An Analysis Of Interpersonal Function Of Discourse Marker In Chinese Verbal Communication

Discourse marker is frequently used in our routine conversations. The appropriate adoption of it is helpful for us to not only interpret other's utterance, but also make our utterances more coherent. Therefore, a dynamic and systematic research may prove both its theoretical and practical values in the linguistic circle.The present study makes an analysis of discourse marker from the cognitive-pragmatic perspective, adopting Schiffrin's coherence theory and Blakemore's relevance theory as the conceptual framework. The present research aims to investigate into the interpersonal functions of discourse marker in the verbal communication and its roles in keeping conversation coherent.The paper falls into three parts. Part one offers a general introduction to the present research object and reviews the previous literature on discourse marker studies home and abroad. Part two delves into the interpersonal functions of discourse marker in the Chinese verbal communications based on the relevance theory. Through the scrutinizing and analysis of the data, two types of interpersonal functions have been generalized: one is the function of hinting and guiding, the other is the function of marking communicative state. Part three concludes the thesis with retrospect and prospect, outlining its main findings, implications and limitations and pointing to the direction in which further research can be carried out. The main findings of the present research are: by making use of the discourse marker, the speaker could draw the attention of the hearer, mark the exchanging of conversation, maintain the smooth communication and make sure whether the hearer understands the utterance; the hearer could be confronted with fewer problems in the interpretation of the speaker's intended meaning.The present research is of great theoretic significance. This research has made further efforts to support Blakemore's general view on discourse markers, and proved relevance theory to be a more interpretative theory in analyzing the functions of discourse markers. It fills a blank in the Chinese relevance-theoretic studies of interpersonal functions of discourse marker in the verbal communication. The research not only pushes forward the development of linguistic study of discourse markers, but also is helpful to Chinese English learners in mastering the use of these markers, which will promote the interaction between Chinese English learners and native English speakers.A systematic research is usually one-dimensional and can only tackle limited problems. Hence, I have to acknowledge that the observations of this thesis are by no means conclusive and thus need our efforts to do further studies on this interesting language phenomenon.