A Study On Pragmatic Functions Of Discourse Marker So In Doctor-patient Conversations From Perspective Of Relevance Theory

The use of discourse markers is a common phenomenon in our daily communication.Also they are crucial elements for successful communication.Although they only have procedural meaning,with no conceptual meaning,they can instruct and restrict our communication.Therefore,studies on discourse markers are of great importance.With the establishment and development of Pragmatics and Discourse Analysis,more and more experts and scholars have started to pay their attention to the field of discourse markers.Through a review of relevant studies,three main perspectives in the field have been found:the coherence-based approach represented by Schiffrin(1987),the syntactic-pragmatic approach represented by Fraser(1990,1999)and the relevance-theoretic approach represented by Blakemore(1987,1992,2002).According to the relevance theory,our communication is a dynamic ostensive-inferential process.In the process,speakers offer some ostensive stimuli to instruct and restrict hearers' understanding of discourse.Meanwhile,hearers can infer speakers' communicative intention based on these ostensive stimuli.Thus,speakers tend to use discourse markers,which can be served as ostensive stimuli in order to promote the conveyance and comprehension of their intention,which therefore can help people attain a smooth communication.As our society develops,people are likely to pay more attention to their physical and mental health.So the relationship between doctors and patients has become an indispensable part of our social connection.However,the previous studies suggest that the pragmatic studies on this scope are not adequate.Studies which have combined the scope of discourse markers and doctor-patient relation are rare.Therefore,on the basis of the relevance theory,this study takes a popular TV series Doctor House as the research object and explores the pragmatic functions of discourse marker so in the doctor-patient conversations in this series by adopting the methods of qualitative analysis and quantitative analysis.The research questions are as follows:1.What pragmatic functions does the discourse marker so have in these doctor-patient conversations under the framework of the relevance theory?2.Compared with the use of so in other scopes,what features does the discourse marker so demonstrate in this special scope?Through a detailed analysis,the following results can be found:1.The pragmatic functions of discourse marker so in these doctor-patient conversations can be divided into two categories:contextual effects and emotional effects.When the discourse marker so is used to work for contextual effects,it can serve as a conversation initiating marker,a topic shifting marker,an inference marker and so on.When the discourse marker so is used to work for emotional effects,it can help people to express their emotions,such as surprise,worry,doubt,irony and so on.2.By comparing the uses of the discourse marker so in other general fields,such as in Li Haiyan's Pragmatic Functions of Discourse Marker "so" and Its Translation in Desperate Housewives,the author of this thesis has found some unique features about its pragmatic functions in this specific area:(1)The ratios of some pragmatic functions of the discourse marker so are different from those in other general fields.(2)Some characteristics about the distribution of its pragmatic functions in the two communicative parties can be found.For instance,when so is used as a request marker,doctors account for 81.8%and when so acts as a topic-shift marker,doctors make up 73.7%.However,patients occupy a higher ratio,when so is used as a continuing marker,which is 74.4%.The significance of the study can be displayed in the following aspects.Firstly,in some degree,this study enriches the study corpus of discourse markers and makes up for the vacancy of studies on the discourse markers in the scope of doctor-patient relation;Secondly,this study expands the study scope of the relevance theory because few scholars have applied this theory to the field of doctor-patient interactions;Thirdly,the study can promote our understanding about the pragmatic functions of discourse marker so in doctor-patient conversations so that we can get a better understanding of the doctor-patient conversations;Fourthly,the study can help English learners to improve their ability to understand and use discourse markers,which therefore can facilitate their effective communication in English.