A Study On Topic "Introduction, Development, Change And Concluding" Markers In The Ancient Chinese Vernacular Fiction Texts

"Huashuo ","zaishuo","qieshuo"and "buzaihuaxia" which are known as the formulaic expressions of storytelling in the ancient Chinese vernacular fiction texts,will be classified as discourse markers intended for signalling the topic introduction,development,changing and concluding. This thesis describes the distribution and usage of these discourse markers and analyzes their pragmatic functions within the theovetical frameworhs of dialogue, metadiscourse and speech act.The thesis falls into the following nine parts:Chapter One reviews the relevant researches on discourse markers and then defines"huashuo ","zaishuo","qieshuo" and "buzaihuaxia" as discourse marker that signals respectively the topic introduction,development,change and concluding.In Chapter Two,an ancient chinese vernacular fiction text is to be layered into three semantic units:story,event and event group.Their topics will be defined as people or things which are alleged by nominal elements, and the main subject target to be talked about,and relevant to the other parts of the text.According to Chapter Three, "Huashuo", "qieshuol"and "queshuol"will be located at the beginning of the whole story or each "Hui"(The first "Hui" is an exception) of the fiction.They mark the "introduction" of topic for a story,event or event group.In Chapter Four and Five, "Queshuo2", "zaishuo1" will be located at the beginning of event or event group,which mark "change"of pre-and post topics,and "development "of topic for post to pre,"qieshuo2", "bushuo......que/qieshuo......"and "qiebushuo......queshuo/biao......" also mark "change" of topics in text.In Chapter six:"Buzaihuaxial" mark "concluding"of topic for event or event group.In Chapter Seven and Eight,the evolution of "zaishuo"and "buzaihuaxia", "buzaihuaxia" is a few example which evolves from discourse markers to vocabulary in the process of language development,it goes through the process of lexicalization and anti-grammaticalization.In Chapter Nine,the analyzes of pragmatic function of "shuo/hua"-type discourse markers is based on the theory of dialogue, metadiscourse and speech act;In Last Chapter,summarize the content of whole thesis, bring forward the unresolved issues.