Abstract
This paper investigates 'Reactive Tokens' in Mandarin Chinese, Japanese, and English. Our definition of 'Reactive Token' (= 'RT') is 'a short utterance produced by an interlocutor who is playing a listener's role during the other interlocutor's speakership'. That is, Reactive Tokens will normally not disrupt the primary speaker's speakership, and do not in themselves claim the floor. Using corpora of conversational interactions from each of the three languages of our study, we distinguish among several types of RTs, and show that the three languages differ in terms of the types of RTs favored, the frequency with which RTs are used in conversation, and the way in which speakers distribute their RTs across conversational units.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 355-387 |
| Number of pages | 33 |
| Journal | Journal of Pragmatics |
| Volume | 26 |
| Issue number | 3 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 1996 Sep |
| Externally published | Yes |
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ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Language and Linguistics
- Experimental and Cognitive Psychology
- Linguistics and Language
Cite this
The conversational use of reactive tokens in English, Japanese, and Mandarin. / Clancy, Patricia M.; Thompson, Sandra A.; Suzuki, Ryoko; Tao, Hongyin.
In: Journal of Pragmatics, Vol. 26, No. 3, 09.1996, p. 355-387.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article
}
TY - JOUR
T1 - The conversational use of reactive tokens in English, Japanese, and Mandarin
AU - Clancy, Patricia M.
AU - Thompson, Sandra A.
AU - Suzuki, Ryoko
AU - Tao, Hongyin
PY - 1996/9
Y1 - 1996/9
N2 - This paper investigates 'Reactive Tokens' in Mandarin Chinese, Japanese, and English. Our definition of 'Reactive Token' (= 'RT') is 'a short utterance produced by an interlocutor who is playing a listener's role during the other interlocutor's speakership'. That is, Reactive Tokens will normally not disrupt the primary speaker's speakership, and do not in themselves claim the floor. Using corpora of conversational interactions from each of the three languages of our study, we distinguish among several types of RTs, and show that the three languages differ in terms of the types of RTs favored, the frequency with which RTs are used in conversation, and the way in which speakers distribute their RTs across conversational units.
AB - This paper investigates 'Reactive Tokens' in Mandarin Chinese, Japanese, and English. Our definition of 'Reactive Token' (= 'RT') is 'a short utterance produced by an interlocutor who is playing a listener's role during the other interlocutor's speakership'. That is, Reactive Tokens will normally not disrupt the primary speaker's speakership, and do not in themselves claim the floor. Using corpora of conversational interactions from each of the three languages of our study, we distinguish among several types of RTs, and show that the three languages differ in terms of the types of RTs favored, the frequency with which RTs are used in conversation, and the way in which speakers distribute their RTs across conversational units.
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UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=0030240980&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/0378-2166(95)00036-4
DO - 10.1016/0378-2166(95)00036-4
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:0030240980
VL - 26
SP - 355
EP - 387
JO - Journal of Pragmatics
JF - Journal of Pragmatics
SN - 0378-2166
IS - 3
ER -