Chapter 4. Results
4.3 The pragmatic functions of the three types of the modal hui utterances
4.3.3 Epistemic hui utterances
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explanation may be that the person who has more power is more likely to use the function of threat on others. Mothers have more power than children, so children seldom use threats on their mothers. Thus, the function of threat was not found in the data.
4.3.3 Epistemic hui utterances
The epistemic modal hui refers to the speaker’s knowledge, judgment, or belief about the events, affairs or actions. It shows the different levels of the speaker’s certainty about the proposition. The data showed that the functions of the epistemic modal hui utterances included (1) argument, (2) puzzlement, and (3) reasoning.
(1) Argument
Children’s use of the epistemic modal hui utterances can function as an argument.
In argument, the speaker was against the addressee’s previous statement, as shown in Example 21. SEN and his mother were drawing, and SEN asked his mother to give him black watercolor. SEN used the epistemic modal hui utterance in the context of a dispute over if using black watercolor at first would turn all the colors into black.
Here, SEN disagreed with his mother’s previous utterance, and he gave a short conclusion bu hui “(It) will not” in disagreement with his mother. Thus, it was
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considered to be an argument with another person.
Example 21 (SEN, 2;8)
*MOT: 黑色 你 用 了 就 全部 都 變 黑 了!
heise ni yong le jiu quanbu dou bian hei le!
black you use PFV just total all become black PFV
“If you use black, all of them will become black.”
*MOT: 先 不 要 用 黑色 好不好?
xian bu yao yong heise hao-bu-hao?
first NEG want use black ok-NEG-ok
“Don’t use black at first, ok?”
*SEN: 要 -: !
“But in this way everything will become black.”
*SEN: <這邊> [<] [% pointing to palette] +/.
<zhebian> [<] [% pointing to palette] +/.
here
“Every time you use black, all of them will become black.”
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Moreover, it should be noted that the combination of the questioning word na and hui were used in rhetorical questions to form na hui “could not” with a negative meaning, as shown in Example 22. YOU and his mother were playing a game of Super Mario Brothers in the Wii.
Example 22 (YOU, 5;3)
*MOT: 玩 這 個 [= Super Mario Bros. ] 那麼 難.
wan zhe ge name nan.
play this CL so difficult
“It’s so difficult to play this game.”
*MOT: 你 都 不 玩 運動 的 [= sports game].
ni dou bu wan yundong de [= sports game].
you all NEG play sports NOM
“You just don’t play sports games.”
*YOU: 哪 會 很 難?
na hui hen nan?
where will very difficult
“How could it be very difficult (to play this)?”
*MOT: 很 難.
hen nan.
very difficult
“It’s very difficult.”
In Example 22, YOU’s mother thought that this game was too difficult and she wanted to play other kinds of games. Then, YOU said na hui hen nan “How could it be very difficult (to play this)?” YOU’s hui utterance was combined with the questioning word na “how” as a rhetorical question form, which expressed a negative
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meaning of the propositional content, that is, he thought it would not be difficult to play the game of Super Mario Brothers in the Wii.
(2) Puzzlement
Another function of the epistemic modal hui utterances was puzzlement. It represents the speakers’ puzzlement over the observed facts that contradicted their knowledge, as shown in Example 23. YOU and his mother were playing with blocks.
YOU used blocks to make a car, and his mother said if the chassis of the car was too low, it would be caught by the police. Here the situation was out of YOU’s expectation and he used the epistemic hui utterance to express his puzzlement.
Example 23 (YOU, 5;4)
*MOT: 車子 底盤 太 低 會 被 警察 抓 喔!
chezi dipan tai di hui bei jingcha zhua o!
car chassis too low will BEI police catch PRT
“The police would stop a vehicle whose chassis is too low.”
*YOU: 會 喔?
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Besides, in the function of puzzlement, the epistemic modal hui usually appeared together with the interrogative pronoun zenme “how,” as shown in Example 24. QIN and his mother were playing with blocks. When QIN was looking for blocks in the toy case, he found a kind of block which was out of his expectation. Thus, he used the epistemic modal hui with zenme “how” to show his puzzlement. Here, the function of puzzlement was not expressed by the modal hui itself, but, rather, together with the interrogative pronoun zenme “how” to express the speaker’s puzzlement.
Example 24 (QIN, 4;11)
*QIN: 奇怪 了-: 怎麼 會 有 這 個 [% looking for blocks in the toy case]? qiguai le -: zenme hui you zhe ge [% looking for blocks in the toy case]?
strange CRS why will have this CL
“It’s strange. Why is there this kind of block?”
*MOT: 哪 一 種 的?
na yi zhong de?
which one CL NOM
“Which kind of block?”
(3) Reasoning
In reasoning, the epistemic hui utterances showed the speaker’s reasonable speculation or inference of an event. In Example 25, YIN and her mother were reading a story book. She told her mother that the frog’s favorite food was green peppers. YIN thought frogs were originally purple before eating green peppers. Thus,
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after eating green peppers, frogs would change into green because frogs had the same color as green peppers. The epistemic modal hui utterance expressed YIN’s subjective judgment of the possibility of the propositional content.
Example 25 (YIN, 3;1)
*YIN: 青蛙 最 喜歡 吃 青椒 了.
qingwa zui xihuan chi qingjiao le.
frog most like eat green pepper CRS
“The frog’s favorite food is green peppers.”
*MOT: 青蛙 最 喜歡 吃 青椒 喔?
qingwa zui xihuan chi qingjiao o?
frog most like eat green pepper Q
“Is the frog’s favorite food green peppers?”
*YIN: <牠> [>] +/.
“After eating green peppers, it will become green.”
*MOT: 喔 -: 這 樣子 喔！
“It’s purple when it doesn’t eat green peppers.”
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In the use of the epistemic modal hui, it was found that the reasoning function of the modal hui usually was used with keneng “possible”. As shown in Example 26, QIN and his mother were flipping through a magazine to look for the activities they could play with. The mother turned to a page with a maze. Then, QIN picked up a golden pen, and was going to use it to draw a heart on the page. Here, QIN used the modal hui, together with keneng “possible”, to express a reasoning function.
Example 26 (QIN, 4;11)
*QIN: 在 這裡 [= this page] 畫 個 愛心 [% opening the golden pen cap].
“(It) probably will be colored.”
%exp: the color of the golden pen and the brown maze on this page are too similar
*MOT: 你 可以 試試看 啊 應該 不 太 明顯.
ni keyi shishikan a yinggai bu tai mingxian.
you can try PRT may NEG too Clear
“You can try, but (it) may not be clear.”
%act: QIN is drawing on the page with the pen
Table 11 demonstrates the frequencies of occurrences for the pragmatic functions
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of the epistemic hui utterances by the two age groups. It shows that the epistemic hui utterances served three different pragmatic functions: argument, puzzlement, and reasoning.
Table 11
Pragmatic Functions of the Epistemic hui Utterances Function Group I Group II
N % N % Argument 17 35.42 24 20.69 Puzzlement 8 16.67 25 21.55 Reasoning 23 47.92 67 57.76
Total 48 100 116 100
As seen in Table 11, both age groups (47.92% in Group I; 57.76% in Group II) used the epistemic hui utterances more frequently for the function of reasoning. The epistemic modal hui utterances for the function of argument (35.42% in Group I;
20.69% in Group II) decreased with age, while the function of puzzlement increased with age (16.67% in Group I; 21.55% in Group II).
For the epistemic modal hui utterances, reasoning was the most frequently used function in both age groups. The proportion of reasoning in Group II (57.76%) was higher compared to Group I (47.92%). The result is consistent with Guo’s (1994) study, which suggested that the function of reasoning developed later and increased with age. Because the concept of reasoning requires inference and viewing things
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from another’s perspective, it shows the later occurrence of the function of reasoning.
In addition, it was found that the epistemic modal hui utterances for the function of reasoning was usually used with keneng “possible”.
For the function of argument, the proportion in Group I (35.42%) was higher than Group II (20.69%). The function of argument decreased as the children got older.
The result is consistent with Guo (1994), who suggested that the function of argument developed early and decreased with age. A possible explanation may be that younger children seldom save face for others; therefore, they use more epistemic modal hui utterances to express the function of argument than older children. Besides, it was found that utterances in this category occurred in a dispute, and it could be the combination of the questioning word na and hui in rhetorical questions to form na hui
“could not” with a negative meaning.
The results showed that for the children in the two age groups, the proportion of the epistemic modal hui utterances for the function of puzzlement increased in frequency with age (16.67% in Group I; 21.55% in Group II). The finding is consistent with Guo (1994), who suggested that the function of puzzlement developed later and increased with age. The reason may be that as children grow older, they become gradually aware that their beliefs may be different from the real outer world (Moore, Pure, & Furrow, 1990). Hence, the older age group would use more epistemic
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modal hui utterances to show their puzzlement over the observed facts that contradicted their knowledge. In addition, it was found that the modal hui usually appeared together with the interrogative pronoun zenme “how” to express the function of puzzlement.
The pragmatic functions of the three types of the modal hui utterances in the children’s speech is summarized in Figure 1. The dynamic modal hui utterances served four functions: request, refusal, reporting, and boasting. The deontic modal hui utterances only had one function, namely promise. There were three functions in the epistemic modal hui utterances: argument, puzzlement, and reasoning.
Figure 1. Pragmatic Functions of the Three Types of the Modal hui Utterances
Dynamic
Request
Refusal
Reporting
Boasting
Deontic
Promise
Epistemic
Argument
Puzzlement
Reasoning
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This section discussed the pragmatic functions of the three types of the modal hui utterances within the contexts in the children’s speech. The frequencies and
proportions of the different functions of the model hui utterances by the two groups were provided, as shown in the tables in this chapter. In order to ensure the reliability for the coding of the functions of the modal hui utterances, an independent coder coded one fourth of the data which were randomly selected. Cohen’s Kappa was used to determine the inter-rater reliability, and the reliability for categorizing the functions of the modal hui utterances was 0.82.
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Chapter 5
Discussion and Conclusion
This study examined the types, person subjects, and pragmatic functions of the modal hui in the children’s speech. The following sections discuss the three analyses in the present study. In Section 5.1, the first analysis concerns the different types of the modal hui in the two age groups. In Section 5.2, the second analysis focuses on the different types of the modal hui used with the different person subjects in the two age groups. In Section 5.3, the pragmatic functions of the different types of the modal hui utterances in the two age groups are discussed. Finally, in Section 5.4, the
limitations of the present study will be pointed out and suggestions for future research will be given.
5.1 Three types of the modal hui
The results revealed that there were three types of the modal hui in the children’s speech: dynamic, deontic, and epistemic. The dynamic modal hui was the most frequently used semantic categories by the younger age group (59.69%). Pragmatic factors may affect the usage of the modals by the children (Bliss, 1988). For instance, the relatively rare usage of epistemic forms in the younger group may have been due
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to the content of the dialogues between the adult and the child. In the conversations, the topics of the conversations center around children, involving familiar and recent activities and objects of interest. The opportunities for the dynamic concept of ability to be used may have been more frequent than the more obscure and abstract epistemic concepts. Therefore, pragmatic considerations appear to influence the children’s modal usage.
As for the deontic modal hui, there were only few tokens which were found in the data (3.1% in the younger group and 6.04% in the older group), as studies on the deontic modal hui also indicated that it is a marginal use (Guo, 1994; Wu, 2009). It was indicated that the deontic modal hui denotes obligation, so children must make some assumptions about whether something is necessary on the basis of the social or moral rules (Papafragou, 1988). The concepts are more abstract and usually relate to things that are less tangible (Hsu, 1996). Thus, it may be the reason for the infrequent use of the deontic modal hui in the children’s speech.
However, different from the younger age group, the epistemic modal hui was most frequently used by the older age group (63.74%). Studies on the acquisition of modalities have found a tendency that epistemic meanings are acquired relatively late (e.g. Fletcher, 1975; Guo, 1995; Shatz & Wilcox, 1991; Stephany, 1986; Wells, 1979, 1985). It could be inferred that epistemic meanings were used less in the younger
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group and increased with age. The use of epistemic hui requires inference and viewing things from another’s perspective. When children become older, they would have more life experience and realize that their beliefs may be different from reality (Moore, Pure, & Furrow, 1990). Moreover, the reason for the higher proportion of the epistemic modal in the older group lies in cognitive complexity (Stephany, 1986). The epistemic modals are centrally concerned with the notion of possibility, as distinct from reality. Studies of cognitive development have shown that the notion of possibility develops in Piaget’s preoperational stage (from about 2 or 3 to about 7 or 8 years old). Papafraugou (1998) proposed that “Successful use of epistemic modals requires the speaker to perform deductive operations on abstract propositions and to arrive at a warranted conclusion.” Thus, the modal hui displays different degrees of abstractness and forms different degrees of challenge for the children. Hirst and Weil’s (1982) hypothesis also indicated that semantic constraints guide the development of the modals as abstract meanings are acquired later than concrete ones (i.e. those that are cognitively accessible).
5.2 Person subjects of the modal hui
Most of the dynamic hui utterances are self-oriented, that is, they refer to children themselves (Pea and Mawby, 1981). The use of the first person subject indicates that
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children are most interested in their own abilities. Thus, children first look at events and states from their own perspectives. It is also noteworthy that only a marginal number of the dynamic hui utterances had inanimate third person subjects, while most of the other dynamic hui utterances were animate subjects. The findings suggest that the modal notion expressed by the dynamic modal hui is closely tied to the animate agents of action (Chang, 2001; Huang, 1999). Children also tend to use the deontic modal hui with the first person subject. In contrast, children use the epistemic modal hui mainly with the third person subject to express events and states of third-party
entities (Bassano, 1996; O’Neill & Atance, 2000).
Moreover, children use modals initially with self-reference and later with third-person forms (Fletcher, 1979). The dominance of the first person form reflects the pragmatic influence of the child-centered conversations in which self-related activities and interests were discussed (Bliss, 1988). Moreover, egocentricity which may be involved with cognition could result in a high proportion of self-related utterances. However, as children grow older, they shift their focus of attention from the self to others. Thus, children may use the majority of hui utterances with the third person subjects. The reason may also relate to the meaning of the modal itself, that is, children usually express events and states of third-party entities by using epistemic with the third person subject (Bassano, 1996; O’Neill & Atance, 2000). As mentioned
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before, the usage of the epistemic modal hui by the older group was more frequent than the younger group; therefore, it would result in a higher proportion of the modal hui utterances with the third person subject by the older group. In sum, pragmatic
consideration, cognition, and meaning of the modal may influence the usage of the person subjects by children.
It should be noted that there were few tokens of the second person subjects. Three reasons are proposed to explain it. First, the mothers tended to initiate many questions by using ni “you” as subjects, so the children tended to respond by using wo “I” as subjects. Second, in the mother-child conversation, the only interlocutor of the child was the mother. As adult’s abilities were better than the child, the child may be less likely to ask about the mother’s abilities by using ni hui “you can” because the child needed not question or focused on the mother’s abilities. Third, context may affect the usage of the person subjects. For example, in the context of toy play or book reading it is supposed that there were more third person subjects. Due to the context, few tokens of the second person subjects were found in the child’s data.
5.3 The pragmatic functions of the modal hui utterances
The results showed that in the dynamic modal hui utterances, the functions of request and refusal were acquired early and their use decreased with age. In these two
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functions, it should be noted that the presence or absence of certain abilities (e.g. wo hui “I can”/ wo bu hui “I can not”) was taken as a reason to request for people to do
things or refuse others. In both functions, the child’s lack of ability was particularly utilized as a reason for the addressee to act. Moreover, different sentence polarities were also associated with different functions. Negative sentence forms expressing lack of abilities were mostly associated with the dynamic modal hui utterances for request and refusal. Because children do not always have the appropriate ability to do things on their own, they may make requests or refuse others by claiming their inability. In English children’s requests, it is typically in forms that state what the speaker wants and what the problems are, and adults usually comply with such requests (Ervin-Tripp, 1982).
However, the results showed that the function of boasting increased with age.
The possible reasons may be the factor of children’s abilities and the desires for compliments. In boasting, the speakers are not only making a claim about their
The possible reasons may be the factor of children’s abilities and the desires for compliments. In boasting, the speakers are not only making a claim about their