Preference of Modality Markers

Table 22 and Table 23 display preference order of modality markers for four groups elicited from DCT and role play respectively. Table 24 indicates that for the use of MAXIMIZERs, Intensifiers was the most common marker on DCT, whereas Emotional Expressions was preferred the most in role play as Table 25 displays. As for the distribution of MINIMIZERs, role play and DCT also yielded somewhat different results. For DCT, Understaters was used most frequently whereas for role play Hesitators was preferred the most. In terms of Chinese particles, oral and written tasks again revealed different results. Participants preferred tagging BA (吧) the most

at the end of the sentence to increase politeness tone on written questionnaire where as A (啊) was the most common particles in role plays. . In other words, the preference order for the use of modality markers in oral and written tasks was different.

Table 24 Preference order of modality markers for four groups on DCT

NS-C-EM NS-C-NEM EFL-H EFL-L Chinese particles % Chinese particles % Chinese particles % Chinese particles % 1. BA

Note: MAX: MAXIMIZERs; MIN: MINIMIZERs

Table 25 Preference order of modality markers for four groups in role play Chinese particles % Chinese particles % Chinese particles % Chinese particles % 1. A

Note: MAX: MAXIMIZERs; MIN: MINIMIZERs

As noted by Table 24, and Table 25, besides different preference order for DCT and role play, some modality markers were almost only used in role plays. For MINIMIZERs, Hesitators was the most common markers in role play; however, this type of markers was almost never used on DCT. (4.31) below provides examples of Hesitators in a roleplay dialogue by NS-C-EM and EFL-H.

(4.31) Hesitators

I. Situation: Ten minutes late for lunch with a male friend

(1) HM3： ㄟ！不好意思啦！遲到了。我想說先去買一點東西。

(2) HM2： Ei！Keshi bushi..shuo zhongwu yao yiqi qu chi ye。

(3) HM3： Wo，wo qu mai yidian，mai yidian wenju a！Xiang shuo zhon ＝ (4) HM2： O！

(5) HM3： ＝wu yao nianshu。Yinwei ren hen duo，suoyi wan le yixia。

(6) HM2： En！Na mei cha la！Zou a！

(7) HM3： Hao！Hao！

(1) HM3：Hey sorry PRT late LE I think say first go buy some thing (2) HM2：Hey but not say noon will together go eat PRT

(3) HM3：I I go buy some buy some stationery RRT think say noon will study (4) HM2：ok

(5) HM3：because human very many so late LE a little (6) HM2：ok that no difference PRT go PRT

(7) HM3：ok ok

(1) HM2：Ah, sorry. I’m late. I just went some shopping.

(2) HM3：But we are going to eat lunch together today right?

(3) HM2：I bought some stationery. Are we going to study this afternoon?

(4) HM3：Ok.

(5) HM2：There were many people there, so I am a little late.

(6) HM3：Ok. That’s ok. Let’s go!

(7) HM2：Ok.

II. Situation: Dropping a female classmate’s wedding ring.

(1) HF4： Oh! Your ring is beautiful. Let me see.

(2) HF6： Okay.

(3) HF4： Wow！Sorry! uh::: I I will find it. It’s something. It must be something else. Oh::! It Ah！Uh:: I will I will find it you. Don’t

panic! Don’t panic. Uh! Well.

(4) HF6： Maybe...under the sofa?

(5) HF4： Mhm, let me see. Oh! It’s right, right there.

(6) HF6： Mhm?

(7) HF4： But, but, but uh something seems broken. It seems broken into two.

Sorry.

(8) HF6： Mhm?? But it’s important. It’s my wedding ring.

(9) HF4： I, I, I know. Oh! That’s must be a sign. I think your mate is not ..

proper for you. That’s must must be a sign.

(10) HF6： Uh:::It’s

(11) HF4： You know. It’s a (bylaw) if your wedding ring broke, brokes = (12) HF6： Really?

(13) HF4： = before you get married. So you have to take it into consideration.

Remember my words.

(14) HF6： but how, how can I, how do I

(15) HF4： Oh! I, I, I have something. I, I, I, Somebody phones me. I have to go Right. Now. Bye bye.

(16) HF6： No! no!

As for MINIMIZING Hedges, it was only used in role play and never occurred on DCT. On of the examples of the use of Hedges in spontaneous conversation is shown in (4.32). This result confirms Beebe and Cumming’s (1996) finding that hedges only occur in telephone conversations while were never used on DCT.

(4.32) Hedges

I. Dropping a male classmate’s new digital camera (1) HM3： ㄟ！不好意思。好像有點壞掉。

(2) HM2： 啊？哪邊？

(3) HM3： 啊就剛剛摔到這邊，不知道還能不能用？我，我，我幫你拿去 修好不好？

(4) HM2： 先看看，如果沒事那就算啦！

(5) HM3： 呃！可是這是新的吔！你新買的！我把他弄成這樣。會不會有 點..。

(6) HM2： 嗯，沒壞掉就，就算啦！壞掉的話，就修嘛！

(7) HM3： 哦！也好！

(8) HM2： 嗯！

(9) HM3： 有壞掉的話，我再拿去修，不好意思。

(10) HM2： 哦！好！不會。

(1) HM3： Ei！Buhaoyisi。Haoxiang youdian huaidiao。

(2) HM2： A？Na bian？

(3) HM3： A jiu ganggang shuai dao zhe bian，bu zhidao hai neng buneng yong？ Wo，wo，wo bang ni na qu xiu hao buhao？

(4) HM2： Xian kankan，ruguo mei shi na jiu suan la！

(5) HM3： E！Keshi zhe shi xin de ye！Ni xin mai de！Wo ba ta nong cheng zheyang。Hui buhui you dian..。

(6) HM2： En，mei huai diao jiu，jiu suan la！Huai diao de hua，jiu xiu

(1) HM3：Hey sorry seem a little broken drop (2) HM2：a where

(6) HM2：hmm not broken drop just just calculate LA broken drop DE speech just fix PRT

(7) HM3：Oh also good (8) HM2：ok

(9) HM3：have broken drop DE speech I again take go fix sorry (10) HM2：Oh good not can

(1) HM2：Uh…sorry. It looks like it’s broken.

(2) HM3：Where? Which part?

(3) HM2：It fell down and this part got broken. I don’t know if it’s ok. I’ll take it to the store and get it fixed, ok?

(4) HM3：Let’s check it out first. If it’s fine then that’s ok.

(5) HM2：Uh…but it’s new! You just bought it! And I broke it. Is it…

(6) HM3：Well, if it is not broken, then that’s ok. If it is, just get it fixed.

(7) HM2：Oh, ok.

(8) HM3：Ok.

(9) HM2：If it is broken, I’ll get it fixed. Sorry.

(10) HM3：Oh, ok. That’s alright.

Situation 3: Dropping a female classmate’s wedding ring.

(1) HM6： Linda, look! I have something to talk to you. Mhm, you know the, pocket, other people’s pocket, or . somewhere else.

(6) HF6： Uh.. want to see it. I mean, it was originally in my pocket when I want to too- take it out. I just can’t find it, .so.. =

(21) HM6： Okay, thank you.