Pragmatic Functions Of Pragmatic Markers In Prison Break

The pragmatic marker, which is an important part of lexical pragmatics, mainlyincludes specific words or fixed expressions, such as some conjunctions, adverbs,interjections and some phrases or clauses that indicate the communicational intention,motivation and attitude of speakers.Scholars abroad have studied pragmatic markers since 1970s and the main contents thatthey have researched include: (1) the classifications, functions and features of Englishpragmatic markers; (2) the difference between conceptual meaning and procedural meaning ofpragmatic markers; (3) pragmatic markers’ restriction on production and understanding ofutterances; (4) the textual functions, interpersonal function of pragmatic markers.Scholars in China mainly focus on the static description of pragmatic markers, and theirdeep research into pragmatic markers, such as logical, pragmatic and cognitive explanationand study on pragmatic markers, still has limitation. Some of them have studied basicfunctions, features of pragmatic markers, and also have studied pragmatic markers’ restrictionon production and understanding of utterances; these contents are studied on the basis of somerelated linguistic theories. However, generally speaking, the research into pragmatic markersis not complete: the scope definition of specific words or fixed expressions that are used aspragmatic markers is not clear, the function of pragmatic markers in the specific location ofutterances has no conclusion, the study on what mental structure the pragmatic marker showsand study on what mental structure the pragmatic marker creates are not complete, themechanism about that referential meaning of pragmatic markers can help people to expresstheir pragmatic functions and implicature is not clear, the study on the mode of pragmatic markers for constructing macro-discourse is not sufficient; empirical comparative study onEnglish and Chinese pragmatic markers is not made; comparative study, connected withcognitive linguistics, on functions, features and evolution trend of English and Chinesepragmatic markers is not sufficient; the cognitive and pragmatic study on English and Chinesepragmatic markers needs to be strengthened. And besides, it is necessary to deeply study howpragmatic markers restrict on the production and understanding of utterances from theperspective of cognition, and to deeply study how pragmatic markers help languagecommunicators to construct the text.The analysis of pragmatic functions of English pragmatic markers can help peopleunderstand the expression of pragmatic information better, can reveal the nature of thislanguage phenomenon better and also can provide references to related studies; what is more,pragmatic markers are language resources and communication strategy that people use in thedaily oral communication, so this dissertation will help people grasp English pragmaticmarkers effectively and use them correctly so that people’s English communicative ability andpragmatic level can be improved.This dissertation takes the pragmatic markers in the TV drama Prison Break as thecorpus and analyzes their pragmatic functions as well as information. The author collects themost often used pragmatic markers in Prison Break through seeing the TV drama on theInternet. This dissertation mainly takes reception marker all right, additional marker you know,caution marker look and interjection marker oh, well and adverbs actually, really, exactly asthe targets of analysis. Through analyzing the dialogues in the TV drama, the authorsummarizes their pragmatic functions: to attract the attention of the hearer; to end thediscourse; to shift to a new topic or to continue the interrupted topic; to indicate newinformation; to convey the communication purpose as well as intention and implied meaning;to indicate the emotion and attitude of speakers towards something. Through analyzing thepragmatic functions of markers in the TV drama Prison Break, this dissertation can helpChinese audience understand the TV drama better.