《欲望都市》中的女性语言分析(8)
Topic development
Carrie is the most likely of the four characters to introduce a topic. The topics are mainly concerned in personal feelings and dilemmas in a relationship. She contributes actively to the conversations by adding comments and asking questions. By introducing the topics and inviting others to pick up on them, she shows involvement in the conversation and her interest in others’ opinions. This is regarded as a typical feature of female speech. Carrie initiates topics in various ways. In the first example, she introduces a new topic by completing Charlotte’s sentence: “Charlotte: But that’s what’s great about New York. There’s always a new neighborhood, a new restaurant… Carrie: ….a new man.” From the above example, it’s obvious that Carrie is quite good at changing the subject while still remaining supportive and cooperative. In this way, she successfully maintains a joint construction of the conversation, making the transition less abrupt.
Asking questions is seen as another way of topic development. Furthermore, the questions Carrie uses to develop the conversations carry different functions. Most of the time, her questions tend not to function as actual requests for information, but rather as rhetorical questions, jokes or attention getters. The girls’ dialogue revolves around Carrie and her dilemmas and she wants others’ suggestions about her problems. Overall, her questions primarily aim to draw the others into the conversation in various ways. “Samantha: I have to go to the theater. Carrie: They finally made that mandatory?” Carrie’s use of rhetorical questions shows that she is eager to draw attention to her statements. Here, Carrie humorously points out that Samantha’s formulation “I have to” is exaggerated. To some extent, it even indicates that she wants Samantha to skip the theater date.
Hedges and Tag Questions
Carrie uses a significant number of hedges and tag questions in her speech. They both represent uncertainty in speeches and the requirement for support. “Miranda: Do you ever have any conversations about money? Carrie: No. I mean, I did allude to the fact that I was a bit of cash poor these days…” The above example aims to mitigate Carrie’s statement. She initially rejects Miranda’s interpretation, but then softens her reply by using the hedge “I mean”. She politely ends up taking back her initial response—no, and opening up for the possibility that Miranda is right, thus protecting Miranda’s face.
In the next two examples, the questions does not function as a typical question but an indicative, suggesting something rather than actual asking, which is followed by tag questions. “Carrie: You know what, you guys, this isn’t right. We are gonna pay for this ourselves, alright?” As a matter of fact, the question is a statement saying, “We have to pay for it.” The indirectness conveying in the sentence weakens the commanding tone, but the meaning is still clear. It can be seen as a characteristic female strategy, serving to get others to agree.
Sometime, her questions are requests for advice, but mostly it seems she is looking for support rather than advice and new solutions to her problems. “Carrie: I can’t ignore it, can I?” By asking this question, Carrie is essentially asking for support for her own assessment of the situation that she could not ignore the problem. The tag question form indicates a certain degree of insecurity, although she already has an opinion of her own.
Emphatic stress, boosters and attention-getters
Carrie’s language is characterized by frequent use of stress, boosters and attention getters, which are typical features of female speech. With these she emphasizes what she is saying and expresses her enthusiasm. Three examples of these features are randomly picked up, and listed as follows: “Charlotte: (…) I bought some shares of your newspaper yesterday. Carrie: Really? Oh thank you sweetie.” Here, “really” does not function as a question. Carrie does not doubt the truth value of Charlotte’s statement. Instead, “really” is a booster that expresses her excitement that Charlotte bought shares of her newspaper. “Carrie: He could get it up, that wasn’t the pr…. (interrupting herself) you know what? There wasn’t a problem. Moving on.” Carrie’s “you know what” is an attention getter rather than an actual question, as she answers it herself.
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