Chapter 3 Methodology
1. Indirect condemnation by informing
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3.4.3.1.1. Condemnation
The first category of indirect expressives is condemnation, which is expressed by 13 varieties of Secondary Speech Acts, including informing, clarification, correction, agreement, concession, apology, praising, sympathizing, worrying, defense, request, suggestion, and warning. Examples of each indirect condemnation are represented below.
1. Indirect condemnation by informing
Excerpt (23) demonstrates informing as the Secondary Speech Act of condemnation. By giving information against the referential target, speakers achieve the goal of criticizing it.
(23)
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Host: …但是 L2> 啊 小林村現在 大概可以 證實 至少 幾百人被 活埋 ho 那麼楊秋興縣長說三百人但小 這個 鄉長說有七百人媒體寫六 百人 <L2 老實講 啊 實在是 L2> 我覺得 大概很 悽慘<L2 毋知欲 按怎形容 L2> 但是 今天總統啊 接受媒體訪問的時候 啊 他竟然 講 說 這個 s 要怪災民 na 因為 災民他 b 自己不撤啊 死守家園 na 他沒有怪自己 他 只怪 災民 ho <L2 這就是這个總統 L2> …
[大話新聞, 三立新聞台, August 13, 2009]
In the excerpt, the Host starts with reporting the death toll of Xiaolin village (小 林村) mudslide; then, he shifts the topic from the death toll to President Ma Ying-jeou‘s statement during the interview of ITN (Independent Television News). As stated, Ma said that people in the damaged area didn‘t realize they should have evacuated much earlier and should not keep on staying where they lived10. In the Host‘s report, he uses indirect quotation to represent President Ma‘s words. The
10 News from CNN video:
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quotation marker, ta jiang shuo (他講說), indicates that the Host conveys the statements exactly as what the original words are.
It appears that the Host is reporting the President‘s words, but in the indirect quotation, the Host embeds his evaluation in the President‘s speech by using various word choices, including the modifier, jing ran (竟然) ‗unexpectedly,‘ that semantically shows that the President‘s statement is abrupt to the general expectation;
the verb, guai (怪) ‗to blame,‘ which semantically indicates that the Host interprets the President‘s statement as inappropriate. Also, the reflexive, ta zi ji (他自己) ‗they themselves,‘ as well as the negation of verb, bu che (不撤) ‗don‘t evacuate,‘ which semantically suggests that the President shifts the responsibility of such tragedy onto the victims‘ unwillingness of leaving the scene. By doing so, the Host achieves the illocutionary goal of condemning the President for shrinking the responsibility of remedy affairs. In all, these semantic and syntactic devices make the utterance deviate from the seeming function of informing since the indirect quotation does not accurately11 represent President Ma‘s words (violation of quality maxim). Moreover, the deviated indirect quotation with the negative evaluation words also performs the speech act of condemning the President.
Following the demonstration of Searle (1975) on page 17, the detailed inferential process of this type of indirect condemnation is represented below as the representative example. The following inferential process of each indirect speech act is conducted in this way.
Step 1: In the beginning of the show, the Host has made statement to give the information that President Ma said that people in the damaged area didn‘t realize they should have evacuated much earlier and should not have stayed where they lived. (facts about the conversation)
11 See the word-to-word transcription of President Ma‘s interview in footnote 12 on page 44.
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Step 2: Hearers assume that the Host is cooperating in the conversation and that therefore his statement is intended to be relevant and true. (Cooperative Principle: relevancy maxim, quality maxim)
Step 3: A direct quotation must have exact wording with that of the original statement. (definition)
Step 4: But according to the original news video12, the wording of Host‘s quotation is different from President Ma‘s statement. And so the Host‘s utterance is not a direct quotation. (inference from Step 1 and Step 3) Step 5 An indirect quotation must keep the meaning of the original statement.
(definition)
Step 6 There are discrepancies between the original statement of Ma and the indirect quotation of it. For example, the word, guai (怪) ‗to blame,‘ which pinpoints the President's improper statement, and, the reflexive, ta zi ji (他 自己) ‗they themselves,‘ which specifies the responsibility of the massive death on the typhoon victims themselves. (semantic implication)
Step 7 The negative semantic elements added in the Host's quotation deviate from the President's neutral meaning. Therefore, it is not an indirect quotation. (inference from Step 5 and Step 6)
Step 8 Since the Host‘s quotation is not true, his Primary Speech Act must differ from his literal meaning. (inference from Step 4 and Step 7)
Step 9: Hearers know that the main focus of political talk show is to provide information of news event and to give evaluation (either positive or negative) to the news event. (factual background information)
Step 10: Therefore, the Host probably gives evaluation to Ma‘s statement.
(inference from step 8 and Step 9)
Step 11: An essential condition on negative evaluation is to show disapproval of someone/something. (theory of speech act: Felicity Condition)
Step 12: The modifier before the Host's quotation, jing ran (竟然) ‗unexpectedly,‘
and the added negative word, guai (怪) ‗to blame,‘ indicate that the Host does not approve of the President‘s statement. (semantic implication) Step 13: Therefore, the Host‘s Primary Speech Act is to negatively evaluate
President Ma for his statement, i.e., a speech act of condemnation.
12 Journalist: should Taiwan not have been more prepared for for this weather that was coming President Ma: no…this area…this is the first time in many years. That is why, they aren't..they were not fully prepared. If they were, they should have been evacuated there much earlier. Just because they stayed in where they live, and..but..you see..they didn't..they didn't realize how serious the..uh..the
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(inference from step 9 and Step 12) 2. Indirect condemnation by clarification
Another Secondary Speech Act expressing condemnation is clarification.
Example (24) represents such an indirect speech act.
(24)
1 M5: <L2 我毋知影舊年七百六十五萬人選出來這種總統竟然是這種 L2>
比畜生還不如的總統 我不客氣的講你比畜生還不如 <L2 那有 L2>
怎麼會有這麼沒有人性的總統 <L2 家己毋知影檢討 L2> 還去怪村 民說 啊你你們 不聽話 你們啊 一副就說這些人是刁民
2 Host: 嗯
3 M5: 那我想到舊年嘛是罵台灣人講 cynical 4 Host: [嗯]
→ 5 M5: [憤]世忌俗 原來他從去年到現在<L2 tsi 經 經過一年个時間 L2>
6 Host: 嗯
→ 7 M5: <L2 完全無改變 L2>
8 M5: <L2 我想台灣人這改 你愛醒起來啊 L2>
9 Host: 嗯
10 M5: 這個總統已經不值得我們去支持他
[大話新聞, 三立新聞台, August 13, 2009]
In Turn 1, speaker M5 directly condemns the President by saying that the President is not even comparable to brutes because he denies the government‘s responsibility on the mudslide disaster and he shifts the duty of the tragedy onto the victims themselves. Then, from Turn 3 to Turn 5, speaker M5 reviews the President‘s speech made in last year for calling Taiwanese ‗cynical.‘ Judging from these two events, speaker M5 concludes that the President has a consistent tendency of blaming his people. Further, speaker M5 deduces that the President did not change his ruling style in these years.
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It appears that Turn 5 and Turn 7 are sententially clarifications of the vagueness about what kind of person President Ma is. The modifier, yuan lai (原來) ‗as it turns out,‘ semantically indicates the transition from vagueness to clearness on the issue of Ma‘s ruling style. However, it should be noticed that the clarification of ‗what kind of ruling-style President Ma has‘ does not follow the original topic—the typhoon rescue action. Such violation of the relevance maxim (Grice, 1975) marks that the clarification is not genuine. Indeed, by pointing out the President‘s consistent ruling style along with the Taiwan Southern Min semantic modifier, uan tsuan (完全)
‗completely,‘ and the Taiwan Southern Min negation of verb, bo kai pian (無改變)
‗no change,‘ speaker M5 strongly condemns the President for his inappropriateness and incompetence on the rescue action. The later topic flow (Turn 8 to Turn 10) confirms our inference for speaker M5 continues the topic of the President‘s inappropriateness.
3. Indirect condemnation by correction
The third type of Secondary Speech Act expressing the illocutionary goal of condemnation is correction. Excerpt (25) represents such indirect speech act.
(25)
1 M3: 這個 馬總統今天用英文 hon 2 Host: [嗯]
3 M3: [對]eh 國外媒體記者講說是 居民不撤[[ho]]
4 Host: [[嗯]]
→ 5 M3: 這裡我要拿出 鐵的證據 hon 我要講他說謊
[大話新聞, 三立新聞台, August 13, 2009]
As represented in Turn 1 and Turn 3 of (25), speaker M3 restarts the topic of the President‘s inappropriate statement; later, in Turn 5, speaker M3 takes such
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inappropriateness as falsity, and thus accuses President Ma of lying. If we look at the statement from Turn 1 to Turn 3 and the utterance of Turn 5 at the same time, we would find that the accusation means the President‘s statement is untrue. The semantic entailment of shuo huang (說謊) ‗lying‘ serves as a negation to the President‘s declaration. That is, it is false that the residents of the stricken region are unwilling to be evacuated before the typhoon. In addition to correcting the falseness of the President‘s statement, speaker M3‘s utterance in Turn 5, shuo huang (說謊)
‗lying,‘ also implies that President Ma intentionally gives untrue information to the media and purposely misleads his people. By which, speaker M3 condemns the President for his shameful behavior. In sum, this utterance has two Primary Speech Acts: one is a cross-turn direct correction, and the other is an indirect condemnation led by the aversive connotation of lying.
4. Indirect condemnation by agreement
The fourth type of indirect condemnation is delivered by the Secondary Speech Act: agreement. When one speaker shows his/her agreement to other speakers‘
condemnation, he/she adopts others‘ inferential content as well as their illocutionary goal—condemnation. Excerpt (26) represents this type of indirect speech act.
(26)
→ M7: …另外我要強調 ho 我覺得今天這個成大副教授喔 啊成大副校長 講得很對 成大今天副校長昨天在中常會裡面 eh 國民黨中常會裡面 放炮他說hon 他說這種狀況 ho 就是要水淹總統府啦
[大話新聞, 三立新聞台, August 13, 2009]
In Turn 1 of excerpt (26), speaker M7 expresses his agreement to the professor‘s criticism of the government. The verb, jue de (覺得) ‗feel,‘ and the modifier, dui (對)
‗right,‘ semantically relates speaker M7‘s approval to the associate professor‘s
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criticism. However, this approval itself is not the real goal of speaker M7 for it is not relevant to the ongoing topic ‗the aftermath of the typhoon.‘ Once the relevance maxim is flouted, speaker M7‘s agreement no longer sustains as the illocutionary purpose. Even though the approval attitude is a stray from the topic, the content is still relevant to it. By agreeing with the professor‘s criticism of the government, speaker M7 inherits the professor‘s attitude, which regards President Ma as an indifferent leader for his ‗ostrich mentality‘ ( 鴕 鳥 心 態 )13, and indirectly expresses his condemnation toward the government.
5. Indirect condemnation by concession
The fifth type of indirect condemnation is expressed by concession. Excerpt (27) demonstrates such an indirect speech act.
(27)
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M7: ...他這句話就是告訴我們 <L2 今馬个總統今馬 eh 領導人 L2> 領導 人 根本沒有辦法感同身受 你非要水淹總統府讓他親自體民 體會 災民的無奈災民的痛苦 他才有辦法感同身受 我真的 再次重申 如 果你無能也就罷了 如果你真的 無能也就罷了 但是 不要無恥 不 要無恥到 還把這個 災民的這個生命 還拿來開玩笑還指責災民 我 真的覺得一點天良都沒有
[大話新聞, 三立新聞台, August 13, 2009]
In the beginning of excerpt (27), speaker M7 comments on the President‘s inappropriate statements during the post-disaster operation and criticizes that the President is unable to empathize with typhoon victims. After the criticism, M7 makes a concession that he would forgive the President‘s incompetent governance, but he
13 【2009-08-13/聯合報/A11 版/８８世紀水患 重建檢討】「讓總統府淹水 政府才知水患苦」
成大副校長黃煌煇 談政府因應之道 治水鴕鳥心態要改變 不要過了就忘了痛苦
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cannot accept that the President jokes about victims‘ lives. The verb, ba le (罷了)
‗forget it,‘ semantically indicates that M7‘s given-in to the dissatisfied status quo.
However, this concession is not genuine since M7‘s following conversation is the comparison of current and former President‘s post-disaster management; that is, M7 does not sincerely forgive the President‘s incompetent governance (the violation of sincerity maxim). In fact, based on the premise of the seeming concession, M7 points out that the President is ineffective on his leadership and indifferent to his people at the same time. In all, the concession is just a way to express M7‘s condemnation to the President.
6. Indirect condemnation by apology
The sixth type of Secondary Speech Act performing the Primary Speech Act of condemnation is apology, as demonstrated in (28).
(28)
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Host: <L2 這是 這是 到目前喔 L2> 這個是 ui 林邊鄉喔 林邊鄉永樂村 請大家看 他們在清污泥 第一個 水還沒有完全退 第二個 污泥是 這樣 家裡面啊 家園殘破 <L2 好 但是 歹勢 L2> 這個還算稍微比 較幸運的 <L2 為啥物 是厝淹爾 L2>
[大話新聞, 三立新聞台, August 13, 2009]
The Host starts the conversation with reporting the terrible damage in Linbian village (林邊鄉). Later, with a transition of a Taiwan Southern Min apology, phainn se (歹勢) ‗sorry,‘ the Host claims that the present damaged situation should be counted as fine and lucky because it does not involve any death. The apology in (28) represents that the Host is aware of the fact that the succeeding utterances, zhe ge hai suan shao wei bi jiao xing yun de (這個還算稍微比較幸運的) ‗this (situation) is fine and lucky,‘ is impolite to his addressees, especially to those living in the damaged area.
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Still, the Host deliberately gives the inappropriate speech although he knows the situation is already miserable enough. Such violation of politeness principles reveals that the apology is not the Host‘s real illocutionary goal. In fact, the seeming apology (and the following utterances) cautions the audience that there are still places facing situation even worse than this, which implies the seriousness of the government‘s inefficiency in remedying the catastrophe. It is in this implication that condemnation is formed and hence recognized.
7. Indirect condemnation by praising
The seventh type of secondary speech act conveying the illocutionary goal of condemnation is praising. Excerpt (29) is an example.
(29)
1 M2: <L2...我去共 看彼資料內底 佇災區內底進行 一萬外遍个 L2>野戰 小手[術]
2 Host: [嗯]hen
3 M2: <L2 佇个 L2>野 野戰<L2 个 L2>悍馬車<L2 頂懸內底 L2>小手[術]
4 Host: <L2 [是]L2>
→ 5 M2: <L2 當然嘛救千幾人个命出[[來]]L2>
6 Host: [[啊]]哈哈
→ 7 M2: <L2 這是足 重要个這 政府危機處理能力就佇遮啦-L2>
[大話新聞, 三立新聞台, August 13, 2009]
From Turn 1 to 3 of excerpt (29), speaker M2 gives information about the rescue achievements in another natural disaster—the 921 earthquake. Then, from Turn 5 to 7, Speaker M2 praises the remarkable result of the rescue operation launched by the former government. Despite that lots of information is given, the rescue information of the former government is neither related to the present disaster (the violation of relevance maxim) nor helpful to the current rescue operation (due to different nature
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of disasters). However, by praising the former rescue experience of the 921 earthquake in 1999, speaker M2 juxtaposes the current rescue action with the former.
In this juxtaposition, the ineffectiveness of the current rescue action is emphasized, and through the implication of such inadequacy, M2 indirectly condemns the government for its ineffective operation.
8. Indirect condemnation by sympathizing
The eighth type of indirect condemnation is performed through sympathizing.
Excerpt (30) demonstrates such indirect speech act.
(30)
1 M5: 這個總統已經不值得我們去支持他 2 Host: <L2[是]L2>
→ 3 M5: [我]從此我也不會再稱呼他總統 可是 弘儀我覺得今天我看到小林 村的畫面<L2 我 我真艱苦 L2>
4 Host: 嗯
5 M5: 更可惡是<L2 這政府 L2>從頭到尾都在騙我們
[大話新聞, 三立新聞台, August 13, 2009]
In terms of the literal meaning, Turn 3 of excerpt (30) shows speaker M5‘s sympathy for the victims of Xiaolin village (小林村). The compliment, jin kan-khoo (真艱苦) ‗very sad,‘ semantically indicates M5‘s upset for the casualties. However, the sympathy is not the only illocutionary purpose of the utterance in the conversational context. As represented, the M5‘s sympathy in Turn 3 is followed by a vivid condemnation of the government—ke wu (可惡) ‗hateful.‘ Such juxtaposition of the victims‘ plight and the government‘s misdeed creates contrast and exposes the government‘s malpractice even further. In all, speaker M5 performs his condemnation toward the government in the expression of sympathizing the typhoon victims.
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9. Indirect condemnation by worrying
Worrying is ninth Secondary Speech Act performing the act—condemnation, as represented in (31).
(31)
→
M6: 主持人講一個關鍵 全面動起來終於動起來 但是 它是一個 有計
M6: 主持人講一個關鍵 全面動起來終於動起來 但是 它是一個 有計