| Discourse markers are a common language phenomenon in human communication. In the past 30 years, the study on discourse markers has turned into a growing industry in linguistics. However, the study on discourse markers does not constitute a unitary agreement on some fundamental issues, such as the definitions, classifications, properties and functions etc. Compared with the plenty of researches abroad, the researches on Chinese discourse markers have just gotten started and are not as popular as those in western countries. From the survey of the previous study on Chinese discourse markers, it is necessary to study the specific functions of Chinese discourse markers, especially some 'small words' like "当然".This thesis attempts to fully discuss the functions of Chinese discourse marker "当然" , which is based on the meta-functions of language proposed by Halliday (1985). It will be theory-based, data-driven, and the whole study, to some degree, is a case-study. Through the study on Chinese discourse marker "当然", it is found that it is frequently used not only in speaking but also in writing. "当然" has its original meaning and features, which can be taken as the core meaning of this discourse marker. The primary commentary function of "当然" is also derived from its original meaning.By analyzing a large number of language data, the author is also intended to illustrate the specific textual functions, interpersonal functions and pragmatic functions of the discourse marker "当然" in detail. According to the investigation, the textual functions of "当然" is divided into five aspects: coherence, continuation, constraining, focus-foregrounding and topic transition. It is also found that the discourse marker "当然" play an important part not only in organizing a discourse, but also in maintaining the interpersonal relation between a speaker/a writer and a hearer/a reader. As a discourse marker, "当然" also has some pragmatic functions in human discourses. As an indicator of the speaker's/the writer's metapragmatic awareness, it shows the different pragmatic awareness of the speaker/the writer in different linguistic contexts. This thesis is divided into six chapters. The first chapter is an introduction to this thesis. The second chapter is a literature review, covering the related researches and some important concepts in this study. The third chapter presents the relevant theoretical foundation of this study. The meta-functions of language, which includes ideational function, the interpersonal function and textual function of language, are introduced in this chapter. Additionally, the research design of the whole thesis, including the hypotheses, the research questions, the methodology and data, and possible conclusion of this study are also illustrated briefly in this chapter. The fourth chapter is a detailed analysis of the research object "当然", which is based on the language data. The fifth chapter is the main body of this thesis, which is a comprehensive analysis of the functions of Chinese discourse marker "当然". The last chapter is a conclusion of the study. It sums up what is discussed in the previous chapters and clarifies the major findings, the significance and the limitations of this study, which, hopefully, will be of great help for a further study in this field.
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