青少年即時通訊的句尾助詞使用：以同性別之間對話為例

Abstract

青少年語言因其獨特性和創造性而備受關注，其中值得注意的言特徵是他們在談話中普遍使用的語尾助詞 (UFP)。語尾助詞屬於語用標記，用來表達說話者的態度，並加強言談的組織。因此，本研究旨在了解青少年如何使用中文的語尾助詞。為了更加全面了解此議題，將特別探討性別使用狀況的差異。本研究收集並分析六名高中男生與女生的同性線上聊天紀錄，並計算對話中語尾助詞的數量，最後歸類成不同種類的語尾助詞。觀察使用頻率較高的語尾助詞包含LA、BA、EI、A 和 O，透過對話分析法，觀察語尾助詞在語境和對話序列中的分布，來了解男生和女生是否偏好使用語尾助詞的不同功能。除了觀察語尾助詞的使用，也分析助詞周圍的語言特徵是否反映出性別的差異。根據分析結果，青少年女性使用句尾助詞的頻率和種類高於男性，也會在線上聊天中交替使用中文字、注音或帶有強調或減弱意味的助詞變體來修飾語氣。男性偏好使用A來表達強烈驚嘆情緒，女性則多使用O於回應中來表達說話者的訊息接收。比較LA和BA於拒絕語境的使用，男性較常使用LA來增強個人論點和反駁語氣，女性則偏好使用BA來減弱衝突意見的強烈語氣。比較EI和O的使用情形，可以發現男生傾向運用語尾助詞於受話者導向的語境，強調給予的訊息的重要性，而女生傾向使用語尾助詞於說話者導向的語境，表明說話者對先前對話內容的理解。在青少年男性和女性的線上對話中，句尾助詞經常與短語一同使用，例如「好O」(表達贊同)、「不是LA」(表達否定)、「天啊」(表達驚嘆)等等，或是公式化句型和極端構句(ECF)來呈現個人態度與評論，例如 [太…了BA]。兩性使用語言的差異顯示出青少年男性、女性建構出不同的溝通模式和特色，與兩性成年人的溝通模式相似，顯示青少年在同儕互動中社會化已漸漸成熟。儘管兩性青少年偏好使用的語尾助詞不同，他們都使用此言談標記來促進同儕間的正向互動，表現友好。Adolescent language has attracted much attention due to its uniqueness and creativity. One of the noteworthy linguistic features in teens’ language is the ubiquitous use of utterance-final particles (UFPs) in their conversations. UFPs are pragmatic markers that express speakers’ attitudes and enhance discoursal organization. Therefore, the present study aims to understand how Mandarin Chinese UFPs are applied in teens’ online interactions. In order to gain a complete understanding of their usage, a comparative study between genders will be conducted.To achieve the objective of the study, online written conversations in quasi-synchronous social platforms from three high school boys and three high school girls who are engaged in same-gender interactions are collected and analyzed. All of the UFP tokens are counted and categorized into different types. The frequently used UFPs include LA, BA, EI, A, and O, which are closely examined in different speech activities, contexts, and conversational sequences in order to reveal the gendered preference of the particles. In addition to the UFPs, surrounding linguistic features are also investigated.According to the analysis, teenage girls use UFPs more frequently and with more variety of types than boys. In addition, they also alternately use Chinese characters, phonetic symbols, or different variants of UFPs with emphatic or weakening functions to modify the tones of utterances in online chats. The boys prefer to use A to express an exclamative attitude, while the girls mostly use O in response sequences to express the reception of information by the speaker. Comparing the use of LA and BA in rejection context, the boys tend to use LA to enhance the affirmative tone when making arguments to remain personal stance, while the girls prefer to use BA to weaken the strong tone in giving conflicting opinions. As for differences in the use of EI and O, the boys are found to use UFPs in addressee-oriented context, emphasizing the importance of the message given, while the girls use the particles in speaker-oriented context, showing the speaker’s understanding of the former discussion. In online conversations between teenage boys and girls, UFPs often co-occur with short phrases, such as hao-O (expressing agreement), bushi-LA (expressing negation), tian-A (expressing exclamation), etc., or formulaic patterns with extreme case formulations (ECFs) to present personal attitudes and comments, such as [tai adj. le BA].The difference in language use between the genders shows that adolescent males and females have constructed different communication modes and characteristics, which are similar to the communication modes of the adults. It is inferred that they are experiencing socialization in peer speech interactions. Although adolescents of both genders have dissimilar preferences in using different UFPs, they both employ these pragmatic markers to enhance positive interaction among peers and show friendliness.