R ECAPITULATION

This paper dicusses the gender difference and age difference as a kind of character language in terms of sentence-final particles A 啊, Ya 呀, Ma 嘛, and Ne 呢 which are seldom recognized in the previous literature.

For the gender difference of sentence-final particles A 啊 and 呀 Ya, although the use of A 啊 and Ya 呀 can be categorized as variants of the same phoneme /a/ based on a phonological rule, i.e., /a/ à [ja]/ [i]__#. However, there is a tendency that males still use A 啊, and females still use Ya 呀 regardless of the phonological rule. Also, as a kind of character language, A 啊 and Ya 呀 can be used flexibly by females and males for special purposes in certain contexts.

For the age difference of sentence-final particles A 啊 and Ya 呀 used by males, males of the three age groups, under 30, from 31 to 50, and over 51, all tend to use A 啊 regardless of the phonological rule. As a kind of character language, males sometimes use Ya 呀 for special purposes in certain contexts. However, only the age groups of under 30 and from 31 to 50 will sometimes use character language Ya 呀 in certain contexts for special purposes, such as when joking and doing something funny or when they want to perform the image that is different from the current image. We propose that it is because the personality of people who are over 51 years old tend not to do something funny and tend to maintain their solemn image.

For the age difference of sentence-final particles A 啊 and Ya 呀 used by females, females of the three age groups, under 30, from 31 to 50, and over 51, all tend to use Ya 呀 regardless of the phonological rule. However, we find that females over 51 years old use Ya 呀 less than the other two age groups. It is because [i] is related to the light image, and the light image is associated with females’ tenderness, gracefulness, and restrained character (Gordon & Heath, 1998). We also propose that the personality of people who are over 51 years old tend not to behave as feminine as the younger, so they tend not to use Ya 呀 which is with the image of girlish as usual as females of the other two age groups. As character language, all the three age groups of female use A 啊 for special purposes in certain contexts.

For the gender difference of sentence-final particle Ma 嘛, there is a tendency that females use Ma 嘛 more than males do. In the use of indicating obvious information Ma 嘛, there are 82% used by male while there are 59% used by female. We propose that when indicating obvious information, adding Ma 嘛 at the end of the sentence can strengthen the tone (Du & Zhang, 2011), so females tend not to use it as usual as males do to avoid speaking so straightforwardly. In the use of indicating the speaker’s opinion Ma 嘛, 41% of them are used by females, and 18% by males. Round-sound [m] can relate to femaleness (Sidhu &

Pexman, 2015). Also, since adding Ma 嘛 at the end of the sentence when people are giving advice or expressing hope can make the sentence with a mild tone (Du & Zhang, 2011), it sounds a little girlish or childish when using this kind of Ma 嘛. So, males seldom add Ma 嘛 at the end of the sentence when giving advice or expressing hope. As a kind of character language, indicating obvious information Ma 嘛 and indicating the speaker’s opinion Ma 嘛 can be used flexibly by both males and females for special purposes in certain contexts.

For the age difference of sentence-final particle Ma 嘛 used by males, all of the three age groups use indicating obvious information Ma 嘛 very often, while they only use indicating the speaker’s opinion Ma 嘛 in certain contexts for special purpose. As we found in the data, as a kind of character language, this kind of Ma 嘛 used by all age groups only in certain contexts, such as when they are speaking to females, elders, or people that they are not so familiar with.

For the age difference of sentence-final particle Ma 嘛 used by females, females over 51 years old tend to use Ma 嘛 at the end of the sentence to express something obvious more usually, while females under 30 years old and from 31 to 50 years old tend to use Ma 嘛 at the end of the sentence when they are giving advice, expressing hope or expressing one’s emotion. We propose that it is because the personality of people who are over 51 years old tend not to behave girlish or childish. The phenomenon that females change their style of speaking when getting older is also an example of Ma 嘛 as a kind of character language.

For the gender difference of sentence-final particle Ne 呢, there is a tendency that females use Ne 呢 more than males do. For questioning Ne 呢 , from the aspect of percentage, males use 79% of Ne 呢 in this function, which is more often than 68% used by females. However, from the aspect of tokens, female uses it for 61 tokens while male uses it for 35 tokens. This result shows that on the whole, females use questioning Ne 呢 more often than males, but in their respective usage of questioning Ne 呢, both males and females often add Ne 呢 at the end of the question. For declarative Ne 呢, females use it for 32%

while there are only 21% of males. This indicates that females tend to add Ne 呢 at the end of the sentences of declarative. The reason for this phenomenon is that using Ne 呢 at the

end of the sentences can make the sentences with a soft tone, and certain voiced consonants (e.g., /l/ and /n/) tend to be associated with rounded shapes and femaleness” (Sidhu & Pexman, 2015:2). As a kind of character language, males use questioning and declarative Ne 呢 in special contexts and situations, such as when speaking to females, elders, or people that they are not so familiar to.

For the age difference of Ne 呢 used by males, according to our data, it shows that males in the age group of under 30 years old and from 31 to 50 use questioning and declarative Ne 呢 very often; however, males over 51 years old do not use Ne 呢 as much as the other two age groups do. We propose that this phenomenon exists because the personality of males over 51 years old tend to speak straightforwardly and to establish their authority. We also found that all of the three age groups only use character language Ne 呢 in special contexts, such as when speaking to females, elders, or people that they are not so familiar with.

For the age difference of Ne 呢 of female, females over 51 years old only use sentence-final particle Ne 呢 for 26% while the age group under 30 years old and from 31 to 50 use sentence-final particle Ne 呢 for 74%. We propose that the personality of females over 51 years old tend to establish their authority and speak straightforwardly, and tend not to behave as feminine as the young do. The phenomenon that females change their style of speaking when getting older suggests that Ne 呢 is a kind of character language.

As discussed above, this paper examines the use of Chinese sentence-final particles A 啊, Ya 呀, Ma 嘛, and Ne 呢 with the perspective of character language. We conclde that

they have developed a sense of character language which accords with Kinsui’s definition, and they are used flexibly according to different circumstances.