Title An analysis of なんか in Japanese conversation Author Kim, Angela A-Jeoung Publisher 慶應 ...

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Title An analysis of なんか in Japanese conversation
Sub Title
Author Kim, Angela A-Jeoung
Publisher 慶應義塾大学日本語・日本文化教育センター
Publication 2011
year
Jtitle 日本語と日本語教育 No.39 (2011. 3) ,p.1- 35
Abstract
Notes 論文
Genre Departmental Bulletin Paper
URL http://koara.lib.keio.ac.jp/xoonips/modules/xoonips/detail.php?koar
a_id=AN00189695-20110300-0001
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慶應義塾大学 日本語(cid:3)日本文化教育センタ(cid:4)紀要
(cid:5)日本語と日本語教育(cid:6) 39: 1(cid:2)35(2011.3)
An analysis of なんか in
Japanese conversation
Angela A-Jeoung KIM
1. Introduction
As a part of cross-linguistic contrastive analysis, the current study examines
the functions and meanings of the Japanese marker なんか in conversation.
Aswillbenotedshortly,なんかhasafewmeaningsandusagesascribedtoit
in the dictionaries and grammar books. Unlike its most frequent definition
being an informal form of both など(cid:2) ‘or, etc., such as’ and なにか(cid:2)
‘something,anything’, なんかdoesnotalwayscarrysuchameaninginareal
conversation. This paper examines the function of なんか in conversation
data. Although なんか has also been described as a filler (Maynard 1990:
259), and as a hedge (Lauwereyns 2002), Tagliamonte points out that when
usedinconversation,fillers,hesitationmarkers,orhedgesare“nothaphazard,
random or indiscriminate. Instead, their patterns of use are quite circum-
scribedandlinguisticallydefined”(Tagliamonte2005:1896). Thisimpliesthat
suchmarkersserveaspecificfunctioninconversationdiscourse(seeSchi#rin
1987; Clark and Fox Tree 2002; Tagliamonte 2005; Schourup 1985;»Ostman
1981). Inthispaper,IwilldemonstratethatなんかinJapanesealsoexhibits
the specific environments where it is used. By identifying the particular
environment where なんか is likely to occur, as well as its collocation with
othermarkersandexpressions,thecurrentstudyattemptstoshedlightonthe
discoursefunctionofなんかashavingafunctionbeyondthatofmerefilleror
hedgeandameaningthatdeviatessignificantlyfromthatgivenindictionaries.
2
The data used for this study consists of approximately 30minutes of
audio-tapedface-to-faceconversationbynative speakers.1 Theconversations
were between friends, both male and female, and were recorded in a casual
setting. Alltheparticipantsintherecordingwereintheirtwentiesatthetime
ofrecording,andhadeithercompletedanundergraduatedegree,orwerestill
studying at undergraduate or postgraduate level. The participants were born
and raised in Japan, and had received formal education in Japan at least up
until the age of seventeen. The data was collected in Canberra through a
network of friends.2 The 30minutes of data contained a total numberof93
cases ofなんか(cid:2)
2. Backgroundandpreviousstudies
According to Japanese-Japanese dictionaries, なんか is found under two
separate entries (cid:3)三省堂国語辞典 1982: 814; 国語大辞典 1980: 1858; 広辞
林1991: 1493(cid:4) orunderoneentrywithtwodi#erentusages (cid:3)岩波国語辞典
1982: 828; 国語大辞典言泉1989: 1745; 新明解国語辞典2007: 1118(cid:4)(cid:2)One
is as an informal spoken form of など(cid:5) ‘and so forth, and (or) the like, et
cetera’, which is an adverbial particle, used to present an example among a
groupofthings. Theotherisas aninformalspokenformofなにか(cid:5) ‘some,
any, something, anything’, whichisacompoundwordofaninterrogativeな
に(cid:5) ‘what’andか(cid:5) aquestionmarker. (1)and(2)belowareexamplesofthe
two entries of なんか(cid:2)Unless otherwise stated, all the examples are in Japa-
nese. Thetranslationswere addedbythisauthor.
(1) 卵ななんんかかお好きですか(cid:6) (cid:3)国語大辞典言泉1989:1745(cid:4)
‘Doyoulikesomethinglikeeggs?’
3
(2) ななんんかか食べる(cid:2) (cid:3)国語大辞典1980:1858(cid:4)
‘(Doyouwant to) eat something?’
In addition to the above, detailed meanings, functions and usage of なんか
foundindictionariesandgrammarbooksincludeitsfunctionasatopicmarker
(cid:3)益岡(cid:5)田窪 1998: 50; メイナ(cid:6)ド2005: 329(cid:4) especially used for belittling
(cid:3)Martin 1987: 161; 国語大辞典 1980: 1858; 国語大辞典言泉 1989: 1745;
日本語大辞典 1989: 1458; 庵 2001: 367; Kaiser et al. 2001: 264(cid:4) or
emphasizing(Maynard1990:30;Kaiser et al. 2001:264). Closely related to
thismeaningofなんかisameaningofhumblingoneselfwhenusedaboutthe
speaker (cid:3)友村2007: 281; Kaiseretal.2001:264(cid:4)(cid:7)(3)and(4)representthe
use of なんか as a topic marker, used in a belittling sense, and showing the
speaker’smodesty,respectively.
(3) こんなくだらない本ななんんかか読むな(cid:8) (cid:3)仁田1982:408(cid:4)
‘Don’tread suchatrashybook’
(4) わたしななんんかか何もお手伝いできなくて(cid:8)すみません(cid:8)(cid:3)友村2007:281(cid:4)
‘Sorry. Someonelikemecannotdoanythingtohelp’
Further,なんかhasbeendescribedascarryingthemeaningofなんとなく(cid:9)
‘somehow’ (cid:3)砂川1998: 413; Kaiseretal.2001:264(cid:4)(cid:9)orなぜかわからない
が(cid:9) ‘withoutknowingwhy’ (cid:3)砂川1998:413(cid:4) when“modifyingapredicate”
(Kaiseretal.2001:265)orexpressingastateofa#airs (cid:3)砂川1998:413(cid:4)(cid:7) It
has also been claimed as functioning as “a filler in conversation” (Maynard
1990: 129), meaning ‘uhh(cid:10)’ (Maynard 1990: 259). Examples (5) and (6)
showthe use ofなんかto mean‘somehow’and‘uh’(cid:7)
4
(5) あの人の言ってること(cid:2)ななんんかか変だと思いませんか(cid:3) (cid:4)砂川1998:413(cid:5)
‘Don’tyouthinkwhat heissayingissomehowstrange?’
(6) いいねえ(cid:2) ななんんかか(cid:2) キャンディ(cid:6)とか出るんでしょ?
(Maynard1990:421)
‘That’sgood,uh,candies orsomethingare served,right?’
Summarizingtheabove,itcanbesaidthatなんかisaspokenformthatisused
asatopicmarkerthatexpressesabelittlingorhumbling,asin‘such(aperson,
thing etc.) as’, and other meaning such as ‘and so forth, and (or) the like, et
cetera’,‘somehow’,‘something,anything’,‘withoutknowingwhy’,and‘uhh(cid:7)’.
Inadditiontotheaforementionedstudies,Maynard(2000)hasdescribed
thefunctionsofnan(i)extensively,as (cid:8)an‘anti-sign’referringtounspeakable
moments of language” (Maynard 2000: 1209) with various functions in
discourse. Alsotreatingなにasawhole,メイナ(cid:6)ド(2009:10)positsthatな
にmaybeusedbythespeakertoexpressdissatisfactionordisagreementwith
theinterlocutor,butalsotoexpressdependencyoraninterpersonalcloseness.
Elsewhere,メイナ(cid:6)ド(2001:302)hashintedatthepossibleuseofなんかas
a discourse strategy for a softened or indirect expression. However, these
studiesdonotdiscussthe functionsofなんかperse.
Anintriguingfactisthattherearemarkersinotherlanguagesthat seem
toshareanumberofsimilaritieswithなんかinJapanese. Intermsoflocation,
aswellaswithregardtosomeofthefunctions,なんかissimilartomarkersin
English such as just, like, and you know, as well as mak ( ) in Korean.
AmongtheseIfoundsuchstrikingsimilaritiesespeciallybetweenthefunctions
of English like claimed bySchourup(1985) andなんか(cid:9) My analysisinthe
current paper owes much to Schourup (1985). Schourup mentions that like
5
hascaseswhichcannotbeadequatelycharacterisedwithdictionarymeanings
providedforthemarker. Schouruphasfoundcasesoflikeprecedinganexact
numeral expression as well as like preceding obviously inexact formulations.
Hepointsoutthatthefunctionoflikeforthe formeris“to constitute akind
of hedge, attenuating the overexactness ofthe speaker’s chosenformulation”
(Schourup1985:42). Whilesuggesting‘approximately’asaplausiblereading
oflikeforthelatter,Schourup(1985:42)notesthatitistoindicatethat“the
speakerisawarethatwhatfollowsisanimpreciserenderingofwhats/hehas
in mind”. According to Schourup (1985: 48) the approximative meaning of
likeisalsoapplicablewhenlikeisusedafterquestions. Schourup(1985)goes
on to show the instances of likewhichare usedtointroducedirect discourse
andpointoutthatsuchfunctionoflikeisthespeaker’sexpressionof“whatI
amabouttoreportislikewhatIorsomeoneelsehasinmind”(Schourup1985:
44). Inadditiontotheuseoflikeasahedge,mentionedabove,mostrelevant
tothecurrentstudyisSchourup’s(1985)examinationofthecaseswherelike
means‘forexample’andwherelikeisusedasaninterjection. Schourup(1985:
49) comments that the ‘for example’ reading is “strongly reinforced by
context” and presents examples which contain expressions such as ‘oh’, ‘for
instance’,and‘orother(cid:2)uhthingslikethat’inadditiontolike. Hecontinues
that the ‘for example’ reading suggests “anaccurate butselective representa-
tion”,arguingthatthisreading“shouldbepossibleinanycasewhereselectiv-
ity of report is conceivably the nature of the discrepancy” (Schourup 1985:
50). Finding cases where ‘for example’ meaning are inadequate, Schourup
isolates the use of like in specific distributional environments and calls those
forms as pausal interjection. He points out that like as a pausal interjection
occursbeforeproblematicdescriptiveterms,restart,filledandunfilledpauses,
andalsoatthebeginningofaclauseaftersomeprefatorymaterial. Schourup
6
believes that where like is a pausal interjection a substantial contribution is
madetotheutteranceasitsuggest (cid:2)thematerialabouttofollowisdi$cultto
formulateappropriatelyorprecisely”(Schourup1985:56),whileat the same
timeindicating“anattemptatexpressionratherthanafailureofcommunica-
tion” (Schourup 1985: 63). All in all, the meaning and function of like
according to Schourup (1985) serve to indicate a “possible discrepancy be-
tweenwhatthespeakerhasinmindandwhatisovertlysaid”(Schourup1985:
62). Thefrequencyoftheoccurrenceoflikewiththesefunctions,heargues,
canbeexplainedbythespontaneousnatureoftheconversationwherespeakers
“frequently find themselves in the position of having to formulate what they
havetosaywithouttimefortheconsideredeloquence”(Schourup1985:61).
The function of なんか seems similar to some extent to the function of like
mentionedabove,as willbe presented below.
3. Analysis
If なんか is a filler and used frequently in a spoken discourse, it may be
assumedthatなんかisusedasadelaysignal. Assumingthatなんかisadelay
signal, it is reasonable to consider that the use of the marker indicates some
kind of problem on the part of the speaker, one specific to spontaneous
language. Assumingthatなんかindicatesthespeaker’sdi$cultyinformulat-
ingutterance,Iexaminedthepositionofなんかwithrespecttopauseorother
signs that indicate delay. Interestingly but unsurprisingly, the data showed
that59%(55occurrencesoutof93intotal)ofなんかweredirectlyrelatedto
delays. As(a)and(b)inTable(1)showなんかwasfoundtobeimmediately
preceded by or immediately followed by either afilledand/orunfilledpause.
Unfilled pauses here include markers such as あの and まあ(cid:3)あ(cid:4) which are
knownas fillersinJapanese (Backhouse1993;ano:Cook1993). Therewere
7
also cases where なんか was both preceded, and followed by filled and/or
unfilledpausesasin(c). Ascanbeseenin(d),なんかwerealsofoundwith
fillersthatare‘multi-worditems’(Backhouse1993:180)andexpressionsthat
explicitly indicate the speaker’s problematicstate inchoosingaword/phrase.
According to Clark and Fox Tree (2002: 82), prolonging syllables by the
speaker can be understood as a sign of delay. なんか was also found to be
preceded by the lengthening of the last syllable of a word (which are not
interjections)andarestart. Aswillbeshownwithexamples,theseinstancesof
なんか were found in contexts where the speaker appeared to be facing
di$cultyinformulatingutterancesinanappropriateway.However,onemajor
di#erence between なんか in the current data and like in Schourup’s (1985)
dataisthatitwasrareforliketobeprecededbyapause,whereasforなんか
itappeared to be preceded byapause as often asit was followedbyone.
Table1 なんかco-occurringwithdelays
Numberof
Positionofなんか Details
Occurrences
(a) なんか(cid:2) (a)-1 なんか... 19
filled/unfilledpauses (a)-2 なんかあの 5
(b) Filled/unfilledpauses (b)-1 ...なんか 13
(cid:2)なんか (b)-2 まあ(cid:3)あ(cid:4)なんか 2
(c) Filled/unfilledpauses (c)-1 ...なんか... 1
(cid:2)なんか(cid:2)filled/unfilled (c)-2 まあなんかあの 1
pauses (c)-3 ...やなんかまああ 1
(d) なんかwith (d)-1 (...)explicitexpressionsof 2
expressionsthatexplicitly probleminformulation/multi-word
indicatethespeaker’s filler(cid:2)なんか
problematicstatein (d)-2 なんか(cid:2)explicitproblematic 2
choosingword/phrase expressions
(e) Lengthened (e) Lengtheningoflastsyllableofa 8
word/restart(cid:2)なんか word(whicharenotinterjections)/
restart(cid:2)なんか
8
Note that (c) was extracted foravoidingdoublecountingforcategories
(a) and (b). Sincethe instances in(c) are bothpreceded andfollowedbya
pause, they could, in fact, have been categorized into either (a) or (b), had
therebeenonlyoneexistingcategory. Inadditiontotheabove,therearecases
of なんか which are not immediately associated with a pause. It seems that
these cases of なんか may be used to say ‘for example’ and to hedge as
summarizedinTable(2). Table(2) alsoincludesthe occurrences ofなんか
withitscontextual meaningasdescribedindictionaries.
Table2 Instanceswhere なんかisnotimmediatelyprecededorfollowedbya
pause.
Numberof
Useofなんか Details
Occurrences
(f) ‘Forexample’use Reinforced by the context, often used 12
with other expressions to reinforce the
interpretation
(g) Hedge Softeningtheexactnessofaword/ 16
phrase
(h) Dictionarymeaning (h)-1 など 2
(h)-2 なに(cid:3)か 4
(h)-3 (cid:4)(cid:5)と(cid:6) かなんか 5
In the examples below, where more than one なんか occurs in one
example,thetargetinstanceofなんかisunderlinedinboththetranscriptand
the translation.
((aa))--11 ななんんかか......
(7) (Talking about gaining weights while studying overseas, A was being
asked whether other students around her were saying they had also
gainedweight)
A: あ(cid:2)ななんんかか......やっぱり いちキロぐらい増え いち にキロぐらいみ
9
んな増えてるのかな
‘Yeah. Nanka... one kilo, one or two, everyone has probably gained
oneortwo kilos’
(8) (Talkingaboutcheese andwine)
E: うん(cid:2) だからななんんかか......その日によっ(cid:3) その日に 自分で味わって
も違うんだろうけれども やっぱ(cid:4) あの(cid:5)チ(cid:6)ズによっ(cid:3) を食べる
とこう味がちょっと変わって感じられることがある(cid:7)かもしれま
せん
‘Yeah.Andsonanka(cid:8)dependingonthe(cid:3),evenifonetastesitonthe
same day, the taste (of wine) could be di#erent, but well, cheese,
dependingon(cid:3)ifcheeseiseatentogether,maybethewinecouldonce
againtaste di#erent’
(9) (Afterhearingthattheinterlocutor,whoisattendingagraduateschool
oflinguistics,didhistoryat anundergraduatelevel)
M: あ(cid:5)それ(cid:3)でもななんんかか......なんで言語学
‘Oh(cid:5),that(cid:3) butnanka(cid:8)whylinguistics?’
(10) (After finding out that the interlocutor, who has been talking much
aboutwine sofarhadattended awineschoolinthe past)
A: わ(cid:5)すごいななんんかか......ワインスク(cid:6)ルっていどれぐらい通うとそ
れぐらいの知識が((utterances omitted))
‘Oh(cid:5), great. Nanka...howhowlongdoyouhave toattend awine
school(to gain)suchknowledge?’
As seen from (7) to (10), these are the cases in which なんか is directly