{"title":"“Write oneself into being”– <i>Ha</i> as an interpersonal pragmatic marker on WeChat","authors":"Xiaoyi Bi, Elizabeth Marsden","doi":"10.1515/pr-2022-0035","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"Abstract The pragmatic marker ha 哈 in Mandarin, has little meaning in itself; while some studies have looked into its usage in spoken discourse, we seek to address its usage and unpack its specific interpersonal pragmatic function in online, private, dyadic discourse, itself an underexplored area, and a setting in which participants are free from public scrutiny, unlike on mass social media. The results demonstrate that it can be attached to clauses and sentences to show the affect of the writer, from indicating a jocular and playful tone to softening a request. Therefore, ha is used as a way to express different types of rapport orientations and positive self-presentation. By drawing on personal WeChat messages, this paper bridges the gap by focusing on ha in technologically-mediated conversation. The expanding usage of ha also suggests a wish to create linguistic forms which can act as substitutes for non-verbal communication features.","PeriodicalId":45897,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Politeness Research-Language Behaviour Culture","volume":"78 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":1.4000,"publicationDate":"2023-09-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Journal of Politeness Research-Language Behaviour Culture","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1515/pr-2022-0035","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"0","JCRName":"LANGUAGE & LINGUISTICS","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Abstract The pragmatic marker ha 哈 in Mandarin, has little meaning in itself; while some studies have looked into its usage in spoken discourse, we seek to address its usage and unpack its specific interpersonal pragmatic function in online, private, dyadic discourse, itself an underexplored area, and a setting in which participants are free from public scrutiny, unlike on mass social media. The results demonstrate that it can be attached to clauses and sentences to show the affect of the writer, from indicating a jocular and playful tone to softening a request. Therefore, ha is used as a way to express different types of rapport orientations and positive self-presentation. By drawing on personal WeChat messages, this paper bridges the gap by focusing on ha in technologically-mediated conversation. The expanding usage of ha also suggests a wish to create linguistic forms which can act as substitutes for non-verbal communication features.
期刊介绍:
The Journal of Politeness Research responds to the urgent need to provide an international forum for the discussion of all aspects of politeness as a complex linguistic and non-linguistic phenomenon. Politeness has interested researchers in fields of academic activity as diverse as business studies, foreign language teaching, developmental psychology, social psychology, sociolinguistics, linguistic pragmatics, social anthropology, cultural studies, sociology, communication studies, and gender studies. The journal provides an outlet through which researchers on politeness phenomena from these diverse fields of interest may publish their findings and where it will be possible to keep up to date with the wide range of research published in this expanding field.