일상 대화에서 일인칭 복수 대명사 ‘我們(women)’과 ‘咱們(zanmen)’의 상호작용적인 기능

Abstract

This study examines the use of first-person plural pronouns in spoken Chinese from a conversational-analytic perspective. Focusing on the pronouns, women and zanmen, this study shows that the use of first person plural pronouns systematically functions to create a membership category between participants. In particular, we investigate the exact categories that are enacted and how the participants in a conversation recognize and use them in the course of an interaction. We argue that participants produce and recognize categories in their talk and that these categories index aspects of a speaker's relationship with the other participants, such as social difference or intimacy. This study offers a new understanding of what motivates speakers' choice of discourse forms and patterns in the evolving sequence of talk.(123 words)