儿童请求形式的对比分析——“我想/要”与“(你)能不能”

A Comparing of Two Requesting Forms Used by Child—“Wo Xiang/Yao” and “(Ni) Nengbuneng”

基于会话分析的理论框架,对儿童以“我想/要”和“(你)能不能”这两种句式对父母发起的请求话语进行了对比分析,主要分析了二者在请求权利大小与请求的目的两方面的异同,这里的权利是指请求者对自己请求行为发起的合理性与判断。研究发现,儿童使用“我想/要”发起请求时旨在寻求父母的许可,被请求者仅需语言回应,此时儿童的请求权力以及求得认同的程度较高;而使用“(你)能不能”发起时旨在寻求帮助,被请求者需要实施具体的身体行为,且称谓语常出现在以该形式发起的请求话轮或前序列中,一些在收到回复后才会发起请求,体现了儿童对自己行为的被接受的不确定性,此时儿童请求的权利以及对求得认同的程度较低。

Based on the theoretical framework of conversation analysis, an investigation of ordinary interac-tions between parents and children showed a difference between two requesting forms: “Wo xiang/yao” and “(ni) nengbuneng”. This study mainly investigates the differences between chil-dren’s request purposes and assessment of their entitlement to the requested action. It is evi-denced that by making a request using “wo xiang/yao”, speakers treat their request as less contin-gent and more entitled to make because the action they request is asking for permission which only requires the parents to accept or reject instead of performing certain actions. In contrast, when us-ing “(ni) nengbuneng” for assistance, speakers are not entitled to make because recipients need to put more effort to conduct the requested action. Therefore, children are uncertain about whether the request is accepted or not and thus are less entitled to make, and accordingly, their requests are contingent on parents. This is underscored by other features, such as addressing terms in first turn construction unit or pre-request sequence.