The Default Semantical Approach To You Know In English Academic Spoken Discourse

As one of the most frequently used discourse markers by native speakers,you know has been discussed in various research fields and most studies have been conducted from the perspective of pragmatics,sociolinguistics and second language acquisition.Few studies have been done under the framework of the Default Semantics.Studies on you know in English academic spoken discourse are even less.Therefore,based on Jaszczolt's theory of the Default Semantics(2005),the present study focuses on the use of the discourse marker you know in English academic spoken discourse,including their positions in sentences,their pragmatic functions and their frequency and distribution differences from daily conversation.Aiming at achieving these aforementioned goals,the stratified sampling method is adopted to collect ten texts from the Michigan Corpus of Academic Spoken English(MICASE).The types of meeting mainly concern Natural Resources Research Group Meeting,Student Government Meeting,and Artificial Intelligence Research Group Meeting and so on.The analysis of the data within the established theoretical framework yields the following results:(1)Discourse marker you know in English academic spoken discourse mainly occurs in the middle position of sentences,which accounts for 81.38% in the total number of you know.The number of you know at the end of sentences takes the second place,accounting for 11.44%.The least number of you know appears at the initial part of sentences,the proportion of which is 7.18%.(2)The pragmatic functions of discourse marker you know are abundant,including filling out,repairing,explaining,quoting,assuming shared knowledge,expressing uncertainty and seeking approval.Among these functions,filling out,assuming shared knowledge and explaining are the most frequently used ones in English academic spoken discourse.(3)There is no significant difference in distribution of you know between academic spoken discourse and daily conversation.The frequency of using discourse marker you know in English academic spoken discourse is higher than that in daily conversation.The Default Semantics can be properly used to explain discourse marker you know.When used in English academic spoken discourse,it acts as the connectionbetween the first stage and the second stage in merger representation.Therefore,although the default meaning is not directly expressed by the speaker in English academic meeting,it is well obtained by the hearer with the help of discourse marker you know.There are two potential reasons why discourse marker you know produces default meaning.One is that psychological motivation pervades in the two stages of merger representation and conforms to the principle of parsimony of levels and the degree of intentions.The other is that the use of discourse marker you know meets the requirement of Face Theory.As English academic spoken discourse is formal in language forms,speakers in academic meetings have to take hearers' faces into consideration.Theoretically,by the analysis of discourse marker you know in English academic spoken discourse within the Default Semantics,on the one hand,the study broadens the application range of the Default Semantics and explains the reasons why discourse marker you know produces default meaning.On the other hand,it enriches the studies on the functions of discourse marker you know.Practically,some suggestions about the proper use of these markers are presented to Chinese English learners,especially for the researchers who regularly attend international academic meetings.Some indications about how to continue academic activities smoothly are also demonstrated to the participants.