Analysis Of Discourse Markers In College English Public Speaking

This paper reports the analysis of discourse markers in college English public speaking. Being pervasive in English language, discourse markers play an important role in both language generation and interpretation. Since the book Discourse Markers was first published by Schiffrin in 1987, the study of discourse markers have aroused much attention of many scholars in this field. After reviewing the relevant researches of discourse markers, three representative and impressive approaches are found: the coherence-based approach, the grammatical-pragmatic approach and the relevance-based approach.This paper adopts the Adaptation-Relevance Model as the theoretical framework. This model is an integration proposed based on the Relevance Theory and Adaptation Theory. This model points out that the process of the use of language and interpretation is the process of its adapting to the contexts and seeking optimal relevance. In the view of the Adaptation-Relevance Model,discourse markers are linguistic choices made by speakers in the interadaptation of context correlates. Discourse markers are means of ostensive stimulus used by speakers to guide and constrain the hearers to interpret the speaker’s utterance appropriately. Meanwhile, discourse markers contribute to the pursuit of the optimal relevance for the hearers, serve as signals for hearers’ interpretation and make their processing effort as little as possible.This paper makes an attempt to give a descriptive and explanatory account of discourse markers used by the students in college English public speaking under the guidance of Adaptation-Relevance Model. With the data collected from 30 English public speeches in recent years, the paper carries out an investigation of discourse markers. Based on different categories, the paper aims to summarize thefeatures and analyze the functions of discourse markers employed in college English public speaking.The paper concludes that discourse markers are commonly used in college English public speaking. Different categories of discourse markers employed result in different purposes of application and functions of discourse markers. In the present study various functions are found. Among them, discourse markers employed by the speakers in public speeches mostly illustrate statements, explain information, indicate a contrastive relationship, make an inference or draw a conclusion, or even to show the friendship between the speakers and hearers.