Chapter 4. Results
4.3 The pragmatic functions of the three types of the modal hui utterances
4.3.1 Dynamic hui utterances
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relatively few tokens in the three types of the modal hui. It was also noteworthy that the subject of the epistemic modal hui utterances may be inanimate entities rather than an animate being, whereas the dynamic modal hui mostly appeared with animate subjects or symbolic animate beings.
4.3 The pragmatic functions of the three types of the modal hui utterances This section provides the pragmatic functions of the different types of the modal hui utterances in the children’s speech. The functions of the modal hui are
investigated within the contexts. Furthermore, the numbers and proportions for the different functions of the modal hui utterances by the two age groups are also discussed.
4.3.1 Dynamic hui utterances
The dynamic modal hui is related to the ability of the subject. The analysis showed that the major functions of the dynamic modal hui utterances included (1) request, (2) refusal, (3) reporting, and (4) boasting.
(1) Request
In requesting adult help, the children simply stated to the adult that they did not
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know how to do certain things so that the adult should help them. Example 11 illustrates this function of the dynamic modal hui utterance.
Example 11 (LEE, 5;1)
*LEE: 媽咪 這 種 的 [= dress] 我 不 會 摺.
mami zhe zhong de [= dress] wo bu hui zhe.
mommy this kind NOM I NEG can fold
“Mommy, I can’t fold this kind of clothes.”
*MOT: 啊 你 不 是 說 這 個 難 不 倒 你 [=! laughing].
a ni bu shi shuo zhe ge nan bu dao ni [=! laughing].
well you NEG COP say this CL hard NEG beat you
“Didn’t you say that you could handle it?”
*LEE: 0 [=! laughing].
%act: LEE’s mother took the dress away and showed her how to fold it
*MOT: 這 樣子 啊!
“Align the shoulder part of the dress.”
*LEE: 喔 -: . o -: . oh “Ok.”
In Example 11, LEE and her mother were folding clothes. LEE stated to her mother that she did not know how to fold the dress, implying that the mother should help her. Then, LEE’s mother showed her how to fold it.
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Besides, instead of asking the adult to perform an action, children sometimes requested the adults’ permission for them to do what they wanted by saying they could do it. All utterances in this category were addressed to the adult by using positive assertions with the first person subjects, as illustrated in Example 12. TIN and her mother were putting together jigsaw puzzles. TIN requested her mother’s permission to give her the jigsaw puzzle by saying she had the ability to put the jigsaw puzzle together, and took away the piece of jigsaw puzzle that her mother held in her hand.
Example 12 (TIN, 2;11)
*TIN: 我 會 啦 [% taking away the piece of the jigsaw puzzle that her
zhe ge [% putting together the piece of the jigsaw puzzle].
this CL
“This one.”
It is interesting to note that the ability or inability as expressed by the modal hui utterances were associated with the children themselves by using the first person subject. Children seldom asked about the mother’s abilities as a way of getting the
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mother to do certain things. In addition, in request, the presence or absence of the children’s abilities, especially the absence of their abilities, was used as the reason for the mother to act. Thus, negative sentence forms expressing lack of abilities were mostly associated with hui utterances for request.
(2) Refusal
In addition to requesting adult help, the children’s use of the dynamic modal hui utterances can also function as a refusal. In Example 13, BUO and his mother were drawing a crab. BUO refused to comply with his mother’s request by using his inability to perform the action as the justification. BUO said that he did not know how to draw the mouth of a crab and thus refused to do it.
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Besides, children sometimes refused the adult’s offer by saying they could do it and did not need others’ help as a reason to refuse adult help. As shown in Example 14, TIN and her mother were putting together jigsaw puzzles. TIN refused her mother’s offer by saying she could do it by herself and pushed her mother’s hand aside.
%act: TIN continued putting the jigsaw puzzles together
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It was found that the majority of the utterances in this category were inabilities rather than abilities. Thus, 77.78% of the utterances in Group I and 80% of those in Group II were negative assertions, while only 22.22% in Group I and 20% in Group II were positive assertions.
(3) Reporting
In reporting, the dynamic modal hui utterance was used to give descriptions of an event without personal effect, as shown in Example 15. YIN was playing with the toy monkey, and she told her mother that the toy monkey she was playing with could sit down. Then her mother just repeated YIN’s utterance. Here the reporting hui utterance did not index the speaker’s stance. The child merely provided a description for the object which had less interpersonal involvement.
Example 15 (YIN, 3;1)
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The dynamic modal hui utterance in this function was used to brag about the speakers’ own abilities. Example 16 is a boasting use. In Example 16, QIN pushed a toy case into the living room and prepared to use the blocks to make a house for a frog doll and a squirrel doll. QIN tried to show off his abilities to make a house for his dolls by using the modal hui with intensifier hen “very”.
Example 16 (QIN, 4;11)
*MOT: 所以 你 現在 要 做 哥哥 [= frog]
“So now you’re going to make the house for the brother and sister, right?”
*QIN: 是 [% taking out the blocks from a toy case].
shi [% taking out the blocks from a toy case].
Yes
Some modal hui utterances for boasting were used to show that the speaker was
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not less capable than others. These utterances typically had the adverb ye “also”, as shown in Example 17. QIN and his mother were reading a magazine. QIN asked his mother why the man jumped into the water, and the mother replied that he was practicing diving. Then QIN boasted that he could dive too. But the mother seemed to doubt whether QIN could dive or not.
Example 17 (QIN, 4;11)
*QIN: 喔 他 怎麼 跳 下去 啦 [% pointing at the magazine]?
“He was practicing diving.”
*QIN: 喔 我 也 會 啊!
Moreover, the focus of the utterances for boasting was on the speakers
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themselves, so most of the utterances had the first person subjects. But it was found sometimes the children showed off their toys by using the third person subject. In Example 18, QIN was holding a squirrel doll named Hua-li and going to put away the CD. QIN said only Hua-li could open the CD wallet and put away the CD. Thus, the person subject of this dynamic modal hui utterance was the third person. It indicates that children’s focus could shift from the self to others.
Example 18 (QIN, 4;11)
*QIN: 打開.
dakai.
open
“Open (it).”
*QIN: 就 #只有 Hua-li [= doll] 才 會 使用 這 個 [% open the CD wallet]! jiu # zhiyou hua-li [= doll] cai hui shiyong zhe ge [% open the CD wallet]!
just only (name) only can use this CL
“Only Hua-li can use this one.”
*MOT: 只有 Hua-li 會 使用?
fanghuiqu [% putting away the CD]!
put away
“Put (it) away.”
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Besides, it was found that sometimes the children used repetition to express the function of boasting in order to emphasize their abilities, as shown in Example 19.
QIN and his mother were playing with blocks. The mother suggested that QIN make a house for their dolls by using big blocks to make a big pen. QIN said wo hui “I can”
by repeating twice for the purpose of boasting. Then he pushed out a huge toy case and began to prepare to do it to show off his ability.
Example 19 (QIN, 4;11)
*MOT: 那 要 幫 Ku-ka [= doll] 跟 小 Hua-li [= doll]
“(Do you) want to make a house for Ku-ka and little Hua-li?”
*MOT: 他們 <的 家 # 可能 # > [>] 要 用 很 大 的 # 積木
“(You) may need to use very big blocks to make a very big pen so that their houses can fit in, right?”
*QIN: <我 會 啊 # 我 會> [<] !
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From the above examples, it is clear that the children felt quite proud of the abilities they had and used the modal hui utterances to brag about them. In boasting, children take pride in being able to perform an act.
Table 9 presents the frequencies and proportions of the different functions of the dynamic hui utterances by the two age groups. It shows that the dynamic modal hui utterances served four major functions.
Table 9
Pragmatic Functions of the Dynamic hui Utterances Function Group I Group II
N % N % Request 16 20.78 7 12.73
Refusal 18 23.38 5 9.09 Reporting 31 40.26 21 38.18 Boasting 12 15.58 22 40
Total 77 100 55 100
As seen in Table 9, both groups used the dynamic modal hui utterances most frequently as reporting (40.26% in Group I; 38.18% in Group II). The dynamic modal hui utterances for request (20.78% in Group I; 12.73% in Group II) and refusal
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(23.38% in Group I; 9.09% in Group II) decreased with age. However, the dynamic modal hui utterances for boasting (15.58% in Group I; 40% in Group II) increased with age.
As suggested by Guo (1994), the use of modals such as reporting developed later and increased with age. He indicated that the function of reporting was more opaque and less natural, so it presented a greater cognitive task. However, in the data it was found that the younger age group used the dynamic modal hui for reporting function as frequently as the older age group. The high frequency of the reporting function in both groups may be that the dynamic modal hui utterances for reporting tend to be used for making objective comments about ongoing events or immediate participants.
Thus, it is relatively easier for the children to use the dynamic modal hui utterances to report immediate activities and participants.
The results showed that the dynamic modal hui utterances for the functions of request and refusal decreased with age. The finding is consistent with Guo (1994), who claimed that these functions were more straightforward and natural, thus involving less cognitive task. Therefore, the function of expressing request and refusal developed early and decreased with age.
As indicated by Guo (1994), the use of the function of boasting decreased with age. However, the dynamic modal hui utterances for the function of boasting
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increased with age. Two possible explanations are proposed to explain why the data do not fit Guo’s findings. First, it may result from the factor of children’s abilities.
The ability of the older age group would be better than the younger age group, so the older age group would show off more of their abilities. Second, perhaps as children grow older, they may want to get more compliments from others. Thus, children used more boasting to show off to their mothers, which results in more tokens of boasting in Group II.