Dramatic Use

From the current databank, it is found that when engaging in talk, people would change their viewpoints and jump from the current discourse situation to a described situation—a characteristic of the dramatic use. It should be noted that the dramatic wo differs from the impersonal wo in two aspects—firstly, the speaker temporarily discards his/her current perspective (the impersonal wo includes the speaker within its referential scope), and secondly, it cannot be replaced with yi ge ren ‘one person’.

Table 3.4 shows the tokens and normalized frequency of the dramatic wo.

Table 3.4: Dramatic wo in the two spoken genres

Sources Daily conversation TV interviews

Tokens (Frequency) 8 (0.34)

61 (2.15)

To explore the functions of the dramatic wo, the two genres will be discussed respectively.

Daily conversations

An example of the dramatic wo is excerpted for illustration. The male speaker, M expresses his opinions on how couples usually pays for the bills.

(3.4) M: 嗯? 是 嗎? 啊，反正， 反正 大 錢， 大 錢

Eh? shi ma a fanzheng fanzheng da qian da quian PRT be PRT PRT anyway anyway big money big money

各自 出 嘛。小 錢 就 沿路 讓 他

gezi chu ma xiao qian jiu yanlu rang ta each spend PRT small money just along let him

一直 請 嘛。 是 不 是？

yizhi qing ma shi bu shi always treat PRT yes NEG yes

F: 不 對。

Bu dui NEG right M: 是 吧 ?

41 bills.I know the trick well.Girls are always doing this trick, aren’t they?’

There are two tokens of wo. The former refers deictically to the speaker F, and the latter to F’s boyfriend—the perspective to which the speaker M switches. M argues that it is common for women to take men’s treats for granted. To illustrate his argument, the male speaker jumps to a described situation where the participant roles, i.e. the dramatic wo and ni, to speak for the male speaker. The alternation of voice/

perspective works as a device to involve others in support of the addresser’s assumption about the female addresser’s behavior of receiving a treat. It is further found that the speakers can implicitly display their unfavorable attitude toward the event they described. For instance, M does not believe that F would pay for herself, through the switch of perspectives from the self to others, and M can freely display his speculation of F’s inner thoughts and show his opponent feeling toward the underlying social convention—that the male are obliged to pay the bills.

TV interviews

Example (3.5) from a TV interview will further illustrate the addresser’s intention in strengthening his arguments and revealing his attitude toward the discussed event through the use of dramatic wo. The journalist, J proposes his observation on the relationship that exists among politicians and other people.

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J: ‘We have long been under a political atmosphere. I have a bitter feeling which results from people’s deprivation of one another. But never forget that the bitter feeling results from people’s acceptance of politicians’

ingratiation. You want my vote. Go and get me some benefit. Damn! That is how it works.’

In (3.5), there are three occurrences of wo; except the first deictic wo, the second and the third ones are the dramatic wo. The speaker alters his viewpoint by assuming the role of a taxpayer/voter to illustrate his observation about the inappropriate relation between politicians and people. Speaking from others’ voice, the speaker attempts to stay detached and to avoid displaying a biased perspective. Though the dramatic wo could be adopted as a means to conceal the speakers’ stance, their attitude toward the event could be inferred from the context. For instance, in (3.5) the speaker’s opinions reveal his antagonistic attitude toward the unsatisfactory relation between the taxpayers and the politicians. Thus, even if the use of the dramatic wo can relieve the speakers’ responsibility of their comments; nevertheless, their repugnant attitude can still be observed. Moreover, with a dramatic wo, the speaker displays his opinions in a vivid way by involving the characters in an imaginary interaction, for instance, F and her boyfriend in (3.4) and the taxpayers and the politicians in (3.5).

Furthermore, the switch of viewpoint tends to occur in showing both opposing

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and supportive attitude in TV interviews. Example (3.6) is given to demonstrate the speaker’s intention of displaying agreement with the non-participants in the described event. The journalist, J argues that pervasive inequality exists among social classes.

(3.6) G: 大家 發現 說， 不論 是 這些 社會 的

G: ‘Everyone found that class distinction exists not only in the social insurance system but in the vacation system. .…(They) have been discussed the wage, the basic wage. At that time, even the raise of ten NT dollars in the basic wage is not possible. The rage culminates. I rest fewer days than others, I got lower wage than others, and even my retirement insurance, you decide to adopt different measures. ’

The three tokens of the first person singular above are the dramatic wo. They do not refer to the speaker but to the workers of whom the speaker assumes the voice. To strengthen her arguments of the unfair treatment the workers receive, the speaker pretends to be one of the laborers and imitates his/her possible responses toward the unequal condition. In this case, the speaker implicitly shows her agreement with the workers by switching to their roles and voicing for their inferior situation. Though the

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speaker does not speak on behalf of herself, her opinion unveils her sympathetic attitude toward the described event.

Summary of Dramatic Wo ‘I’

In the current database, the dramatic use of first person singular occurs more frequently in TV interviews than in daily conversations. In TV talk, the speakers tend to switch their viewpoints to others so that these non-participants may support their statements or arguments which involve the speakers’ attitudes toward the discussed event. The dramatic wo in TV interviews works as a device to conceal addresser’s stance, while the function of the dramatic wo in daily conversations is used primarily to support statements and to add vividness to speakers’ talk.