Contrastive Markers

The focus of this section is the category of the contrastive markers, “可是 (keshi)” and “而 (er)”. Among the common contrastive markers, “可是 (keshi)”, “只 是 (zhishi)”, “但是 (danshi)”, and “不過 (buguo)”, “可是 (keshi)”, the one that

most frequently occurs in spoken discourse, tends to convey implicit contrast and appear in dispreferred responses to express disagreement (Wang, 2005). In the excerpt in question, in Example 60, the DPP is in contrast to the KMT in the number of

election campaign cars with “可是 (keshi)” as in “就很少看到民進檔的宣傳車或旗 子，可是國民黨的宣傳車在還沒選舉前兩個月，就在汐止這裡跑” to show that the

resource-lacking DPP is different from the resource-abundant KMT with the

implication that the KMT is not the members of the caller’s in-group in “他國民黨”.

Hence, the political stance of the caller is not for the KMT. Likewise, “可是 (keshi)”

in Example 61 is used to compare the executive ability performed by the DPP and by the KMT governments respectively. Based on the context, during the time when Wu

was a mayor, the tap-water was noticed to have the smell of chlorine and disinfectant fluid, while the smell has gone in the Hsieh’s era. This kind of water is not qualified enough for citizens to drink. In this way, the caller indirectly responds to the

discussed issue, “Whose ability of executive administration is better, Hsieh or Ma?”

The candidate Hsieh with the achievement of improving the quality of tap-water is implied to be the better one, and the caller’s political stance is hence inferred to be pro-DPP.

(60) March 18

(一中市場 勞工害怕? 相信馬的話? 謝:現在正值黃金交叉 逆轉成真?

Are the labor afraid of the one-China market policy? According to Hsieh, he has the chance to win the battle?)

1 我覺得他國民黨的資源真的很多，因為像我們汐止，就很少看到民進檔的 2 宣傳車或旗子，可是國民黨的宣傳車在還沒選舉前兩個月，就在汐止這裡 3 跑。

Translation

1 I think the resources from the KMT are way too many. Here in Si-chi, we rarely 2 see DPP’s election campaign car and flag, but KMT’s vehicles started marching 3 two months ago.

(61) March 7

(高捷通車了 謝馬執行力誰好?

Kaohsiung MRT has been done. Whose ability of executive administration is better, Hsieh or Ma?)

1 以前吳敦義的時代，水煮起來就真的有氯跟消毒水的味道，可是現在，就 2 是謝長廷執政之後呢？(…) 水喝起來就已經沒有那種味道了。

1 During the time when Wu was a mayor, the tap-water still had the smell of 2 chlorine and disinfectant fluid after being boiled. But now, after the Hsieh era 3 (…) The boiled tap-water is odorless now.

The following instances of “而 (er)” are categorized into Hong’s (2008) classifications of compound sentences in modern Chinese—“而 (er)” conjoining dissimilar additive clause complex in Example 62, and “而 (er)” conjoining adversative clause complex in Example 63. In the former, the dissimilar additive clause complex denotes that with the same subject, the two conjoined clause complexes have different polarity. According to Halliday (1994), polarity is the selection between positive and negative. In the excerpt in question, the subjects of the clause complex, “不是叫台灣隊” and “而是叫 Chinese Taipei” are the same, “我們”.

Based on the context, “台灣隊” and “Chinese Taipei” are hyponyms of “隊伍名稱”.

The contrastive feature of the hyponyms prohibits “台灣隊” and “Chinese Taipei”

from interchanging with each other. That is, the name of the representation team is either “台灣隊” or “Chinese Taipei”. Hence, the fact that our representation team is called Chinese Taipei excludes the possibility of “台灣隊”. In the following contexts, the caller relates Taiwan in “台灣隊” to the issue of nationality as shown in “因為我 們是一個國家，為什麼不能叫做台灣，而是叫 Chinese Taipei ” to strengthen her pro-Taiwan stance. As to Example 63, “而 (er)” conjoins two adversative clause complexes. The definition of adversative is out of expectation (Halliday 1976). That is,

in the sentence consisting of two clause complexes, if the entailment of the topic of the latter clause denies the entailment of the former clause, then the adversative relation is constructed (Hong 2008). In the excerpt in question, based on the context,

“全球性的問題” entails that Taiwan’s financial turndown should be attributed to the financial environment of the world instead of certain groups. However, the entailment of “說民進黨他因為做不好，所以才會造成這種結果” is that the DPP is the one to be blamed for the financial turndown, which obviously violates the entailment of the former clause. In addition, it is also a strategy of evasion for the caller to mitigate the DPP’s responsibility and hence constructs the pro-DPP stance.

(62) March 17

(Freddy:一定逆轉勝! 靠這關鍵 5 天? 鎮壓西藏 中國今說是“清潔衛生” 恐怖?

According to Freddy, the turn point of the election will come in five days? According to China, the incident of suppressing Tibet is reported to the cleaning activity?)

1 這次奧運棒球賽，我覺得我們不是叫台灣隊，而是叫 Chinese Taipei，我覺 2 得很生氣，也覺得很可惜。因為我們是一個國家，為甚麼不能叫台灣，而 3 是叫 Chinese Taipei，這是我覺得比較可惜的地方。

Translation

1 In the baseball game in the Olympics, I felt angry that we can’t attend it in the 2 name of Taiwan but have to use Chinese Taipei instead. I felt very angry and 3 felt sorry for it. It is a country. Why can’t it be named Taiwan? Why does it 4 have to be Chinese Taipei? It is really a pity.

(63) March 6

(賭盤 80 萬降至 15 萬票 長昌可能逆轉勝?入、返聯都要投贊成!

for the Hsieh camp to gain the final victory? Vote for both referendum proposals!) 1 物價在日本也是一直再漲，這個東西我有在日本的經濟雜誌上看過。他說 2 到全球的物資，還有中國效應的問題，其實這個東西是全球性的問題。你 3 們不去研究全球性的問題，而反過來說民進黨他因為做不好，所以才會造 4 成這種結果，這個是不對的。

Translation

1 In Japan, prices of commodities also keep rising. I saw related discussion in 2 Japan’s economic magazines. The uprising prices are associated with the China 3 effect and the global economy. Without studying the world issues first, it is 4 wrong to blame only the DPP.