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The Function of the Sentence-Final Particle ba as Discourse Marker

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From Minimal Contrast to Meaning Construct

Part of the book series: Frontiers in Chinese Linguistics ((FiCL,volume 9))

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Abstract

At present, nearly 20 different meanings have been identified for the sentence-final particle ba. But due to the limitations of the corpora, a comprehensive analysis is still lacking. It is pointed out that Our understanding of ba is not comprehensive enough and the discourse functions of ba in interpersonal communication, the contextual background of its usage, the discourse sequence and the discourse purpose are ignored. By studying the natural spoken corpus of two-way communication and considering the discourse sequence, two neglected functions of the sentence-final particle ba are found as the argumentativity marker and the expectation marker.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Qiu (2010) considers qiao as an expectation marker.

Abbreviations

Asp:

Aspectual marker

CL:

Classifiers

Conj:

Conjunction

Mod:

Modal particle

Neg:

Negation

Prep:

Preposition

Stru:

Structural auxiliary

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Linguistic Sciences, Beijing Language and Culture University, Beijing, China

    Minfeng Wang

  2. Overseas Education College, Fujian Normal University, Fuzhou, China

    Minfeng Wang

Authors
  1. Minfeng Wang
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Minfeng Wang .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. School of Foreign Languages, Peking University, Beijing, China

    Qi Su

  2. Chinese Language and Literature, Peking University, Beijing, China

    Weidong Zhan

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Wang, M. (2020). The Function of the Sentence-Final Particle ba as Discourse Marker. In: Su, Q., Zhan, W. (eds) From Minimal Contrast to Meaning Construct. Frontiers in Chinese Linguistics, vol 9. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-32-9240-6_1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-32-9240-6_1

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Singapore

  • Print ISBN: 978-981-32-9239-0

  • Online ISBN: 978-981-32-9240-6

  • eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)

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