Is mandarin chinese a truth-based language? Rejecting responses to negative assertions and questions

This paper addresses the central question of whether Mandarin Chinese (MC) is a canonical truth-based language, a language that is expected to express the speaker's disagreement to a negative proposition by means of a negative particle followed by a positive sentence. Eight native speakers...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Feifei, Li, González-Fuente, Santiago, Prieto Vives, Pilar, 1965-, Espinal i Farré, M. Teresa
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Estado:Versión publicada
Fecha de publicación:2016
País:España
Institución:Universitat Pompeu Fabra
Repositorio:Repositorio Digital de la UPF
OAI Identifier:oai:repositori.upf.edu:10230/32693
Acceso en línea:http://hdl.handle.net/10230/32693
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2016.01967
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Truth-based language
REJECT
Disagreement
Negative propositions
Mandarin Chinese
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spelling Is mandarin chinese a truth-based language? Rejecting responses to negative assertions and questionsFeifei, LiGonzález-Fuente, SantiagoPrieto Vives, Pilar, 1965-Espinal i Farré, M. TeresaTruth-based languageREJECTDisagreementNegative propositionsMandarin ChineseThis paper addresses the central question of whether Mandarin Chinese (MC) is a canonical truth-based language, a language that is expected to express the speaker's disagreement to a negative proposition by means of a negative particle followed by a positive sentence. Eight native speakers of MC participated in an oral Discourse Completion Task that elicited rejecting responses to negative assertions/questions and broad focus statements (control condition). Results show that MC speakers convey reject by relying on a combination of lexico-syntactic strategies (e.g., negative particles such as bù, méi(you), and positive sentences) together with prosodic (e.g., mean pitch) and gestural strategies (mainly, the use of head nods). Importantly, the use of a negative particle, which was the expected outcome in truth-based languages, only appeared in 52% of the rejecting answers. This system puts into question the macroparametric division between truth-based and polarity-based languages and calls for a more general view of the instantiation of a reject speech act that integrates lexical and syntactic strategies with prosodic and gestural strategies.We acknowledge support from the Spanish MINECO (FFI2014-52015-P, FFI2015-66533-P), and from the Generalitat de Catalunya to both the Prosodic Studies Group (2014SGR-925) and the Centre de Lingüística Teòrica (2014SGR-1013). The first author acknowledges a grant from the Chinese Scholarship Council, the second author a MEC-Spain FPU 2012-05893 grant, and the last author an ICREA Academia award.Frontiers201720172016info:eu-repo/semantics/articleinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersionapplication/pdfapplication/pdfhttp://hdl.handle.net/10230/32693http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2016.01967reponame:Repositorio Digital de la UPFinstname:Universitat Pompeu FabraInglésFront. Psychol. 2016; 7:1967. DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2016.01967info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/ES/1PE/FFI2015-665info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/ES/1PE/FFI2014-52015-Pinfo:eu-repo/grantAgreement/ES/3PN/FPU 2012-05893©2016 Li, González-Fuente, Prieto and Espinal. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccessoai:repositori.upf.edu:10230/326932026-06-12T07:21:37Z
dc.title.none.fl_str_mv Is mandarin chinese a truth-based language? Rejecting responses to negative assertions and questions
title Is mandarin chinese a truth-based language? Rejecting responses to negative assertions and questions
spellingShingle Is mandarin chinese a truth-based language? Rejecting responses to negative assertions and questions
Feifei, Li
Truth-based language
REJECT
Disagreement
Negative propositions
Mandarin Chinese
title_short Is mandarin chinese a truth-based language? Rejecting responses to negative assertions and questions
title_full Is mandarin chinese a truth-based language? Rejecting responses to negative assertions and questions
title_fullStr Is mandarin chinese a truth-based language? Rejecting responses to negative assertions and questions
title_full_unstemmed Is mandarin chinese a truth-based language? Rejecting responses to negative assertions and questions
title_sort Is mandarin chinese a truth-based language? Rejecting responses to negative assertions and questions
dc.creator.none.fl_str_mv Feifei, Li
González-Fuente, Santiago
Prieto Vives, Pilar, 1965-
Espinal i Farré, M. Teresa
author Feifei, Li
author_facet Feifei, Li
González-Fuente, Santiago
Prieto Vives, Pilar, 1965-
Espinal i Farré, M. Teresa
author_role author
author2 González-Fuente, Santiago
Prieto Vives, Pilar, 1965-
Espinal i Farré, M. Teresa
author2_role author
author
author
dc.subject.none.fl_str_mv Truth-based language
REJECT
Disagreement
Negative propositions
Mandarin Chinese
topic Truth-based language
REJECT
Disagreement
Negative propositions
Mandarin Chinese
description This paper addresses the central question of whether Mandarin Chinese (MC) is a canonical truth-based language, a language that is expected to express the speaker's disagreement to a negative proposition by means of a negative particle followed by a positive sentence. Eight native speakers of MC participated in an oral Discourse Completion Task that elicited rejecting responses to negative assertions/questions and broad focus statements (control condition). Results show that MC speakers convey reject by relying on a combination of lexico-syntactic strategies (e.g., negative particles such as bù, méi(you), and positive sentences) together with prosodic (e.g., mean pitch) and gestural strategies (mainly, the use of head nods). Importantly, the use of a negative particle, which was the expected outcome in truth-based languages, only appeared in 52% of the rejecting answers. This system puts into question the macroparametric division between truth-based and polarity-based languages and calls for a more general view of the instantiation of a reject speech act that integrates lexical and syntactic strategies with prosodic and gestural strategies.
publishDate 2016
dc.date.none.fl_str_mv 2016
2017
2017
dc.type.none.fl_str_mv info:eu-repo/semantics/article
info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
format article
status_str publishedVersion
dc.identifier.none.fl_str_mv http://hdl.handle.net/10230/32693
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2016.01967
url http://hdl.handle.net/10230/32693
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2016.01967
dc.language.none.fl_str_mv Inglés
language_invalid_str_mv Inglés
dc.relation.none.fl_str_mv Front. Psychol. 2016; 7:1967. DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2016.01967
info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/ES/1PE/FFI2015-665
info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/ES/1PE/FFI2014-52015-P
info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/ES/3PN/FPU 2012-05893
dc.rights.none.fl_str_mv https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
rights_invalid_str_mv https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
eu_rights_str_mv openAccess
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application/pdf
dc.publisher.none.fl_str_mv Frontiers
publisher.none.fl_str_mv Frontiers
dc.source.none.fl_str_mv reponame:Repositorio Digital de la UPF
instname:Universitat Pompeu Fabra
instname_str Universitat Pompeu Fabra
reponame_str Repositorio Digital de la UPF
collection Repositorio Digital de la UPF
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