中文的個性語:以語尾助詞啊、呀、嘛、呢為例

Abstract

個性語（Character language）被學者定義為一種可以根據說話者所處的不同情境和目的而自由變換的說話風格，同時也是顯現出說話者身分地位的指標（Sadanobu, 2006）。日文存在著許多個性語，相較之下，中文被認為缺乏這種語言現象。雖然中文的語尾助詞（Sentence-final particle）研究頗豐，然而很多關於中文語尾助詞的研究主要是把重點放在語尾助詞的文法和語用功能上。因此，為了釐清中文是否有個性語的現象，本論文旨在以中文語尾助詞 A 啊、 Ya 呀、 Ma 嘛和 Ne 呢為研究對象，探討其是否有個性語的現象。 本論文為以實際語料為本的研究，語料來源為台灣和中國的三部綜藝節目和四部電視劇。我們觀察三個年齡組：30歲以下、31歲到50歲、51歲以上，隨機挑選60個男性和60個女性進行系統性觀察。語料轉寫的方法是根據 Du Bois et al. (1993) 和 Tao (1996) 對於語料轉寫的理論。對於四個中文語尾助詞的分析會分成性別和年齡這兩個方面來探討。 本論文結果顯示中文語尾助詞 A 啊、 Ya 呀、 Ma 嘛和 Ne 呢的用法上存在著性別差異和年齡差異。本論文先從 A 啊和 Ya 呀入手。在性別差異的層面上，雖然 A 啊和 Ya 呀的用法是根據發音規則，也就是在 [i] 之後，理論上/a/ 會變成 [ja]，但是研究發現，男生還是傾向於使用 A 啊，而女生還是傾向於使用 Ya 呀。作為個性語，A 啊和 Ya 呀會根據不同情境和目的而被男生和女生靈活運用。在年齡差異的層面上，作為一種個性語，只有30歲以下和31歲到50歲的男性在特別的情境或目的之下使用 Ya 呀，但是三組年齡的女性在特別的情境或目的之下都會使用 A 啊。 接下來是 Ma 嘛的分析。在性別差異的層面來說，男性傾向於使用表達顯而易見的事實的 Ma 嘛，而女性傾向於使用表示建議或表達情緒和期望的 Ma 嘛。作為個性語，這兩種功能的 Ma 嘛可以根據特別的情境或目的被男性和女性靈活運用。在年齡差異的層面來說，作為個性語，三組年齡的男性都只在特別的情境下使用表示建議或表達情緒和期望的 Ma 嘛。女性的情形則是，51歲以上的女性傾向於使用表達顯而易見的事實的 Ma 嘛，而30歲以下和31歲到50歲的女性傾向於使用表示建議或表達情緒和期望的 Ma 嘛。這種隨著年齡增長而改變說話方式的情形也是作為個性語的一個例子。 最後是 Ne 呢的分析。在性別差異的層面來說，女性比男性傾向於使用 Ne 呢。作為個性語，男性會根據不同的情境或目的來使用 Ne 呢，像是和女性或年長者說話時。在年齡差異的層面來說，三組年齡的男性都只在特別的情境下使用 Ne 呢。女性的情形則是，51歲以上的女生比30歲以下和31歲到50歲的女生少使用 Ne 呢。這種隨著年齡增長而改變說話方式的情形也是作為個性語的一個例子。 本論文從社會語言學的觀點來研究中文語尾助詞，並且討論常被學者忽略但在我們日常對話中很重要的角色語的現象。本研究不但指出不只日文當中有個性語的現象，在中文的語尾助詞當中也存在著個性語的特色，也為個性語的研究盡了一份心力。

Character language, i.e., a speech style but flexibly changeable according to situations by a speaker, is proposed as an indicator of indexing the features of the speaker (Sadanobu, 2006). It has been argued that Japanese is abundant in character language, while Chinese relatively lacks such a marking system. In this sense, character language is highly pragmatic in use. Another highly pragmatic category in language is the sentence-final particle. Do the sentence-final particles share some functions of character language? Since the studies of sentence-final particles in Mandarin Chinese mostly concerned about their grammatical or discourse functions in use, in order to clarify the question mentioned above, this paper aims at investigating Chinese sentence-final particles A 啊, Ya 呀, Ma 嘛, and Ne 呢 from the perspective of character language. In this paper, all data are systematically collected from three variety shows and four TV dramas produced in Taiwan and China. Three age groups are set as our research targets: under 30 as group I, 31 to 50 as group II, and above 51 as group III. There are 60 males and 60 females in total. The transcriptions of the excerpts are based on the concept of intonation unit proposed by Du Bois et al. (1993) and Tao (1996). The data of sentence-final particles A 啊, Ya 呀, Ma 嘛, and Ne 呢 will be discussed and analyzed from two aspects, i.e., gender and age. The results of the present study show a gender difference and age differences in character language in terms of the usage of sentence-final particles A 啊,Ya 呀,Ma 嘛,and Ne 呢 which are seldom recognized in the previous literature. For gender difference of sentence-final particles A 啊 and Ya 呀, although the use of A 啊 and Ya 呀 can be categorized as variants of the same phoneme /a/ based on the phonological rule, i.e., /a/à[ja]/ [i]__#. However, there is a tendency that males still use A 啊, and females still use Ya 呀 regardless of the phonological rule. Also, as character language, A 啊 and Ya 呀 can be used flexibly by females and males for special purposes in certain contexts. For age difference, as a kind of character language, only males under age 30 and from 31 to 50 sometimes use character language Ya 呀 in certain contexts for special purposes, while all the three age groups of females use A 啊 for special purposes in certain context. For gender difference of sentence-final particle Ma 嘛, males tend to use “indicating obvious information Ma 嘛”, while females tend to use “indicating the speaker’s opinion Ma 嘛”. As a kind of character language, these two kinds of Ma 嘛 can be used flexibly by males and females for special purposes in certain contexts. For age difference of sentence- final particle Ma 嘛 of males, as a character language, all of the three age groups only use “indicating the speaker’s opinion Ma 嘛” in certain contexts for special purposes. For age difference of sentence-final particle Ma 嘛 of female, females over 51 years old tend to use “indicating obvious information Ma 嘛,” while females under 30 years old and from 31 to 50 years old tend to use “indicating the speaker’s opinion Ma 嘛.” The phenomenon that females change their style of speaking when getting older is also an example of Ma 嘛 as a character language. For the gender difference of sentence-final particle Ne 呢, there is a tendency that females use Ne 呢 more than males do. As a kind of character language, males use “questioning and declarative Ne 呢” in particular contexts and situations, such as speaking to females, elders, or people that are not so familiar with. For the age difference of Ne 呢 of male, all of the three age groups only use character language Ne 呢 in special contexts and situations. For the age difference of Ne 呢 of female, females over 51 years old use Ne 呢 less than females under 30 years old and those from 31 to 50. The phenomenon that females change their style of speaking when getting older indicates that Ne 呢 has the property of character language. In sum, the present thesis investigates Chinese sentence-final particles from a sociolinguistic perspective and discusses a phenomenon which is often overlooked by linguists but is vital in our lively conversations. The results of this study show that not only Japanese has the feature of character language, Mandarin Chinese also has the feature of character language in terms of sentence-final particles. This investigation is expected to shed new light on the area of character language research.