Essays on Writing and Language in Honor - Sino-Platonic Papers

Schriifrfestschny?: fisays in Honor of John &Francis
ma7 and the power of persuasion
Returning to Hu Yaobang and Zhao Ziyang, we note a difference
between these situations and that of a local official. The lower official is
imitating the speech of his superiors, and it can be taken by his listeners as
a patronizing pretension of a local bureaucrat.
We note that in ordinary speech, ma2 may carry the meaning of
friendly persuasion, as in an expression of paternal concern or similarly in a
child's plea to an indulgent parent. In short, ma2 operates either up or
down, in an intimate parent-child relationship as well as in bureaucratic
relationships. Therefore, the listeners perceive both meanings: intimacy
(solidarity) and authority (power). These two meanings, though not
mutually exclusive, are not really complementary with each other. Rather
the two psychological forces may be in balance, but there is a tension
between a bid for dominance and a bid for intimacy which can become
the
explosive as we have seen in,,June 4 Tiananmen incident. A bid for
intimacy like that of Hu Yaobang, if prepackaged and propagated through
the propaganda system without variation becomes patronizing in the ears of
a listener to a lower bureaucrat. Bureaucrats who want to keep or advance
their position will adhere rigidly to the sociolinguistic patterns set by their
superiors. By continuing to use ma2 and ignoring their listeners' reaction to
its use they convert an appeal for intimacy into an assertion of authority.
An indicator of solidarity has thus become an indicator of authority, as
if its charge has been reversed. As a particle of power, ma2 repels just as
surely as it might attract when it appears as a particle of solidarity.