A Study on the Functions of Chinese Discourse Marker “N” (嗯) from the Perspective of English-Chinese Translation

Abstract

The study investigated the functions of Chinese discourse marker “N” (嗯) from the perspective of English-Chinese translation. To explore the topic, 200 pairs of English-Chinese translation sentences are collected from a parallel corpus. From observation and analysis, it is found that (1) there are 20 different English discourse markers that were translated into “N” (嗯); (2) the functions of “N” (嗯) suggested from the translation are mainly threefold: to introduce a question for information, to hint that the speaker is going to provide information, and to create a period of time for thinking how to say something in a better way; (3) the function description of “N” (嗯) in Chinese dictionary is relatively limited. Finally, the study indicates that there is no single English discourse marker that corresponds to “N” (嗯). Instead, the correspondent relation between English discourse markers and “N” (嗯) actually depends on whether the English discourse marker could meet any of the three main functions of “N” (嗯).