Toward a pragmatic study of funeral discourses in Taiwan: Voice, shared situation knowledge, and metaphor

Abstract

This chapter addresses the pragmeme of accommodation in Taiwan, an Asian context rooted in Chinese culture and influenced by Buddhism. It analyzes examples from three discourse types used at funerals: four-character idiomatic elegies (wan er), the ritual for guiding the dead (zhu nian), and the farewell speech (jia dian wen) delivered to the deceased by his/her close family member. Each of these discourses forms a type of social relationship between the addresser and the addressee and fulfills its social function(s). A traditional Chinese elegy is given to the family of the deceased by someone outside the immediate family (e.g. a city mayor, a manager with whom the deceased used to work). The second discourse type is a Buddhist ritual performed for the deceased by one or more Buddhist teachers or volunteers. Rather than expressing condolences, it is aimed at guiding the dead on the subsequent journey after death. The third discourse type under scrutiny is a farewell speech to the deceased delivered by his/her close family member. Both the second and the third type are addressed to the deceased in the belief that the spirit of the deceased is there listening. While the Buddhist ritual performs a teaching act for the deceased, the funeral speech addressed to him/her performs the acts of thanking, praising, reassuring, and expressing good wishes to the dead. Although both of them are addressed to the one who has passed away, they also simultaneously have the pragmatic force of offering solace to the relatives of the deceased. These acts are possible because of the common ground shared by the participants and shaped by the sociocultural conception of death (e.g. DEATH IS A NEW JOURNEY) and by religious belief. Based on Mey’s (2001) pragmatic act theory, this chapter shows that the acts performed in these discourse types embody interactions of voice, shared situation knowledge, and metaphor.