xi1
‘Shen Yulin’ ‘do’ ‘what’ DM ‘you’ ‘this’ ‘down-three-flood’ AD ‘thing’
‘Host: What are you doing? You despicable thing!’
(mrthk 20130723)
Arguably the most impolite language is profanity. The use of obscene language can be heard on some TV shows, especially associated with certain TV personalities. Dee Hsu, in (37a), uses the expression 很賤 ‘very low and cheap’ to implicate the dancing performance of a celebrity married couple. This expression is rarely heard in daily conversations, unless someone wants to refer to a person who they consider really disgraceful and despicable.
However, the act Hsu refers to by this expression is not low or cheap at all. This is just another instance of impolite language used to create dramatic effect on the show. In (37b),
Mr Shen is using a derogatory term 下三濫 ‘the lowest possible’ to attack a male guest on the show for an exaggeratingly dramatic effect. In actual life this could be heard only in extreme conditions such as a verbal fight.
Sometimes the impolite language targets the speaker themself rather than the listener. This could mean self-effacing remarks that make others feel uncomfortable, complaining, or bragging.
(38)
楊懿人： 那 你 可以 幫 我 想 一下 嗎？ yang2yi4ren2 na4 ni3 ke3yi3 bang1 wo3 xiang3 yi2xia4 ma5
‘Yang Yiren’ ‘then’ ‘you’ ‘can’ ‘help’ ‘me’ ‘think’ ‘one-bit’ QM
‘Female Guest: Would you be able to think of something for me then?’
孟非： 我 要 能 想 得 出來 我 就 不是 人。

meng4fei1 wo3 yao4 neng2 xiang3 de5 chu1lai2 wo3 jiu4 bu2shi4 ren2
‘Meng Fei’ ‘I’ ‘want’ ‘can’ ‘think ’ VC ‘exit’ ‘I’ ‘then’ ‘not-is’ ‘human’
‘Host: If I could think of anything I would not be a human’
The host of the show, Mr Meng, uses a self-effacing remark ‘I would not be a human’ as a means to rejecting the female guest’s proposal for him to come up with an idea for her. This remark sounds a bit rude in in a pompous dating show with 24 exquisitely dressed female guests. But perhaps it is the sharp contrast between the formal setting and the vulgar expression that is meant to create a certain effect.
(39)
朱斯慧： 像 我 這麼 優秀 的 女生， 我 也 願意 裸婚 啊！ zhu1si1hui4 xiang4 wo3 zhe4mo5 you1xiu4 de5 nv3sheng1 wo3 ye3 yuan4yi4 luo3hun1 a5
‘Zhu Sihui’ ‘like’ ‘me’ ‘such’ ‘outstanding’ AD ‘girl’ ‘I’ ‘also’ ‘willing’ ‘naked-wedding’ DM
‘Host: Such an outstanding girl as I am also willing to accept marriage without a dowry’
(wmyhb 20130717)
Bragging is one of the conspicuous features in the repertoire of impolite languages seen on
Chinese TV today. Not all persons appearing on TV brag. It seems to tie with certain individuals who are in the habit of talking with a bragging mind-set. Zhu, for example, is a female guest on one of the dozens of dating shows on Chinese TV. She utters the line shown in (39) which praises herself and then uses the praise as a basis for showing how valuable her opinion is in the second TCU of her turn.
Conclusion
From the analyses of Chinese talks using some prominent theoretical frameworks in discourse analysis, we found many interesting facts about the Chinese discourse. All the discourse theories and models used in this chapter are supported by examples of Chinese talk. Many unique features used by the Chinese language to carry out the discourse functions derived from the theories have also been found. Throughout the example-byexample analyses, we gradually build up a profile of the Chinese discourse which can be understood via the discourse theories we have used and those we have left untouched. This chapter offers a good foundation for understanding and studying the Chinese discourse: from how native speakers do things with words (speech acts) to how people take turns speaking, make repairs, and select keywords for their contributions (conversation structure). This chapter also touches upon the important concepts of politeness and impoliteness in discourse and uses plenty of examples to illustrate the range of polite and impolite languages that could be heard on the Chinese media (and daily life too) today.

The influence of the Chinese culture on its language is obvious in many ways, especially in the areas of vocabulary and discourse. Apart from lexical items expressing common notions such as ‘human’ 人 , ‘tree’ 樹 , ‘clothes’ 衣服 , ‘sleep’ 睡覺 and so on, there are units of expression reflecting the emphasis of the culture. Some areas of the Chinese culture are touched upon below with sample or representative terms given in each section.
Food
The Chinese love life and enjoy living. For many, a good life consists of good eating. There are many terms and expressions denoting all kinds of food and particular ways of cooking, eating, the effect of and the philosophy about eating, and so on. For example, there are more than 20 established terms describing how meat (normally pork) is prepared or cooked in Chinese.
 滷肉 lu3rou4 ‘meat stewed with soy sauce’
 炒肉 chao3rou4 ‘stirred-fried meat’
 煎肉 jian1rou4 ‘meat fried in fat or oil’
 炸肉 zha4rou4 ‘deep-fried meat’
 烤肉 kao3rou4 ‘roast meat’
 控肉 kong4rou4 ‘overcooked soy sauce stewed meat’
 扣肉 kou4rou4 ‘braised meat’
 燉肉 dun1rou4 ‘stewed meat’
 滑肉 hua2rou4 ‘slippery meat’
 蒸肉 zheng1rou4 ‘steamed meat’
 燻肉 xun1rou4 ‘smoked meat’
 臘肉 la4rou4 ‘cured meat’
 悶肉 men1rou4 ‘stewed meat’
 煲 肉 bao3rou4 ‘meat stewed in pot’
 回鍋肉 hui2guo1rou4 ‘twice cooked meat’
 糖醋肉 tang2cu4rou4 ‘sweet and sour meat’
 水煮肉 shui3zhu3rou4 ‘meat braised in hot broth’
 鹽椒肉 yan2jiao1rou4 ‘salt and pepper meat’
 蔥爆肉 cong1bao4rou4 ‘meat with scallion’
 咖哩肉 ka1li3rou4 ‘curry meat’
 木須肉 mu4xu1rou4 ‘Moo Shu meat’
Family/ancestry

Family and ancestry are important concepts for Chinese. Children learn to be respectful of parents and parents take care of children for life. The term 孝順 xiao4shun4 ‘be devoted and obedient (to parents)’ does not have an equivalent in English, even though parents and children are also known to be affectionate to each other in the western culture. 祖先
zu3xian1 ‘ancestors’ is also an important term, which always commands respect and thought on the part of Chinese persons. 祭拜祖先 ji4bai4 zu3xian1 ‘offer sacrifice to the ancestry’ is something the Chinese regularly do to show respect to ancestors in their family trees. The magnitude of the ceremony is on a par with the worship of religious icons.
Religion
On the whole, the Chinese people are not very religious. As Buddhism was the major religion to be imported into China, it has the most long-lasting influence in Chinese people’s lives. Buddhist temples can be seen in large quantities in China, of which 少林寺
shao4lin2si4 ‘Shaolin Temple’ is probably the most famous. Just like temples to land, a lot of
Buddhist terms also made themselves into the Chinese language. For example, 菩薩心腸
pu2sa4xin1chang2 ‘Buddha heart’ is a positive phrase to describe a very kind-hearted person or an extremely kind aptitude. Most people are only lightly touched by religion, however. Chinese people believe in hardworking with their own hands to create better lives.
Philosophy
Again, the common life philosophy for the Chinese people is hardworking – working for yourself, your parents and your children for life. The concept of ‘family’ is constantly on their minds and direct their life decisions. A Chinese person can go overseas to work and live in hardship but with higher wages so their family at home can enjoy a better life on the money sent periodically from thousands of miles away.
An important name in the Chinese history is 孔子 kong3zi3 ‘Confucius’ who lived in the 5 th century BC as an educationist and a politician travelling across the divided country to promote his pro-monarchy theory. Traditionally, Confucianism has been upheld as the nation’s guiding ideology because it “advocates centralized government and the maintenance of hierarchy” (Shi & Chen 2011, p. 30). To some extent, Confucianism still serves this function in present day China.
Another important philosophy is Taoism or Daoism. The representative names are 老子
‘Laozi’ and 莊子 ‘Zhuangzi’ or collectively, 老莊 ‘Laozi and Zhuangzi’. Taoism advocates naturalness and ‘do nothing’ as things have their own ‘ways’ ( 道 ) of happening, regulated by
Nature. Taoism reflects Chinese people’s quality of being kind, friendly, unassertive in interpersonal interactions and relatively impassive to public affairs, allowing themselves to be governed by any reasonable rulers.
Literature

Classical Chinese poems are still learned in schools today, as well as being cited occasionally in texts and daily conversations. Some poems created by great poets such as 李白 ‘Li Bai’ from Tang Dynasty with rhymed and paralleled verses are especially popular. The following couplet is an excerpt from one of his poems:
天 生 我 材 必 有 用， 千 金 散 盡 還 復 來。 tian1 sheng1 wo3 cai2 bi4 you3 yong4 qian1 jin1 san4 jin4 hai2 fu4 lai2
‘heaven’ ‘produce’ ‘I’ ‘material’ ‘must’ ‘have’ ‘use’ ‘thousand’ ‘gold’ ‘spend’ ‘finish’ ‘still’ ‘repeat’ ‘come’
‘The talents I was born with must be useful in some ways. Money will be earned again after being spent’
At the other end of the literature spectrum, there are some well-received traditional novels which have become national treasures and internationally famous, such as 西遊記 ‘Journey to the West’, 三國演義 ‘Romance of the Three Kingdoms’, 紅樓夢 ‘Dream of the Red
Chamber’ and so on. English translations of many such novels are available on the book market worldwide.
Politics
China had been ruled by emperors and warlords until the last monarch was overthrown in
1911, upon which China would have developed gradually into a full-fledged democratic country if it had not fallen again to the hands of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in 1949.
Today, the big star on China’s national flag shows the unquestionable and unchallengeable sovereignty of CCP over China. The political monopoly is reassured through education, media and information control, and crackdown on any sign of democratic movement.
Taiwan
The government of Taiwan represents the political party (i.e. the Nationalist Party, or KMT) which led the revolution in 1911 that overthrew the Qing Dynasty. The life of the Republic of
China (ROC) began in 1912, which was the first year in the country’s independent calendar, called 中華民國紀年 ‘calendar of the ROC’. This is still the official calendar system in
Taiwan. Thus, Taiwan year 103, or 中華民國 103 年 ‘year 103 of the ROC’, is converted to year 103 + 1911 = 2014 of the Western calendar.
The KMT (or 國民黨 ), after being defeated by CCP in 1949 and relocating to Taiwan, initially ruled by monoparty authoritarianism just like the current CCP in China. However, with a series of successful democratic movements from the grassroots, a strong opposition party, the Democratic Progressive Party ( 民主進步黨 ), was established in 1986, and the first direct
Presidential election took place in 1996. From then on, Taiwan has become a fully democratic country with multiparty electoral competition, a parliament (called Legislative

Yuan) with elected members of parliament, free information flow and politically free speech.
Communications between two sides of the Taiwan Strait have become increasing frequent in recent years due to the recent open policy of China and the need of Taiwanese people to seek entrepreneurship in Mainland. There was a period of some 30 years, however, in which there were few interactions between Taiwan and China. The Chinese languages evolved independently in both regions during this period, which resulted in some dramatic differences, especially in terms of the pronunciation of Mandarin and the vocabulary.
In Taiwan, Mandarin was made the official language after KMT set up the government in
1949. The phonetic system used in Taiwan to teach Mandarin, called Zhuyin fuhao ( 注音符
號 ) or simply Zhuyin, dated back to 1913 when KMT was still in power in China. Zhuyin looks different from the Pinyin system released by the government of China in 1958. Table 0.3 contrasts the symbols used in both systems.
Table 0.3: The Zhuyin and the Pinyin symbols for consonants and vowels used in Mandarin
Consonants
Zhuyin ㄅ ㄆ ㄇ ㄈ ㄉ ㄊ ㄋ ㄌ ㄍ ㄎ ㄏ ㄐ ㄑ ㄒ
Pinyin b p m f d t n l g k h j q x
Zhuyin ㄓ ㄔ ㄕ ㄖ ㄗ ㄘ ㄙ ㄧ ㄨ ㄩ
Pinyin zh ch sh r z c s y w yu
Vowels
Zhuyin ㄚ ㄛ ㄜ ㄝ ㄞ ㄟ ㄠ ㄡ ㄢ ㄣ ㄤ ㄥ ㄦ
Pinyin a o e e ai ei au ou an en ang eng er
Note: The semivowels ㄧ , ㄨ , and ㄩ are used both as consonants and as vowels
Initially, the Zhuyin may seem difficult and an extra burden to learn. However, once the symbols are learned with the correct phonetic associations made, the subsequent learning of Mandarin syllables, phrases and sentences by Zhuyin are made easier than that with
Pinyin (See Flynn 2010, for example).
Because of the influence of the Southern Min dialect widely spoken in Taiwan, the pronunciation of some Mandarin sounds may be slightly different between a Taiwanese and a Mainland speaker. For example, some Taiwanese speakers may pronounce the retroflex sounds zh, ch and sh not very differently from their non-retroflex counterparts z, c and s, and the vowel eng may be spoken not adequately differently from en. However, the phonetic differences are negligible on the whole and generally do not affect communication so long as both parties are using standard Mandarin.
Another noticeable difference between Mainland and Taiwanese Chinese is in the department of vocabulary, as a result of four decades of non-communication between the two parties. For example, when the personal computer became available from the 1970s, it was called 電腦 ‘electric brain’ in Taiwan but 計算機 ‘calculating machine’ in China.

Nowadays, both terms are used by the Mainlanders but the Taiwanese never called a computer a ‘calculating machine’. More examples of common vocabulary differences are shown in Table 0.4 below.
Table 0.4: Examples of different vocabulary items for the same concept between Mainland and Taiwanese Chinese
English potato pineapple tomato instant noodle bus platform
(train station) taxi take a cab
Taiwanese
馬鈴薯
鳳梨
蕃茄
泡麵
公車
月臺
計程車
搭計程車
Mainland
土豆
波萝
西红柿
方 便 面
公交
站台
出租车
打车
English director lavatory software
Sydney
Taiwanese
主管
員警 police restaurant 餐廳 boxed lunch 便當
洗手間
軟體
雪梨
New Zealand 紐西蘭
Mainland
领导
公安
食堂
盒饭
卫生间
软件
悉尼
新西兰
Note there are also vocabulary items which exist on one side but not the other. For example, 失獨 ‘lose only (child)’ is not a lexicalized term in Taiwan and cannot be easily comprehended there, until one realizes that there are potentially a larger number of older people in China who have lost their only child and become childless due to the one-child birth control policy. 失獨家庭 ‘losing single child family’ and 失獨老人 ‘losing single child old persons’ are thus common terms in China but not so in Taiwan. Conversely, 檳榔西施
‘betel nut beauty’ (a woman wearing revealing clothes selling betel nuts to motorists as refreshments on roadside) is a phenomenon particular to Taiwan and the Mainlanders will not be familiar with this concept unless they have visited Taiwan. 立委 ‘member of parliament’ is not a popular term in China as there is no such mechanism in China. 城管
‘urban management officer’, on the other hand, is not a familiar term to Chinese speakers in
Taiwan as no equivalent posts exist there.