Discursive Constraints of Teasing:Constructing Professionality via Teasing in Chinese Entertainment Interviews

Teasing can be approached as a linguistic resource for examining the interpersonal issues of im/politeness and face,or as a discursive strategy for displaying relationships or constructing social identities.However,studies have underestimated the discursive constraints of teasing in specific contexts.Meanwhile,a majority of teasing studies were based on Western cultures and did not pay sufficient attention to the variety of teasing across cultures.By collecting data from two Chinese entertainment interviews,where the interviewer employs teasing frequently for performing institutional roles,this study examined how teasing functions to assist the interviewer to complete communicative goals,and explored the discursive constraints of teasing in media context.Data analysis exemplified how teasing helped the interviewer to manage an interview event,obtain the guest’s disclosure and seek audience involvement,helping to construct the interviewer’s professionality.Implications for understanding the discursive features of teasing in the Chinese media context were addressed.

Discourse Marker Na(那)as an Interpersonal-Level Compensatory Strategy in Clinical Interviews

Discourse markers(DMs) are characterized by multifunctionality in different contexts.This study addressed the use of the Chinese DM,na(那),as a solution to topical divergence,during clinical interactions with right-hemisphere-damaged(RHD) patients.Drawing on data collected from clinical interviews between psychotherapists and RHD patients,this study examined the functions of na in response to RHD topical divergence,focusing on the topic and attitudinal aspects.It was found that na was mainly employed by psychotherapists to mark a reproffer of interview topics(i.e.,an attempt to return to earlier topics),and a display of disalignment and disaffiliation with RHD topical divergence.These functions of na reflect the psychotherapists’ attempts to overcome communicative problems arising from RHD topical divergence,so as to ensure the achievement of the communicative goal.Thus,na can be interpreted as a compensatory strategy for dealing with RHD topical divergence on an interpersonal level.These findings not only expand our knowledge about the function spectrum of na,but also offer insights for RHD patients’ interlocutors to enhance conversational communication with RHD patients via the compensatory strategy.