Chinese Discourse and Interaction - Theory and Practice - Yuling Pan
8. What are Chinese respondents responding to? A close examination of question-answer sequences in survey interviews
Chinese Discourse and Interaction - Theory and Practice - Yuling Pan
Yuling Pan [+]
U.S. Census Bureau
Description
The research reported in this chapter is part of an ongoing endeavour initiated by the author to introduce the theoretical notion and analytical tool of discourse analysis to examine Chinese speakers’ linguistic behaviour in survey interviews (Pan 2008; Pan et al. 2010). This chapter starts with a discussion of the theoretical framework that guides the development of a coding scheme for question-answer sequences in interviews. It argues for the need to systematically define and measure indirectness. The subsequent section (Data and method) describes the interview data and methodology for coding question types and response patterns. This methodology section is followed by the analytical section (Findings and discussion), which is divided into two parts: summary of findings and discussion. The analysis in this section focuses on two question types that elicit the most indirect responses and expounds the functions of indirect responses, followed by a discussion. The chapter concludes with a proposal for further study of this topic.