A Relevance-theoretic Study Of The Discourse Marker Anyway In Friends

Discourse markers have attracted more and more scholars’ attention since thedevelopment of Pragmatics began to flourish in the1970s. They are regarded as aseries of “small words” which contribute to the utterance production andinterpretation without changing the semantic meanings of utterances. Usually, these“small words” may include some adverbs, conjunctions, or some phrases. Until now,there is still no agreed cognition to the definition of discourse markers, and even theterminology of discourse markers is also controversial. However, what is certain isthat discourse markers are widely used in our daily communication of all languagesand they can facilitate the communication going well.The research results of many discourse markers have been different owning tothe distinctive theoretical foundation applied by different scholars. At present, thereare mainly three distinctive perspectives by reading the literature review of them: thecoherence-based approach represented by Schiffrin, the syntactic-pragmatic approachrepresented by Fraser, and the relevance-theoretical approach represented byBlakemore. The above three approaches have represented the studies of DMs underdifferent theories. And their research results mainly include the pragmatic functionsand features of DMs and so on. In China, the study of DMs is still in its infancy, andthe research areas center on the study of individual DMs, the contrastive study ofEnglish and Chinese DMs, and the application of DMs in English listening andspeaking, etc. Nowadays, discourse markers have become a rapid development fieldof linguistic study, and scholars are inclined to take them as a common linguisticphenomenon in conversations and playing the pragmatic roles. So, there are importanttheoretical values and practical meanings of studying discourse markers.After exploring the previous studies on discourse markers, this thesis adopts Relevance Theory as the theoretical framework for analyzing the discourse markeranyway. Compared to other theories, Relevance Theory is more convincing inexplaining the usage of discourse markers. Relevance Theory proposed by Sperberand Wilson has systematically elaborated the ostensive-inferential communicationfrom the perspective of cognition. They regard communication as relevance-oriented.Also, contextual environment has great effect on the cognitive inferences. On thebasis of the theory, speakers express the utterances to the most extent so that hearerscould interpret the utterances with the least efforts paid. In verbal communication,both speakers and hearers hope to pursue the optimal relevance so as to achievesuccessful communication. People using discourse markers in their communicationaims to constrain utterance production and interpretation, which exactly correspondsto the research contents of Relevance Theory. So, the thesis is discussed under theguidance of Relevance Theory.Many individual discourse markers have been discussed a lot previously, such aswell, but, so, you know, etc. However, the discourse marker anyway is not analyzed asmuch as those discourse markers. So this thesis aims to study the discourse markeranyway and propose the following two questions:1) What kind of pragmatic functions does the discourse marker anyway performin our daily conversations?2) How the research results can be applied in English teaching?In order to answer the two questions, the thesis takes the American classic sitcomFriends as the language data. Friends is so famous not only because the laughter itproduces to us, but also because its stories are just so deeply rooted in our hearts. Thestories it tells and the language used in Friends are just like what we have in actualsituations. Plus, there are ten seasons, including236episodes in Friends which is arelatively large corpora resource. So, Friends is the best choice as a corpus source forthe research.In the thesis, the discourse marker anyway is affirmed as possessing thepragmatic functions, which is not settled subjectively by the author. Rather, the authorhas made a lot of the investigations of the discourse marker anyway from the dictionaries and previous studies. Combining the studies of the discourse markeranyway appearing in Friends, the four pragmatic functions of discourse markeranyway are finally determined as follows:Firstly, the discourse marker anyway can be used as a resumptive marker. Thismeans that anyway can be used when a speaker wants to begin a new topic, turn backto the prior topic, or summarize the previous utterances. In this case, anyway isalways positioned at the beginning of the sentence.Secondly, the discourse marker anyway can be used as a highlighting marker. Inthis usage, the speakers may employ anyway to dismiss the preceding utterance so asto highlight or strengthen the present utterance with anyway in it. And when anywayis used in the wh-interrogatives, it usually stresses the question and an answer to thequestion is always required to the hearers.Thirdly, the discourse marker anyway can be used as a contrastive marker. Acontrastive anyway indicates a relation of transition as what we have in mind. It isassumed to express a contrastive relation to the previous utterance. So anyway usedhere can always connect or refer to the prior utterance or discourse since it needs to bemade to contrast with.Fourthly, the discourse marker anyway can be used as a modificative marker. Byusing the discourse marker anyway of this pragmatic function, the speaker aims tomodify or correct the previous utterance. And the position of the discourse markeranyway used in this function is always at the end of the utterances.If the appropriate usages of discourse markers can be taught by teachers in theirEnglish speaking classes, then the students can communicate better in English andexpress their implication without any obstacle. The thesis is not perfect for somereasons out of reach. But the author will continue following the steps of the latestresearch results and do some other relevant researches in the future.