Distal Demonstrative Hitlo in Taiwanese Southern Min

Distal Demonstrative Hitlo in Taiwanese Southern Min* Yi-jing Zhao National Taiwan Normal University, Linguistic Program, Taipei, Taiwan jyjing7@yahoo.com.tw Abstract. This article investigates the use of distal demonstrative Hitlo in Taiwanese Southern Min (TSM) from a discourse-pragmatic perspective. The analysis is based on a 5-hour corpus of spoken data, including daily conversations, radio interviews, TV drama series, and some random examples. A total of 172 tokens of Hitlos are identified in the data. They can be divided into six categories according to their functions: firstly, exophoric usage, those Hitlos which refer to an object non-linguistically which can be identified in the immediate situation; secondly, endophoric usage, those which refer to an element textually; thirdly, referent introducing function, those which can be used to introduce a new but identifiable referent into the conversation (the referent usually has topical importance); fourthly, hedging expression, those which serve as a marker of imprecision; fifthly, a condition introducing marker, those which function as an indicator of the coming of a conditional sentence; finally, pause fillers, those which help speakers to manage speech turn or indicate the mental states In addition, an interactive function which Hitlo is found to serve will be discussed. Moreover, a grammaticalizational process involving semantic bleaching which Hitlo is probably undergoing is revealed in general. Finally, a filled demonstrative principle, stating that it may be a universal phenomenon to use demonstratives as filled pause will be proposed. Key words: Deixis; Pause Filler; Demonstrative; Grammaticalization; Taiwanese Southern Min 1. Introduction Deixis refers to certain elements in language whose interpretations rely highly on the situation within which an utterance takes place. Deictic terms refer frequently to personal, temporal or locational information of an immediate situation. It includes personal pronouns (e.g. I, you), demonstratives (e.g. this, that), and certain adverbs that indicate time (e.g. tomorrow) and place (e.g. here, there). The investigation of deictic terms has been one of the most prevalent topics in linguistic inquiry. In Mandarin Chinese, for instance, the complexity of demonstratives has been examined by scholars like Huang (1999) and Liu (2003). Through exploring the versatility of Chinese demonstratives in natural occurring conversations, Huang argues that * I am grateful for the crucial comments from the anonymous reviewers, which help sharpen and clarify several main points in this paper. Special thanks go to Professor Miao-Hsia Chang and Professor Hsueh- O Lin for the critical comments and suggestions. Also, I thank my grandfather, Zhu-Mu Zhao, my parents, Su-Ying Chen and Shan-Long Zhao, my brother, Shi-Jie Zhao and my sister Ya-Ling Zhao for the encouragements on all occasions. Copyright 2007 by Yi-jing Zhao 522 distal deixis nage is being grammaticalized as a definite article in Mandarin Chinese. Latter, Liu investigates the complexity of proximal deixis and it is emphasized that zheyang(zi) has been grammaticalized from a demonstrative to a discourse boundary marker in natural conversations. Demonstratives in Taiwanese, however, have not been fully investigated. Specifically, previous studies relating to Taiwanese demonstratives frequently restrict their analyses to syntactic patterns or semantic diversities. Very few of …

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