An Adaptation-Inference Model To Pragmatic Functions Of You Know In Three American Sitcoms

In verbal communication, discourse markers do not contribute to proposition content of the utterances to which they are attached, instead they are used as an adaptive device helping to manage and maintain the on-going interaction (Ran. 2002: 10), and thus impose great influence upon the production and interpretation of utterances.The linguistic theories adopted in discourse marker studies are typically the coherence theory represented by Schiffrin. the syntactic-pragmatic theory by Fraser, the relevance theory by Sperber & Wilson and adaptation theory by Verschueren. After reviewing different approaches to DMs, the present study holds that when it comes to the description for the production and interpretation of DMs. especially for pragmatic functions of a certain DM. the further efforts are still needed to make. The author of this dissertation adopts adaptation theory and relevance theory to form an adaptation-inference model. And then with inspiration from the research of interactional communication supported by Ran Yong-ping, a typical discourse marker you know in three American sitcoms (Friends, Brothers and Sisters, Everybody Loves Raymond) is analyzed in order to discuss its pragmatic functions under different contextual elements including its extensive pragmatic functions based on discourse level.In this dissertation, the author uses quantitative and qualitative ways to do the research. First, this research employs contextual categories in Verschueren"s theory (linguistic context and communicative context) and observes their frequency and distribution of you know in the chosen data based on these contexts. Then, the adaptation-inference model is used to make a qualitative research about you know in order to expound how the utterances and the intentional meanings interact between the speaker and the hearer and then what contextual effects and pragmatic meanings occur during this process.This dissertation aims at some findings about pragmatic functions of you know for extending the research about DMs and at proving that adaptation-inference model has a comprehensive effort on analyzing DMs on the pragmatic and discourse level. Hopefully, this research will contribute to the further studies within the scope of discourse markers.