A Study On Pragmatic Functions Of Discourse Marker Oh In Downton Abbey From The Perspective Of Relevance Theory

Discourse markers are widely used in various languages and they are a common linguistic phenomenon in our daily communication.Besides,they are a kind of mark on the level of discourse and also play a role of pause,delay or expressing communicators' emotions in discourse,which is in a way helpful to the coherence and the rationality of the discourse.Therefore,more and more scholars have started to make the analysis of discourse markers.Previously,scholars have tended to regard discourse markers as a linguistic phenomenon that occurs mainly in the conversation and exerts certain pragmatic functions.Since the 1990 s,the study of discourse markers has been gradually pushed to a new stage.Linguist Blakemore takes the lead in the study of discourse markers from the perspective of cognitive pragmatics and the theoretical basis is the relevance theory proposed by French linguist Sperber and British linguist Wilson.The thesis is a tentative analysis and study of the pragmatic functions of discourse marker Oh within the framework of relevance theory put forward by linguists Sperber and Wilson.The thesis extracts the dialogues including Oh in Downton Abbey as the main research material.The thesis is aimed at finding out the answers to the following questions:(1)What functions does discourse marker Oh perform in the process of ostensive-inferential communication?(2)What are the functions of discourse marker Oh in achieving the optimal relevance?(3)What functions does discourse marker Oh perform in generating the contextual effects? Through the study of pragmatic functions of discourse marker Oh from the above aspects,the final aim of the thesis is to make a contribution to the further development of studying discourse markers.This thesis is composed of three parts: an introduction,the main body and a conclusion.The main contents are as follows:The first part is an introduction.The introduction mainly introduces the research background of this thesis,that is a brief overview on the research status of discourse markers at home and abroad.Besides,the significance and objectives of the thesis and the British period drama Downton Abbey are briefly introduced.On the basis of relevance theory,the thesis analyzes the pragmatic functions of the discourse marker Oh occurring in the dialogues in Downton Abbey(season 1&2).The second part is the main body,which is composed of four chapters.The first chapter is the literature review,consisting of four parts.In the first part of the literature review,it elaborates the different definitions,classifications,functions and features of discourse markers proposed by representative scholars at home and abroad.Then relevance theory and the definitions of important related terms,including the ostensive-inferential model,the principle of relevance and contextual effects are briefly introduced.The third part will give a relevance-theoretical account of the discourse marker Oh.Finally,the main content of Downton Abbey is briefly introduced.The second chapter mainly focuses on demonstrating what functions the discourse marker Oh perform in the ostensive-inferential communication.The thesis analyzes discourse marker Oh from two aspects: an ostension marker and an inferential marker.Through the analysis,it can be concluded that the discourse marker Oh is widely and frequently used in communication and has various pragmatic functions including the function of a emotional marker,a commenting marker,a requesting marker and a narrating marker.Within the ostensive-inferential model,discourse marker Oh can stimulate the generation of the ostensive-inferential process.In order to achieve communicative intention,the speaker should provide the hearer with adequate ostension.Then the hearer can infer the speaker's communicative intention based on the speaker's expressions and then reacts properly so as to have a successful communication.The third chapter analyzes what functions the discourse marker Oh perform in achieving optimal relevance.The ultimate goal of communication is to achieve optimal relevance.Optimal relevance is aimed at achieving cognitive effects with paying cognitive effort.The usage of the discourse markers can limit the interpretation and comprehension of utterance and help communicators choose the right cognitive context so as to make the hearer pay less cognitive effort to obtain the greatest cognitive effects.When the discourse marker Oh helps the communicators get the optimal relevance,it can act as a delay marker,an initiating marker,an attention attracting marker and also as a face-threatening mitigation marker.Chapter four focuses on what functions the discourse marker Oh plays in generating the contextual effects.It is found that the generation and understanding of discourses can be restricted by the context.Discourse markers,as a means of language device,have thefunction of contextual negotiation.Through functioning differently,the discourse marker Oh can contributes to contextual effects,thus it has the function of strengthening and contradicting the present proposition.The communicators can restrict the relevant context by means of a certain linguistic device to achieve the optimal relevance and make the communication smooth.The discourse markers are one of the most effective methods of communication.The last part is a conclusion which is a summary of the whole thesis.In this part,the limitations of the thesis will be pointed out and some suggestions for future related research will be stated.Meanwhile,through the above research,it is proved that relevance theory has strong explanatory power in analyzing the functions of discourse markers.Meanwhile,the discourse marker Oh is widely used in daily communication and it plays an important role in utterances and discourse coherence.The correct employment of discourse markers is beneficial to interpreting and comprehending the utterances and also beneficial to making the utterances more coherent,in order to achieve the purpose of a successful communication.