本研究旨在探討中文言談(Mandarin spoken discourse)中引語(gambits)
的應用情形及其如何裨益人際間對話的進行, 以期增加人們對此類對話工
具(conversational tools)及其功能之認識, 同時也提供中文學習者如何
善用中文引語的指導方針. 首先, 我們透過凱勒(Eric Keller)1981年為
英語而設計的理論架構來呈現本研究的語料,以便勾勒出中文引語的使用
及分類概況. 然而,部份語料未能經由此架構得到合理的解釋,證明此架構
未能完全切合我們的需要.因此,本研究提出從內外兩方面來修正凱勒的理
論架構.一方面,我們重行收錄曾出現於凱勒稍早的著作(Keller and
Taba-Warner,1976-9),卻被摒除於1981年研究的兩個細目, 並合併了另外
兩個極為類似的細目;另一方面我們另行設計增補了四個項目.希望藉此修
正能描述並解釋本研究語料所辨識出的中文引語.經由進一步的審慎觀察,
我們歸納出中文使用者對某些引語有著明顯且一致的偏好; 同時也發現凱
勒辨識英文引語所依據的兩個標準並非皆適用於中文.此一不適用情形肇
因於標準本身語意界定不夠明確,及引語在中文言談裏普便的位置功能多
樣化.此外,引語的使用和兩種重要的語言社會變數--使用者性別(
speakers' gender)及社會場合(social settings)-- 之間的互動關係也
納入探討,結論大致如下:男性與女性在引語使用上的不同偏好分別反映了
他們強勢/主導性,與弱勢/輔助性的言談風格.此種現象,應是兩性在社會
中長期受到不平等對待的產物.上述各項研究成果應可提供學習中文者初
步的學習指引.本研究語料中所辨識出的近500個中文引語足供學習者使用
參考; 而自言談及社會語言分析所歸納出的成果亦有助於學習者判斷如何
在適當的場合中,選用與自身性別相契合的引語,使自己對中文的應用更加
得心應手.

The aim of this study is to investigate how gambits are
manipulated inMandarin spoken discourse to facilitate the
progression of conversation.This investigation is expected to
increase people's understanding on howthese conversational
tools work, and simultaneously, to provide guidelinesto
those who are not familiar with the use of Mandarin gambits
in spokendiscourse. The gambits identified in the corpus are
first presented withinKeller's (1981) framework to offer a
general picture of gambits in Mandarin.Nevertheless, the
unexplained part of the data attests to the deficiency ofthe
framework, and proposals are then made to modify it from
both the'within' and 'without' of the framework. By 'within'
it is meant to recovertwo subtypes included in an earlier
format but excluded by Keller's (1981)framework, and by
'without' it is meant to supplement new subtypes to
theframework, with the hope that the revised new scheme would
account for most,if not all, of the gambits identified in the
data. From a closer examinationof the data, Mandarin speakers'
preference of certain gambits is revealed,along with our
finding that one of Keller's two crucial criteria in
defininggambits is in practice difficult to implement, due to
its inherent ambiguity,which is further complicated by the
fact that gambits appear in varyinglocations in spoken
Mandarin. Besides, two crucial sociolinguistic factors--
speakers' gender and social settings-- are investigated to
reveal the effectsthey have on speaker's choices of gambits.
Study from this perspectivediscloses male speakers' confident
and assertive style of speaking and femaleones' weak and
supportive style, as reflected from their choices of gambits
inconversation. This phenomenon, we believe, results from men's
superior statusand women's subordinate position in the
society. All these results, webelieve, can serve as
preliminary guidance for Mandarin learners. The 500 orso
gambits in the corpus offer practical help to Mandarin
learners as to howto use the right gambits to properly
organize their speech. Besides, ourfindings elicited from the
discourse and sociolinguistic analysis of the datamay serve as
guidelines to instruct Mandarin learners so that their choices
ofgambits can match the setting and their gender and enable
them to appear morelike native Mandarin speakers.
The aim of this study is to investigate how gambits are