현대중국어 ‘好不好’ 부가의문문의 간접 화행 연구

Abstract

This paper presents an empirical investigation of the pragmatic functions of the tag question “好不好 (hǎo bù hǎo)” in contemporary spoken Mandarin discourse. The study seeks to demonstrate that “好不好” functions not merely as a grammatical interrogative form but as a strategic device for performing a range of indirect speech acts. Analysis of 563 authentic broadcast discourse instances drawn from the Media Language Corpus (MLC) of the Communication University of China reveals that “好不好” exhibits diverse discourse-pragmatic functions, including request mitigation, suggestion prompting, affective expression and response elicitation, discourse management, and other context-specific uses. These functions are variably realized depending on speaker–hearer relationships, discourse genre, and situational context. In particular, “好不好” operates as an indirect strategy that enables speakers to avoid direct commands or requests while eliciting consent and cooperation in an interactionally sensitive manner. It also serves to establish and maintain interpersonal alignment through affective expression and to regulate the progression of discourse. Such findings illustrate that “好不好” constitutes a salient example of how speakers strategically manipulate linguistic resources in accordance with discourse context and communicative intent. By categorizing its functions into specific pragmatic domains, this paper aims to extend existing analyses that have been largely confined to its grammatical structure or confirmation-seeking role. Nonetheless, the study’s focus on broadcast discourse represents a limitation, as it may not fully capture variation across other interactional contexts. Future research should pursue broader corpus-based and qualitative analyses encompassing more diverse social settings and discourse types to achieve a more comprehensive understanding of its pragmatic versatility.