Ni-Eng Lim

Nanyang Technological University, Division of Chinese, Faculty Member

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I'm interested in all aspect of Chinese Linguistics, particularly from the perspective of functional linguistics. Currently, I work under the framework of Conversation Analysis and/or Discourse Analysis to uncover various aspects of stance-taking in Mandarin Chinese. I'm particularly interested in how frequent lexical bundles/discourse chunks work within an interactive participation framework.
Supervisors: Kang-Kwong Luke, John Heritage, Charles Goodwin, and Hongyin Tao

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Judith L Green

University of California, Santa Barbara

Na'ama Pat-El

The University of Texas at Austin

Michael Spivey

University of California, Merced

Javier Díaz Noci

Pompeu Fabra University

Angela Ndalianis

Swinburne University of Technology, Hawthorn

Bert Vaux

University of Cambridge

Ahmar Mahboob

The University of Sydney

Sonja Eisenbeiss

University of Cologne

Albert Bastardas-Boada

Universitat de Barcelona

Scott Kiesling

University of Pittsburgh

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Books by Ni-Eng Lim

Crossroads of Language, Interaction and Culture 8

Papers by Ni-Eng Lim

Review of Tao (2009): Computational Simulation in Evolutionary Linguistics: A Study on Language Emergence

Chinese language and discourse, Jun 21, 2010

Title Stance-taking with Wo Juede in conversational Chinese

The present paper deals with one of the most common Mandarin epistemic phrases, Wo Juede, and dem... more The present paper deals with one of the most common Mandarin epistemic phrases, Wo Juede, and demonstrates that in addition to epistemic selfexpression, it has also developed addressee-oriented functions to manage the discourse-pragmatic considerations of everyday talk. Specifically, we find that the mitigative quality of Wo Juede has extended from representing speaker's epistemic uncertainty to one that focuses on managing recipient's possible responses. Using quantitative corpus analysis, as well as qualitative conversational analytic methods, this study finds that the use of Wo Juede can often be seen as positioning the speaker's awareness of the addressee's possible objection to a proposition. Furthermore, it is argued that such a function is uniquely suited for its frequent performance characterized as a joint-assessment initiator in sequences of collaborative evaluation.

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Review of Pan & Kádár (2013): Chinese Discourse and Interaction

Language and dialogue, Sep 15, 2014

Gong, Tao. 2009. Computational Simulation in Evolutionary Linguistics: A Study on Language Emergence

Chinese Language and Discourse, 2010

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Resisting responsibility for decision-making during medical consultation

Routledge eBooks, Jun 29, 2023

Chapter 6. Preliminaries to delicate matters

Studies in Chinese language and discourse, 2019

On co-operative modalities in the formulation of Mandarin Chinese turn-continuations

De Gruyter Mouton, 2019

Multimodality (or the use of multiple resources to communicate) is not only a natural state of af... more Multimodality (or the use of multiple resources to communicate) is not only a natural state of affairs in everyday communication, but is actually quite ubiquitous at all points within face-to-face interaction, ranging from the use of prosodic stress to denote focus, to emblematic gestures that convey specific meanings. Broadly speaking, such traditional construe of multimodality has often treated different modes of communication either as self-sufficient indexical signs; or working together as cumulatively ‘layered’ but semiotically discrete structures. However, Goodwin (2013) has shown how multimodality in natural interaction is in fact a highly integrated gestalt, where co-operative actions are being built by combining diverse resources in a way that both constrain and mutually elaborate each other. In this report, I focus on the action of constructing further talk as continuing past a possibly complete turn (a.k.a. turn continuations) in Mandarin Chinese (henceforth Chinese), and argue how it constitutes a particularly rich environment for multiple systems of organization to “co-operate” in pursuit of interactional goals. The formulation of further talk past possible completion as “continuations” in Mandarin Chinese is complicated by the normative syntax of Chinese grammar. While all sorts of grammatic constituents (e.g. noun phrases, pronominals, verbs etc.) can be deployed at the end of an utterance as “continuations”, adverbials have been found to be the most prolific across languages (Lim 2014). Yet, as opposed to syntactically left-headed languages such as English, adverbials appearing after the predicate are considered to be ‘syntactically discontinuous’ in right-headed languages such as Chinese (Couper-Kuhlen &amp; Ono 2007; Luke &amp; Zhang 2007). Nonetheless, Chinese speakers overcome this syntactic constrain by imposing a parallel modality, that of prosodic organisation, that clearly indexes such post-predicate adverbials as continuing from the prior. At other instances, turn-continuations may be appended after a gap of silence (post-gap), or after talk-by-others (post-other-talk). In these cases, there is then a clear prosodic disfluency in the flow of talk that works against seeing further talk as “continuing from the prior”. Interestingly, most of these post-gap or post-other-talk turn-continuations are then found to be constituents that are ‘syntactically continuous’ with the prior talk. In other words, when prosodic fluency is being compromised, Chinese speakers can then make use of other grammatic options (as turn-continuations) to impose syntactic contiguity as a form of compensatory mechanism. I argue that possibly due to the typological features of Chinese grammar, a standard and prescriptive definition cannot account for the empirical complexities seen in the construction of Chinese turn-continuations. What we have instead are different modalities that can come together in a co-operative and adaptive manner, to provide further talk within a situated context with a reading of “continuation”.

Examining Authentic Medical Consultations: The Case of 'Scope' Negotiation in Urology Clinics

Doctor-Patient Interaction and their Implications

An interactional perspective on grammaticalization of turn-initial linguistic forms in turn-final position: The case of Chinese turn-continuations

Journal of Pragmatics, 2021

Within Chinese conversation analytic studies, the phenomenon of turn-initial linguistic forms in ... more Within Chinese conversation analytic studies, the phenomenon of turn-initial linguistic forms in turn-final positions has also been observed under a conversational phenomenon known as increments, or turn-continuations. A significant finding in Chinese turn-continuations, as opposed to English, is that many turn-initial forms can be appended to the end of a turn as a turn-continuation in a syntactically discontinuous manner. In fact, most Chinese turn-continuations turns out to be adverbials and modifiers of various sorts that under ‘normative syntax’ in Chinese would usually be placed before (or to the left of) the clause. By focusing on instances of turn-final time adverbial xianzai ‘now’, which is prolifically produced as either turn-continuations or as an integral part of a fixed construction, this study argues how the interactional practice of appending turn-continuations may constitute a grammaticalization pathway for various sorts of Chinese "right-dislocated" constr...

Introduction: Recent developments of Conversation Analysis in Chinese

On co-operative modalities in the formulation of Mandarin Chinese turn-continuations

Multimodality in Chinese Interaction

From Subjectivity to Intersubjectivity: Epistemic Marker Wo Juede in Chinese

This study examines one of the most used Mandarin epistemic phrases Wo Juede, translatable as I t... more This study examines one of the most used Mandarin epistemic phrases Wo Juede, translatable as I think. While commonly taken to be a speaker-oriented epistemic marker (subjectivity), it is demonstrated that the phrase is routinely deployed in consideration of addressee-oriented problems (intersubjectivity) to manage discourse-pragmatic contingencies of everyday talk. Specifically, the mitigative quality of Wo Juede is often used to manage recipient’s possible objections in conversational next turn. Using conversation analysis (CA), this study focuses on the pre-positioned, opinion-framing use of Wo Juede, and concludes that it can often be seen as positioning the speaker’s pre-emptive awareness of the recipient’s possible objection to a proposition. It is further argued that such an intersubjective stance is well-suited for Wo Juede’s frequent role in initiating sequences of collaborative evaluation, termed a joint-assessment initiator.

Book Review: Linguistics & Teaching Chinese as a Second Language

Intensifiers as stance markers: A corpus study on genre variations in Mandarin Chinese

Chinese Language and Discourse, 2012

While the study of Mandarin Chinese intensifiers has been prolific, the methodologies used have b... more While the study of Mandarin Chinese intensifiers has been prolific, the methodologies used have been limited to comparative and grammaticalization studies, revealing little about the discourse-pragmatic usages of individual intensifiers. Utilizing a balanced corpus composed of 15 different prototypical genres, the associative strength of 12 commonly used intensifiers in each genre was statistically determined based on their frequency distribution. The results reveal a clear preference pattern of intensifiers across a range of “written” and “spoken”-based genres. Upon the premise that the genre preferences of intensifiers stem from matching dimensions of communicative intent/discourse context between genre and intensifier, genre-analysis was conducted to unveil the core “stances” each intensifier might possibly project. In conclusion, it is argued that genre-analysis based on empirical corpus data provides a valid alternative means to uncover seemingly “covert” aspects of language use.

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and is made available as an electronic reprint (preprint) with permission of the Author(s). The p... more

Retroactive Operations: On 'increments' in Mandarin Chinese conversations

Author(s): Lim, Ni Eng | Advisor(s): Goodwin, Charles; Tao, Hongyin | Abstract: Conversation Anal... more Author(s): Lim, Ni Eng | Advisor(s): Goodwin, Charles; Tao, Hongyin | Abstract: Conversation Analysis (CA) has established repair (Schegloff, Jefferson a Sacks 1977; Schegloff 1979; Kitzinger 2013) as a conversational mechanism for managing contingencies of talk-in-interaction. In this dissertation, I look at a particular sort of `repair' termed TCU-continuations (or otherwise known increments in other literature) in Mandarin Chinese (henceforth "Chinese"), broadly defined as speakers producing further talk after a possibly complete utterance, which is fashioned not as a new turn-constructional unit (TCU) in itself, but as a retrospectively oriented continuation of the preceding TCU. Though Schegloff (1996, 2000, 2001) specifies TCU-continuations (a.k.a. increments) to be "grammatically fitted, or symbiotic with, that prior TCU", it is found that both syntactically continuous and discontinuous TCU-continuations can abundantly appear in Chinese conversations. ...

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Hedging in search of solidarity : the role of Wo Juede in women's language

Chapter 6. Preliminaries to delicate matters

Crossroads of Language, Interaction and Culture 8

Review of Tao (2009): Computational Simulation in Evolutionary Linguistics: A Study on Language Emergence

Chinese language and discourse, Jun 21, 2010

Title Stance-taking with Wo Juede in conversational Chinese

Download

Review of Pan & Kádár (2013): Chinese Discourse and Interaction

Language and dialogue, Sep 15, 2014

Gong, Tao. 2009. Computational Simulation in Evolutionary Linguistics: A Study on Language Emergence

Chinese Language and Discourse, 2010

Download

Resisting responsibility for decision-making during medical consultation

Routledge eBooks, Jun 29, 2023

Chapter 6. Preliminaries to delicate matters

Studies in Chinese language and discourse, 2019

On co-operative modalities in the formulation of Mandarin Chinese turn-continuations

De Gruyter Mouton, 2019

Examining Authentic Medical Consultations: The Case of 'Scope' Negotiation in Urology Clinics

Doctor-Patient Interaction and their Implications

An interactional perspective on grammaticalization of turn-initial linguistic forms in turn-final position: The case of Chinese turn-continuations

Journal of Pragmatics, 2021

Introduction: Recent developments of Conversation Analysis in Chinese

On co-operative modalities in the formulation of Mandarin Chinese turn-continuations

Multimodality in Chinese Interaction

From Subjectivity to Intersubjectivity: Epistemic Marker Wo Juede in Chinese

Book Review: Linguistics & Teaching Chinese as a Second Language

Intensifiers as stance markers: A corpus study on genre variations in Mandarin Chinese

Chinese Language and Discourse, 2012

Download

and is made available as an electronic reprint (preprint) with permission of the Author(s). The p... more

Retroactive Operations: On 'increments' in Mandarin Chinese conversations

Download

Hedging in search of solidarity : the role of Wo Juede in women's language

Chapter 6. Preliminaries to delicate matters

Stance-taking with Wo Juede in conversational Chinese

The present paper deals with one of the most common Mandarin epistemic phrases, Wo Juede, and dem... more The present paper deals with one of the most common Mandarin epistemic phrases, Wo Juede, and demonstrates that in addition to epistemic selfexpression, it has also developed addressee-oriented functions to manage the discourse-pragmatic considerations of everyday talk. Specifically, we find that the mitigative quality of Wo Juede has extended from representing speaker’s epistemic uncertainty to one that focuses on managing recipient’s possible responses. Using quantitative corpus analysis, as well as qualitative conversational analytic methods, this study finds that the use of Wo Juede can often be seen as positioning the speaker’s awareness of the addressee’s possible objection to a proposition. Furthermore, it is argued that such a function is uniquely suited for its frequent performance characterized as a joint-assessment initiator in sequences of collaborative evaluation.

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Chinese Discourse and Interaction by Pan Yuling & Daniel Kadar (eds)

Language and Dialogue 4(2), 2014

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Integrated Chinese (3rd Ed.), Part 1 & 2 by Yuehua Liu et al.

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Linguistics and Teaching Chinese as a Second Language（语言学与华语二语教学）by Wu Weiping & Li Zhaolin

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Computational Simulation in Evolutionary Linguistics by Tao Gong

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语法结构在互动会话中的浮现性：以‘连动结构’的组建为例

Prefacing disaffiliative actions: Doing "authoritative tellings" in Mandarin Chinese

An interactional perspective on the grammaticalization of Chinese 'right-dislocated' constituents

Anticipating resistance: Prefacing disaffiliative responses with 'I say to you' in Mandarin Chinese

从会话分析的角度看”易位句“的交际功能及其语法化轨迹

On non-discrete categories in turn-continuations: Evidences from Mandarin Chinese

Incrementing in Mandarin Chinese Conversations

A systematic practice of doing “asyntactic” utterances -- What Chinese increments tell us about grammar

Authoritative Tellings in Chinese- Stance-taking with metalanguage

Modifying stance with turn-continuations in Mandarin Chinese

Developing and Utilizing a Library of Chinese Film Clips

Hedging in search of solidarity: The role of Wo Juede in women's language

Conference Paper

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Stance-taking with Wo Juede in conversational Chinese

Conference Proceedings of the 21th North American Conference on Chinese Linguistics (NACCL-21), vol. 2, pp. 323-340

Proceedings of the 21st North American Conference on Chinese Linguistics (NACCL‐21). 2009. Volume... more

Presenting the Self in Mandarin Spoken Discourse - The case of stance-taking with 'Wo Juede'

程度副词为立场标记

Intensifiers as Stance-Display Markers: A Corpus-based Study

Resisting Responsibility for Decision-Making during Medical Consultation: A Conversation Analytic Study in Singapore

by NG Gim Thia and Ni-Eng Lim

Although the principle of shared decision-making between medical practitioners and patients has b... more Although the principle of shared decision-making between medical practitioners and patients has been advocated and accepted in the healthcare professions for decades, the customary view of medical decision-making as a paternalistic affair remains entrenched in common perception and even expectations of clinical practice (Stiggelbout et al. 2012). Interactional studies however show that choices are jointly made by both parties on a moment-to-moment basis. During treatment formulation, patients may orient to the medical expertise (epistemic authority) of doctors in recommending solutions, while doctors may orient to the ultimate right (deontic authority) of patients in deciding what medicine to take or what procedures to be performed on their bodies (Landmark, Gulbrandsen, and Svennevig 2015). Successful negotiation is thus crucial towards delivering the patient-centred care requisite of modern medicine. This discussion brings to light how healthcare ideals may be at odds with the epistemic status and stance of elderly patients in a globalised but culturally-rooted Asian country like Singapore. Doctors and patients need to be more sensitive to the nuances of their interactions with each other to realise effective communication.

Ni-Eng Lim

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