| Discourse markers are indispensable in discourse analysis, which are used in daily communication. Researches on discourse markers have been widely developed since the1970s. With Halliday’s Systemic-Functional Grammar, especially the textual function part, as theoretical basis, by adopting both quantitative and qualitative methods, textual functions of discourse markers are discussed in the aspects of thematic structure, information structure and cohesion. This thesis is to analyze the textual functions of discourse markers which appear in the11texts of Reports of the Secretary-General on Oceans and the Law of the Sea in the General Assembly of the United Nations from2008to2011. The results show that evidential, topic-maintaining and topic-initiating functions are fulfilled within thematic structure. Under the framework of information structure, information-adding, information-predicting, and information-foregrounding functions are displayed. In the aspect of cohesion, elaborating, extending, enhancing and context-cohering functions are executed by discourse markers. Based on the analysis of this thesis, it turns out that the same discourse markers can fulfill different textual functions in different structures and different types of discourse markers can fulfill the same textual function. These results reflect functional diversity and overlapping of discourse markers. Therefore, the analysis of discourse markers in this thesis nails down different textual functions in the Reports of the Secretary-General. Proper discourse markers will help those whose work are relevant to maritime affairs and interpreters to achieve a coherent text when comprehending and translating such maritime documents. |
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