Keneng 可能 ‘may’

Keneng 可能 ‘may’ semantically denotes the meaning of ‘possibility’. Liu et al.

(2010) indicate that Chinese keneng 可能 ‘may’ is used to express objective possibility, and it is generally employed to predict future actions or virtual situations. Li (2004: 138) asserts that keneng 可能 is “a modal verbs specialized for epistemic possibility.” Epistemic modality helps the speaker to modulate the guarantee of “to the best of my knowledge”, as pointed out by Saeed (2003: 135). In Chinese conversation, Chen (2008) observes that while making a conjecture, the speaker uses keneng 可能 to alienate herself from taking full commitment to the proposition. In Chinese writing, Lo (2010) finds that keneng 可能 is frequently used by the authors to express their uncertainty. For example, when the author is providing tentative reasons, making possible predictions or inferences, keneng 可能 helps to downplay the author’s degree of commitment.

In my database, keneng 可能 ‘may’ is employed by the speakers/writers to express epistemic possibility, as examples in (79) and (80), to make predictions, as in (81) and (82) ,

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and to make suggestions, as in (83) and (84). Two other communicative purposes are

identified only in the spoken discourse, in that keneng 可能 ‘may’ is used to show politeness and make tentative invitations. The following examples extracted from my databank

demonstrate various hedging functions found in both genres:

(79) 我大概稍微粗..粗.粗..eh 粗估過 hon，所以大約的風險可能還是在環衛人員

‘I approximately slightly did a rough .. rough..eh roughly estimate, so the possible risk may still fall on sanitation staff. Approximately.. among every one hundred people .. its incidence may be able to reach more than ten percent.’

(80) 體溫過低，發燒，低血壓，心搏過速，呼吸急促都可能是敗血症的徵兆。

(W1)

Tǐwēnguò dī, fāshāo, dī xiěyā, xīn bóguò sù, hūxī jícù dōu kěnéng shì bàixiězhèng de zhēngzhào.

‘Hypothermia, fever, hypotension, tachycardia, shortness of breath may be a sign of sepsis.’

(81) 我們致病菌沒有找到的時候，我們在<E empiric theropy E>,你可能失敗的機

會就會比較高hon.所以你..這個時候..有可能會落入沒效的ㄧ個情況。 (S4)

Wǒmen zhì bìng jùn méiyǒu zhǎodào de shíhòu, wǒmen zài empiric theropy, nǐ kěnéng shībài de jīhuì jiù huì bǐjiào gāo hon. Suǒyǐ nǐ.. Zhège shíhòu.. Yǒu kěnéng huì luò rù méi xiào deyi1 gè qíngkuàng.

‘when we did not find bacteria, we in empiric therapy, the chance you may fail will be higher, so you .. at this moment .. there may be a case did not fall into efficiency.’

(82) 氣候變遷使得海水中有毒海藻及重金屬增加，加上殺蟲劑的使用，可能會 造成神經系統受損。(W2)

Qìhòu biànqiān shǐdé hǎishuǐ zhōng yǒudú hǎizǎo jí zhòngjīnshǔ zēngjiā, jiā shàng shā chóng jì de shǐyòng, kěnéng huì zàochéng shénjīng xìtǒng shòu sǔn.

‘Climate change makes the toxic heavy metals in sea water and algae increase, coupled with the use of pesticides may cause nervous system damage.’

(83) 在這群人員,我們的教育的重點可能就會擺在 hon,就是或許不是在技術上,或 者是..一些新工的提醒 hon.當然不是 hon.可能在在職教育的過程中 hon,可能

還是要不斷地提醒啦hon (S9)

Zài zhè qún rényuán, wǒmen de jiàoyù de zhòngdiǎn kěnéng jiù huì bǎi zài hon, jiùshì huòxǔ bùshì zài jìshù shàng, huòzhě shì.. Yīxiē xīn gōng de tíxǐng hon.

Dāngrán bùshì hon. Kěnéng zài zàizhí jiàoyù de guòchéng zhōng hon, kěnéng háishì yào bùduàn de tíxǐng la hon

‘In this group of people, our educational focus may put in.. that is, perhaps not in the technology, or in the orientation.. Of course not. It may be put in the course of in-service education, or you may still have to constantly remind them.’

(84) 舉例來說，早期癌症的失眠患者或許能用抗憂鬱藥，鎮靜劑，或安眠劑，

有效地治療。而晚期或轉移性癌症病人可能首要的則是適當處理癌症疼 痛。(W2)

Jǔlì lái shuō, zǎoqí áizhèng de shīmián huànzhě huòxǔ néng yòng kàng yōuyù yào, zhènjìngjì, huò ānmián jì, yǒuxiào de zhìliáo. Ér wǎnqí huò zhuǎnyí xìng áizhèng bìngrén kěnéng shǒuyào de zé shì shìdàng chǔlǐ áizhèng téngtòng.

‘For example, early cancer patients with insomnia may be treated effectively with antidepressants, sedatives, or hypnotic agents. But for advanced or

metastatic cancer patients, the primary treatment may be appropriate treatment for the cancer pain.’

Keneng 可能 ‘may’ of examples (79) and (80) are used as the most common expression to express the sense of epistemic possibility. In these two examples, (79) deserves particular attention. The objective possibility of the first keneng refers to the working position and the second keneng to the estimated percentage. Besides keneng, the speaker uses several other hedges in his utterances, which intensely reduce his commitment to the proposition. In the first clause, three lexical hedges, dagai 大概 ‘approximately’, shaowei 稍微 ‘slightly’, and tsuku 粗估‘roughly estimate’ are employed while in the second clause, dayue 大約

‘approximately’ is utilized. The intentive use of hedges shows the speaker’s tentativeness as well as modesty in communication. Keneng 可能 ‘may’ in examples (81) and (82) are used to make predictions. In (81), the speaker predicts what may be the possible consequences when events occurring under certain conditions. The writers of (82) use keneng 可能 to make a prediction which is based on objective natural phenomena, the climate change. The serious consequence has not yet been scientifically verified, so the writers hedge their

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statements by using keneng 可能‘may’. As “there will always be some uncertainty in prognosis” (Smith et al. 2013: 2448), keneng helps the writers to avoid making a full commitment to their predictions. Keneng in (83) and (84) are used to make humble

suggestions. In his lecture, the speaker of (83) declares that sanitation workers are the group of people who suffer from the needlestick injury the most. Those people are not educated with how to prevent this problem when they entered the hospital. Therefore, the speaker suggests that this module issue can be included in the orientation and service education for sanitation workers. Keneng in (84) is used to make a remedy suggestion for the advanced or metastatic cancer patients. For those patients, the primary treatment would be appropriately relieving cancer pain. Keneng makes the writers’ proposal sound less assertive and more acceptable to the readers. Without this hedge, the statement would sound like an absolute claim. All in all, keneng 可能 ‘may’ helps to reduce the illocutionary force, and turn the statement into a moderate suggestion.

In addition to the above usages, there are two other communicative purposes of keneng observed only in the spoken data, which go beyond expressing possibility and making prediction. It functions as a politeness strategy and serves as an invitation. Keneng in

examples (85) and (86) displays speakers’ politeness, which enables speakers to mitigate the force of the statement and meanwhile minimize the potential FTA:

(85) 那..有些同仁問說..奇怪,以前喔,我們在學校的時候,老師告訴我們說,看病不 能夠看..看--不能夠用..用儀器來看病.最重要的是我們要..有..很好的一些

PE¹⁷跟NE¹⁸啊.那現在的--到現在為止說..有時候發現說,啊我們可能不只是

要有很好的..醫學訓練,我們大概也很重要的需要一些..高科技的一些..儀器 啊,來幫助我們診斷. (S3)

Nà.. Yǒuxiē tóngrén wèn shuō.. Qíguài, yǐqián ō, wǒmen zài xuéxiào de shíhòu, lǎoshī gàosù wǒmen shuō, kànbìng bùnénggòu kàn.. Kàn--bù néng gòu yòng..

Yòng yíqì lái kànbìng. Zuì zhòngyào de shì wǒmen yào.. Yǒu.. Hěn hǎo de yīxiē        

17  Physical Examination.

18 Neurological Examination.

PE gēn NE a. Nà xiànzài de--dào xiànzài wéizhǐ shuō.. Yǒu shíhòu fāxiàn shuō, a wǒmen kěnéng bù zhǐshì yào yǒu hěn hǎo de.. Yīxué xùnliàn, wǒmen dàgài yě hěn zhòngyào de xūyào yīxiē.. Gāo kējì de yīxiē.. Yíqì a, lái bāngzhù wǒmen zhěnduàn.

‘then some of my colleagues asked, .. it is strange.. before oh, when we are at school, the teacher told us that the doctor can not see .. can not ..see patients with equipments. The most important is that we have to .. have .. well with some PE NE ah that now - until now .. sometimes it is argued that ah we may not just have a good .. medical training, we probably is also very important to take some .. some .. hi-tech instruments ah, to help us diagnose.’

(86) 那至於第二點,教授所提的那個..像很特殊的疾病,在你那邊治療..應該是..嘖! wǒ yěshì bù dǒng, háishì yàoqǐng chén jiàoshòu bāngmáng de.

‘As to the second point, the professor mentioned that .. like the very special diseases treatment .. should be taken care of in your department. Her

fundamental problems may need to be treated by you. If she has questions on reproduction, then we can help. Because it needs a very special treatment, I actuall do not have the knowledge. Thus, we still need Professor Shen, your help.’

In modern times, it is a reality and worldwide tendency to make use of high-tech equipments in the medical field. HOS is an educational hospital; therefore, it always takes a lead to purchase the most recent and advanced facilities to provide the best service for patients.

Example (85) is produced by a host who is introducing the topic of the lecture, and it is concerned with the most advanced model of a CT scanner. Earlier, the speaker mentioned that some colleagues recalled that when they studied in the medical school, they were taught to treat patients with professional training instead of relying on equipments. Recalling this, the speaker adopts the modal verb keneng 可能 ‘may’ to hedge his utterance in order to avoid

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potential FTAs on the traditional medical school professors. If the modal keneng is left out, the statement would sound assertive, and at the same time it may overthrow the theory those physicians learned from their school professors. Furthermore, since some of the audiences from other departments may rely more on their medical training and clinical experience than high-tech apparatus on the diagnoses and medical treatment, statements extolling advanced high-tech apparatus may sound imposing upon those physicians’ specialties. In view of the above possible offenses, keneng 可能 is utilized as a politeness strategy, and it enables the speaker to avoid potential FTAs. The speaker’s attempt in mitigating his assertion is also evidently supported by the following hedging adverb dagai 大概 ‘probably’, which helps to prevent the statement from overvaluing the importance of high-tech apparatus. Keneng of (9) also serves as a politeness strategy, functioning to alleviate the speaker’s decline. The

interaction occurs in the Q & A section, in that the questioner is an expert in Hematology &

Oncology, and he would like to know how modern technology of infertility may help with his Hemophilia patients who also suffer from infertility. Since the speaker’s specialty is infelicity, he may not have professional knowledge about Hemophilia. The auxiliary yingai 應該

‘should’ in the truncated sentence zài nǐ nàbiān zhìliáo..yīnggāi shì..在你那邊治療..應該 是..reveals that the speaker thinks Hemophilia patents should be taken care of in the

questioner’s department since it is a special disease. The unfinished part of the sentence may probably be zhengque-de 正確的 ‘accurate’ or bijiao shidang 比較適當 ‘more

appropriate’. Presumably the speaker senses the answer may sound like a rebuff, so he suddenly suspends his utterance. The speaker then reinitiates a sentence with keneng 可能 to mitigate his refusal to take over the Hemophilia patients as a straightforward rejection would sound rude. Not to mislead the questioner and the audiences to the idea that the speaker is unwilling to treat patients with special disease, he then clarifies his thought. The speaker explains that the fundamental treatment of Hemophilia had better be carried out in

Hematology & Oncology department since it involves medical specialty, and he then adds on that if Hemophilia patients have the problem of infelicity, the infelicity team, including the speaker, can offer assistance for them. The speaker further confesses that since Hemophilia is a special disease, he himself does not have the professional knowledge for the treatment. He then gives praise to Dr. Shen, the questioner, by saying that he might need Dr. Shen’s help one day. In this example, keneng 可能 represents two functions. On the one hand, it helps the speaker turn down the questioner’s request while minimizing the FTA simultaneously, and on the other hand, it reveals that the assertion to keep Hemophilia patients in the certain

department is due to the questioner’s unmatched profession.

Keneng 可能 in (87) and (88) is used to invite he addressee to give a comment on a certain issue:

(87) 當然這方面我們還需要..肝膽胃腸科的專家,可能孫副幫我們<E comment E>

一下,這雖然是我們的共識啦. (S10)

Dāngrán zhè fāngmiàn wǒmen hái xūyào.. Gāndǎn wèicháng kē de zhuānjiā, kěnéng sūn fù bāng wǒmen comment yīxià, zhè suīrán shì wǒmen de gòngshì la.

‘Of course in this regard, we also need .. the specialists from Hepatobiliary Division of Gastroenterology. Dr. Sun may help to give a comment, although this is our common sonsensus.’

(88) 但是執行率 hon,就是一個很大的問題 hon.這個，我想可能待會再請我們劉 主任說明。(S4)

Dànshì zhíxíng lǜ hon, jiùshì yīgè hěn dà de wèntí hon. Zhège, wǒ xiǎng kěnéng dài huì zài qǐng wǒmen liú zhǔrèn shuōmíng

‘However, the implementation rate is a big problem and this, I think it may be explained by our Deputy Director Liu.’

Take (87) as an example, one of the audiences asks the speaker how to define liver

dysfunction when the problem is associated with diabetes patients.¹⁹ The speaker explains that so far there is no clear definition on the degree of liver dysfunction on medical textbooks,

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but he still offers the current consensus on liver dysfunction in the realm of Endocrinology &

Metabolism. The Vice Superintendent, Dr. Sun, an expert of Gastroenterology & Hepatology, happens to sit in the audience, so the speaker finds it a good chance to ask for Dr. Sun’s professional opinion. The conversation takes place in the Q & A section, which is a naturally spontaneous conversation; the speaker is unable to predict the audience’s questions. This invitation is then made impromptu. Without a notification to Dr. Sun beforehand, the speaker is uncertain whether Dr. Sun is willing to accept his invitation. In order not to make the request sound robust and coercive on Dr. Sun’s own will, the modal hedge keneng 可能 is employed as a politeness strategy to save both the speaker’s and the addressee’s faces.

Meanwhile, keneng in these two examples serves as a predicator as they announce to the audience about the possible upcoming comments from the professional.