| This study explored the use of OK as a discourse marker by the hosts, guests and studio audience members of four daytime television talk shows. These shows were chosen as contexts for the study because they provided an exceptionally dynamic site for discourse analysis. From one show to the next, or sometimes within the space of one show, contexts shifted from seemingly friendly chats to hostile exchanges or from speech situations reminiscent of intense therapy sessions to those reminiscent of courtroom dramas. Within these ever-shifting contexts, participants, often emotionally involved in the topic under discussion, operated under time constraints, which served to heighten the level of stress. The author believed it highly unlikely that participants consciously monitored their use of the discourse marker OK, a word that realized pragmatic signalling and turn-taking functions more often than it functioned to carry significant semantic weight.; Functions of OK as a discourse marker were analyzed in three different positions: (1) as the initial word of a conversational turn, (2) as a medial word within a conversational turn, and (3) as the final word of a conversational turn. In addition, OK was analyzed as a component in two and three-part sequences and also as an isolated word, not tightly constrained by prior or subsequent discourse.; The study concludes that OK realizes simultaneous and often opposite functions in most, if not all, of the positions analyzed. Hosts, guests, and studio audience members all capitalized on this inherent ambiguity by using OK in a variety of subconsciously manipulative ways for the purpose of establishing or maintaining control over their interlocutors. |
