The Discourse Function of ‘没(有)’ in Adjacent Pairs in Chinese Drama Dialogue

This study focuses on the phenomenon of ‘没(有)’ (méiyǒu) being selected as a response or subsequent utterance in dialogue. Specifically, it aims to clarify why ‘没(有)’ is chosen as the subsequent utterance when the prior utterance is an adjective predicate sentence without the aspect marker 了2 (le2). Drawing from Shen Jiaxuan(沈家煊)’s boundedness theory, particularly the concept of ‘event,’ this paper collects adjacent pairs from Chinese dramas where the following utterance contains ‘没(有)’ as linguistic data for analysis. From syntactic and semantic perspectives, ‘没(有)’ is traditionally recognized for negating objective facts, statements, or situations. However, this view falls short of fully explaining the meaning and discourse function of ‘没(有)’ when used to negate adjectives in actual dialogue. This analysis reveals that in conversation, ‘没(有)’ performs specific discourse functions such as [denying the occurrence of a state change], [negating continuity or persistence], and [indicating a lack of degree attainment]. All these specific functions are unified as negations of ‘events(事件)’ within discourse. In other words, the adverbial negator ‘没(有)’ universally negates events, with ‘event sentences’ representing boundedness (non-continuity). This study suggests that interlocutors employ ‘没(有)’ when interpreting the prior utterance as an event and intending to negate it, which we refer to as [the overarching discourse function] of ‘没(有).’