A Study On The Functions Of Chinese Discourse Marker Nishuo-from The Perspective Of Systemic Functional Grammar

The theoretical foundation and research methodology never reach unitary agreement in discourse marker studies.For researches concerning Chinese discourse markers,many of them are limited in a certain scope and lacking in systematic theoretical underpinning.Moreover,the hearer-oriented discourse markers in Chinese,for example,nishuo and nikan,are also lacking in functional analyses.As a result,this thesis will thoroughly investigate the functions and meanings of a certain Chinese DM nishuo in accordance with Halliday's functional grammar by using CCL and the corpus conducted by the National Language Committee.By applying Halliday's theory of three meta-functions of language,this study analyses ideational meaning,interpersonal meaning and textual meaning of the Chinese structure nishuo in different contexts.The thesis finds out that the functions of nishuo can be explained in the framework of Halliday's metafunctions of language,and its three meanings form a continuum.It first discusses the ideational meaning of nishuo,mainly focusing on the verbal process and mental process of this subject-predicate structure.In these two processes,nishuo retains its semantic meaning,and starts the grammaticalization process to evolve into a discourse marker.Then the study centers on the functions of nishuo as a discourse marker in conducing interpersonal interaction and textual cohesion.It concludes that the interpersonal function of the hearer-oriented marker nishuo includes seeking hearer's opinion or agreement,and showing speaker's comment and emotional feelings.These functions can be explained by speech roles and the mood system in the interpersonal metafunction.In terms of the textual metafunction,this study demonstrates that the DM nishuo can catch people's attention,and serve as a continuation marker,turn-ending marker,and topic-transiting marker.The overall analysis proves that Halliday's functional grammar,especially the three metafunctions of language is applicable in explaining the functions of Chinese discourse marker nishuo.