Denying, Qualifying, or Diverting with “meishier” (没事儿) in Open-Class Repair in Mandarin Chinese Talk

When engaging in a conversation, interact ants frequently encounter problems of hearing, speaking and understanding. Under such circumstances repair is usually resorted to ensure the progressivity of the talk. With the methodology of Conversation Analysis, one specific repair procedure has been investigated in this paper which is open-class repair initiated by the recipient with “huh?” (啊?/嗯?) or “what?” (什么?) followed by the speaker denying the existence of the previous action, qualifying or diverting the previous action in the trouble source turn (the turn with the problem) with “meishier” (没 事儿). And in these three situations “meishier” can be probably translated respectively into “nothing”, “nothing serious” and “I’m ok”. Therefore, this research would provide a profound knowledge about the actions conducted by “meishier” as well as a specific guidance to the translation of “meishier” into English.

(3) when the previous action is doing negative expression towards the recipient's previous disaffiliate action, the speaker would divert his/her action by treating it as something he/she can handle with "meishier" as "I'm ok".
In addition, according to Modern Chinese Dictionary (现代汉语词典) (2018, p. 885), "meishier" basically means "nothing" which can be used to indicate "nothing to do", "no job", "no accident", "no responsibility" and "never mind", etc., in different contexts. In the above three situations "meishier" can be probably translated respectively into "nothing", "nothing serious" and "I'm ok". Hence, this research is meant to probe into the actions conducted by "meishier" and its possible appropriate translations into English in actual everyday interactions.

Methodology and Data
The methodology adopted in the current research is Conversation Analysis (hereafter CA) which "aims to explicate how people accomplish and understand social actions when interacting with others" (Hepburn & Bolden, 2017). Founded in 1960s by Harvey Sacks with the collaboration of Emanuel Schegloff and Gail Jefferson, CA has deeply influenced by Erving Goffman (1959Goffman ( , 1967 and Harold Garfinkel (1967) respectively in terms of revealing the interactional order behind talk-in-interaction and understanding social actions embedded in utterances with the procedural approach of common-sense reasoning and practical reasoning. And one important research locus of CA is social action (Drew, 2013), which is implemented on a turn-by-turn basis in real conversation (Schegloff, 2007).
"The central domain of data with which conversation analysts are concerned is everyday, mundane conversations" Heritage (1984, p. 238). The whole database from which targeted phenomena are www.scholink.org/ojs/index.php/eltls English Language Teaching and Linguistics Studies Vol. 2, No. 4, 2020 3 Published by SCHOLINK INC.
selected from consists of 830 intact mundane telephone talks (202h, 30m, 19s) collected from 2014 to 2020 among classmates, friends, lovers, couples, relatives, parents and children etc. And out of it there are 14 intact telephone calls containing 14 targeted sequences. The following table shows the distribution of the actions conducted by "meishier" in different sequential environments. All the data are transcribed according to CA conventions (Hepburn & Bolden, 2013), and adjusted according to the accepted conventions for showing non-English data. The data have been transcribed in Mandarin and in pinyin Mandarin in the first two lines, then translated into English, first literally and then into a more idiomatic form. Therefore, each excerpt consists of four lines, though in some cases the more idiomatic translation is not shown line-by-line but rather at the end of that turn, the more idiomatic translation into English is shown in bold. In addition, certain linguistic details, especially particles, are indicated in the transcription. (1) Denying the existence of the previous action with "meishier" as "nothing" Doing abrupt topic shift 3 Doing inapposite action 2 Disagreeing 1 Talking to oneself 2 Talking with a third person 3 (2) Qualifying the previous action with "meishier" as "nothing serious" Telling the reason for call 2 (3) Diverting the previous action with "meishier" as "I'm ok" Doing negative expression 1 As is displayed in the above Table, when the previous action in the trouble source turn is doing abrupt topic shift, inapposite action, disagreeing or even departing from the current talk (talking to oneself and talking with a third person), the speaker would deny the existence of his/her action; Yet when the previous action in the trouble source turn is telling the reason for call, the speaker would qualify the action and repeat the turn; However, when the previous action in the trouble source turn is doing negative expression towards recipient's previous disaffiliative action, the speaker would divert the action.

The Actions Conducted by "meishier"
As has been argued, after the initiation of the repair procedure, the speaker would deny the existence of the previous action, qualify yor divert the previous action in the trouble source turn with "meishier" as "nothing", "nothing serious" or "I'm ok" respectively. The following sections would illustrate these situations with examples.
3.1 Denying the Existence of the Previous Action with "meishier" as "Nothing" As has been put forward, throughout the data there are five kinds of actions conducted in the trouble source turn which are doing abrupt topic shift, doing inapposite action, disagreeing, talking to oneself or talking with a third person, yet the speaker would deny the existence of these actions nevertheless.

Doing Abrupt Topic Shift
According to the data, when the previous action in the trouble source turn is doing abrupt topic shift, the recipient would probably encounter an understanding problem, then after the initiation of the open-class repair by the recipient, the speaker would abandon the repair with "meishier", indicating that the trouble source turn has nothing to deliver. The following example shows the situation. and changes to another topic in line 21. In this situation the action conducted by "meishier" is denying the existence of the previous action in line 15, thus "meishier" in this particular context can be translated into "nothing".
Chinese New Year of time more give you little Lucky Money.
In Chinese New Year you will be given lots of Lucky Money.
You are so excellent.
We today this side snowing PRT.
We have snow here today.

Doing Inapposite Action
When the previous action in the trouble source turn is doing inapposite action, after the initiation of the repair procedure by the recipient, the speaker would abandon the repair with "meishier", avoiding the reoccurrence of the previous action.
In example (2), Ying (樱) and Xing (星) are friends, and Ying offers Xing a place to stay, since Xing comes from another city and is about to come to Ying's city to attend an exam. Xing declines the offer with an account (Robinson, 2016) of a long distance (data not shown). Ying agrees with Xing in line 33 by expressing that the distance is "a little far" (有点远), to which Xing also agrees in line 35. Just when Ying attempts to close the sequence in line 36 with "oh" (噢) (Schegloff, 2007) and "Ok" (行咾), Xing changes her assessment about the distance in line 37 by saying that there are at least four sets of traffic lights indicating the distance is too far to fit her needs which partly overlaps with Ying's closing utterance. Therefore, this surplus assessment from Xing would probably embarrass Ying for providing such an offer. Thus, when Ying initiated the repair procedure in line 38, Xing denies the happening of this inappropriate previous action with "meishier" in line 40. Then Ying closes the topic in line 41. In this situation the action conducted by "meishier" is denying the existence of previous inapposite action in line 37, thus "meishier" in this particular context can be translated into "nothing". Oh. Ok PRT Ok PRT.
Oh. Ok ok.

Disagreeing
When the previous action in the trouble source turn is disagreeing with the recipient, then after the initiation of the repair procedure by the recipient, the speaker would abandon the repair by denying the existence of the previous disagreeing with "meishier".
In example (3) Xiang (香) and Yue (跃) are lovers, and they are talking with each other on the phone.
When Xiang the girl tells Yue the boy that the reason she gives up doing some small business during Xiang denies the existence of her previous disagreeing with "meishier" in line 2140. Then Yue says something like they will talk this topic sometime in lines 2142 and 2143. In this situation the action conducted by "meishier" in line 2140 is denying the existence of previous disagreement in line 2137, thus "meishier" in this particular context can be translated into "nothing".
No, you, alas. Nothing. Let's deal with it slowly.

Talking to Oneself
When the speaker is talking to herself/himself in the trouble source turn, the recipient would encounter an understanding problem and probably initiate a repair procedure. However, facing the initiation of an open-class repair the speaker would abandon the repair with "meishier".
In example (4) college senior Jun (珺) calls junior student Wen (文) to tell that Wen and other students' archive materials should be submitted by tomorrow night. After making related arrangement (data not shown), Jun seems to be looking at these materials and talking to herself in lines 24 to 26 which expresses her own bewilderment on how to fill in these forms. Then, Wen initiates an open-class repair in line 27 indicating that she cannot understand the whole turn in lines 24 to 26. Jun abandons the repair with "meishier" in line 30, then immediately after the abandonment, she asks Wen to fill in these forms as required, and in line 31 she mentions the example which Ming (明) has sent to Wen and other students. Then Wen acknowledges the request with "Oh" (噢) in line 33. In this example, the action conducted by "meishier" in line 30 is denying the existence of the previous action of talking to herself in lines 24 to 26, thus "meishier" in this particular context can be translated into "nothing".

Talking with a Third Person
This situation is similar with the one in example (4), only this time the speaker suspends the on-going talk but starts a new talk with a third person beside him/her. While facing the initiation of the repair procedure by the recipient, the speaker would deny the happening of the new talk with "meishier".
In example (5)  In this situation the action conducted by "meishier" in line 449 is denying the existence of previous action of talking with a third person in line 446, thus "meishier" in this particular context can be translated into "nothing". Then I really can't recall other interesting things.
The above five examples illustrate the situations that the speaker would abandon the repair by denying the happening of the previous action in trouble source turn when there is abrupt interruption to the current talk (abrupt topic shift, talking to oneself and talking with a third person), inapposite action or disagreement. While the next section illustrates a situation when the speaker would provide the trouble solution by repeating the trouble source turn.

Qualifying the Previous Action with "meishier" as "Nothing Serious"
When the previous action is telling the reason for call, then after the initiation of the repair procedure, the speaker would provide a trouble solution by repeating the trouble source turn but qualify it.
In example (6)   3.3Diverting the Previous Action with "meishier" as "I'm Ok" As has been mentioned above, when a speaker's previous action is doing negative expression towards recipient's previous disaffiliative action, the speaker would divert his/her action by treating it as something he/she can handle with "meishier" as "I'm ok".
In example (7)  However, Miao doesn't agree with Mao explicitly with the account that she is a conservative person, or as Mao describes that she is a rational person (data not shown). And Miao agrees with Mao's description about her in line 728. When this topic seems to be coming to an end, however, in line 730 Mao expresses his feelings towards Miao's previous action, which consists of the "tch" and "alas" (唉) projecting some kind of trouble or negative feelings which Mao is suffering from at the moment. In another word, Mao takes Miao's previous action as something disaffiliative which brings him trouble or negative feelings. Due to the overlapping in lines 730 and 731, Miao initiates a repair procedure in line 733, after 0.5 silence in line 734, Mao provides a repair solution with "meishier" in line 735. And at the same turn, there seems to be an account that as a big brother to Miao, Mao himself can handle the trouble or negative feelings, which is also used to prove why Mao is "meishier". Therefore, "meishier" translated into "I'm ok" in this situation is diverting the previous negative expression into a comfort to Miao. And Miao accepts it with "Ok" in line 737. Then Mao introduces another topic in line 738. We this-this time looked up materials especially much.
We have looked up too much materials this time.
In the above three sections (

Conclusion
Different aspects of "face" has been identified by Erving Goffman (1967) and elaborated by Brown and Levinson (1987) as basic human desires and characteristics of all competent adults. "Negative face refers to the desire to be free from imposition and to have one's autonomy and prerogatives honored and respected. Positive face refers to the desire to have a favorable self-image that is validated by others" (Clayman, 2002, p. 231). Therefore, (1) the abrupt interruption to the current talk (abrupt topic shift, talking to oneself and talking with a third person) is a face-threatening action which harms the recipient's negative face as the speaker has not fully attended to the current talk, or the recipient has not been fully respected by that absent-minded speaker. Further, the speaker's inapposite action harms the recipient's positive face as has been treated as someone who would provide an inappropriate offer (for example). And the speaker's disagreement also interferes with the recipient's own choice, thus damaging the recipient's negative face. Thus, from the perspective of the face-threatening act, the speaker would probably choose to deny its happening instead of providing a trouble solution; (2) while by qualifying the reason for call, the speaker actually provides a trouble solution, with seemingly no face-threatening consideration from the speaker; (3) however, the speaker's diverting his/her previous negative expression seems rather complicated in terms of the face-threatening consideration, since the recipient is doing something disaffiliative previously, yet the speaker's action actually prevents the previous discord (disaffiliation) between the interactants "escalating to the point of complaints 'going too far' and resulting in irretrievable breakdown" (Yu, Wu,& Drew, 2019, p. 21).
Additionally, through a detailed examination of the actions conducted by "meishier" in these three situations, we have gained a profound knowledge about its specific meanings and usages which can not only help us make precise use of this phrase, but also provide a specific guidance to the translation of "meishier" into English.