| Title: | Chinese phrasal downgraders: a problem for L2 Learners? |
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| Authors: | ID Kádár, Dániel Z. (Author)
ID House, Juliane (Author)
ID Chai, Yilin (Author) |
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| Files: |  RAZ_Kadar_Daniel_Z._2026.pdf (1,63 MB)
MD5: 491558C22CF19723803FAEA7A18708AF
 https://doi.org/10.1515/applirev-2025-0036
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| Language: | English |
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| Work type: | Scientific work |
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| Typology: | 1.01 - Original Scientific Article |
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| Organization: | FF - Faculty of Arts
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| Abstract: | In this study we investigate why phrasal downgraders such as mei-guanxi 没关系 (‘does not matter’) and meishi(-meishi) 没事 (没事) (‘no problem(-no problem)’) turn out to be problematic even for advanced L2 learners of Chinese. Although both mei-guanxi and meishi(-meishi) are standardly mentioned in Chinese L2 textbooks, various of their uses are still surprisingly irritating for L2 learners. We look at the heart of such irritations by following a tripartite bottom-up analytic procedure: We first conducted semi-structured interviews with advanced L2 learners of Chinese who reported having been irritated by the phrasal downgraders under investigation. We then examined uses of these expressions in a Chinese corpus, and finally we interpreted our learners’ L2 irritations through the outcomes of our corpus analysis. We examined our data through a minimalist and finite typology of speech acts and a related interactional system. Our interviewees made altogether five observation types, which we were able to systematically explain with the aid of our approach. |
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| Keywords: | applied linguistics, Chinese, English, phrasal downgraders, speech acts |
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| Publication status: | Published |
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| Publication version: | Version of Record |
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| Publication date: | 13.08.2025 |
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| Publisher: | de Gruyter Mouton |
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| Year of publishing: | 2026 |
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| Number of pages: | str. 165-191 |
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| Numbering: | Letn. 17, št. 1 |
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| PID: | 20.500.12556/DKUM-96944  |
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| UDC: | 81'33 |
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| ISSN on article: | 1868-6311 |
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| COBISS.SI-ID: | 267324163 |
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| DOI: | 10.1515/applirev-2025-0036 |
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| Publication date in DKUM: | 04.03.2026 |
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| Views: | 134 |
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| Downloads: | 2 |
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| Metadata: |    |
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| Categories: | Misc.
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