Abstract
This study analyzed the discourse-pragmatic function of the Sixian Hakka dialect’s Utterance-final particle (UFP) honn. Our analysis was based on natural conversational contexts, including daily conversation, a discourse completion task, and television drama series. The UFP honn in Sixian Hakka has three tones, namely the shangsheng honn31, yangping honn11, and qusheng honn55. Our results revealed that honn31 occurs sentence initially, medially, and finally, whereas honn11 only occurs sentence medially, and honn55 only occurs sentence finally. Generally, speakers use sentence-initial honn31 to indicate that the proposition contradicts their expectations and to generate a tone of reluctance or disapproval. Sentence-medial honn31 and honn11 both mark a lower degree of presupposition; thus, additional supplementation and clarification are required. Sentence-final honn31 and honn55, conversely, differ in the degree of presupposition about a proposition. Normally, using honn31 implies a stronger presupposition than honn55 does.