An interactional linguistics study of Shi ba in Mandarin conversation

From the perspective of interactional linguistics and adopting the methodology of conversation analysis, this study explores some fine-grained interactional uses of shi ba in Mandarin conversation. It first classifies shi ba into unmarked and marked forms generally in terms of their prosodic manifestations with the assistance of Praat, the speech analysis tool. Then it demonstrates that the unmarked shi ba fulfills three interactional functions: requesting confirmation, seeking affiliation and maintaining floor; the marked shi ba registers dissatisfaction and displays affiliation. However, shi ba is basically a tag question, and serves to invite the recipient to proffer certain interactional response. The specific function that shi ba performs in conversation is tied to three decisive factors - its prosodic manifestations, position in specific turns and sequences as well as the relative epistemic status of interlocutors. The study also suggests that there lies a common motivation for the emergence of various interactional functions of shi ba, that is - the demand for an on-line alignment, which reflects the cross-fertilization between language and interaction.