A Contrastive Study Of The Discourse Structure Marker In Korean And Chinese

[Abstract]Traditional linguistics regards a sentence as the most basic language unit, and mainly studies the internal structure of sentences and the grammatical function, it can be called as sentence linguistics. Although the sentence linguistics has obtained plentiful and substantial achievements, it is at a loss to some language phenomenon in reality, which can be found from the observation of the language phenomenon in using. For example:the reference, ellipsis, beyond-the-sentence conjunctive, generative and comprehension of convention and so on, they all can't be obtained satisfactory explanation in the isolated sentence that is separated from a context. Moreover, the language communication between man and man can't be achieved by the isolated sentences, but by the discourse which is composed of many coherent sentences. Therefore, if we truly want to know the language which is used as a kind of communicative tool, and its' function, we have to expand the research field to the discourse level with the sentence linguistics as a basis, and take a comprehensive, in-depth study on discourse.However, in the academic circles of the contrastive study in Korean and Chinese, few people have paid a little attention to the contrastive studies of discourse, some limited achievements have mainly focused on the study of reference, and the discourse structure study is almost a blind spot. In the west linguistic circle, a discourse structure and a discourse function are the central subjects of discourse linguistics, and the discourse structure is not only a starting point, but also the destination of discourse studies. Then, how to contrast the discourse structure in Korean and Chinese, what subject can be taken as a staring point, what contrastive frame should be used?Therefore, this dissertation takes the theory of discourse analysis and systemic-functional linguistics as a frame, and synthetically uses the correlation theories and research methods of discourse analysis, cognitive linguistics, syntax, semantics, pragmatics, stylistics, rhetoric, psycholinguistics, system philosophy, narratology and so on, takes the discourse structure marker as a starting point, with the principle of function first and form second, uses the thinking of contrast from common basis to individual differences, conducts a comprehensive and detailed contrastive study on the discourse structure marker in Korean and Chinese.This dissertation is divided into six chapters.Chapter One is an introduction. It mainly introduced the research content of this dissertation, the related research survey in western linguistic circle and the Korean and Chinese linguistic circle,. as well as the value of this topic, theory basis, research methods, research thinking, the frame of this dissertation, the language materials origination, and some related terminologies can be involved in this chapter.Chapter Two contrasted the general characteristics of the discourse system in Korean and Chinese. With the principle of system philosophy, Chapter Two summed up some basic characteristics of discourse system--pluralism, orderliness, integrity and finiteness. Then it pointed out that the discourse structure in Korean and Chinese is composed of sentences, segments, paragraphs, paragraph groups, and the paragraphs are the core constitution units. Secondly, it also pointed out that the discourse system is a kind of triadic compound structure which includes micro structure, intermediate structure and macro structure, and the structural relation is usually manifested by the structure marker. Meanwhile, it gave a definition to the Korean and Chinese discourse structure, according to the function characteristics, it divided the discourse structure marker into three types:ideational meaning structure marker, logic meaning structure marker and interpersonal meaning structure marker.Chapter Three contrasted the function and using characteristics of ideational meaning structure marker in Korean and Chinese. First, it reviewed the shortcomings of topic studies in Korean and Chinese, and pointed out the common characteristics in Korean and Chinese topics. Secondly, according to the formation characteristics of typical topic, it divided Korean and Chinese discourse topics into referentiality topics, introduction topics and proposition topics, focusing on contrasting the indefinite topics in referentiality topics. It included not only the main manifestation, but also the correspondence forms and correspondence laws of indefinite topics in Korean and Chinese. Once more, according to the information types, this dissertation divided topics into initial topics, anaphora topics and activation topics, and according to the above, it contrasted the discourse thematic progression in Korean and Chinese, and then summarized the extension type, derivation type, central type, cross type and chain type. Finally, it contrasted the manifestation and boundary problem of Korean and Chinese time markers.Chapter Four contrasted the function and using characteristics of logic meaning structure marker in Korean and Chinese. It concluded the characteristics of Korean and Chinese logic meaning structure marker and put it into three main types:"the element-element" relational marker, "the corresponding points-corresponding points" relational marker and "the cause-consequence" relational marker. Finally, it carried on a detailed contrast to each type's lower position type, focusing on the display marker, adversative marker and condition marker. Chapter Five contrasted the function and using characteristics of interpersonal meaning structure marker in Korean and Chinese. First, after pointing out the common ground of Korean and Chinese interpersonal meaning structure marker, according to the initial function, extended function, switching function, seizing function and conclusion function of Korean and Chinese discourse marker in turn-taking structure, it divided the interpersonal meaning structure marker into several types; Secondly, on the basis of including the common ground of Korean and Chinese metadiscourse marker, according to their cohesion function in discourse structure, this dissertation divided it into discourse attitudes marker, discourse organization marker and discourse information marker, which focused on the Korean and Chinese discourse organization marker.Chapter Six is a conclusion. It carried on a summary to the full dissertation and pointed out the new findings and deficiency points in the study.In short, the discourse structure marker is a kind of language marker which loads the grammar and semantic relations, and it can lead to two or two above discourse formation units with this relationship. The discourse structure is not only the result of an author's/speaker's construction to coherence discourse, but also the process of a reader's/listener's reconstruction to coherence discourse. In order to make readers/listeners can understand the communicative intent better, in addition to passing the main information, authors/speakers will choose the appropriate discourse structure marker to effectively organize the discourse to indicate their attitudes, views and thinking; and in a large extent, discourse structure marker will influence and restrict a reader's/ listener's understanding to the main message and the search to discourse relevance theory, because when readers/ listeners understand the discourse, in addition to the reasoning mechanism, discourse marker will be an important clue to seek the best connection for them.We believe that not all the discourses have structure markers, but the typical discourse must have it. No matter it is Korean or Chinese, the main parameters that affect a discourse structure and a discourse structure marker are not the language types, but the discourse types and the author's discourse style.