A Study On Pragmatic Functions Of The Discourse Marker You See In Academic Spoken English From The Perspective Of Relevance Theory

Discourse markers such as oh,well,but,anyway,I mean,and you know,frequently occur in daily communication.They do not change the truth condition of sentences,but act as an important linguistic mechanism to guide and restrict discourse comprehension.Through the use of discourse markers,the speaker can constrain the hearer’s search for relevance of the discourse,help him get the adequate cognitive effect with the least cognitive effort so as to promote the successful communication.You see is a commonly used discourse marker in English with many different pragmatic functions in conversation.However,there are few systematic studies on the discourse marker you see,especially studies based on a large corpus of authentic discourse.Therefore,from the cognitive perspective and based on relevance theory,this study aims to investigate the frequency of you see as a discourse marker and its pragmatic functions in the Michigan Corpus of Academic Spoken English(MICASE).The results show that as an ostensive stimulus,the discourse marker you see can produce contextual effects and guarantees the relevance of utterances by performing different pragmatic functions.Specifically,you see has five pragmatic functions when it is used as a marker to strengthen the existing assumptions,in which you see can be used as a supplementing marker,a further elaborating marker,an emphasizing marker,an exemplifying marker,and a reminding marker.When used to contradict the existing assumptions,the discourse marker you see has three pragmatic functions:as a delaying marker,as a contrastive mark and as a repairing mark.As an inferential marker,it can combine the existing assumptions to yield new contextual implications.As an ostensive stimulus,you see guarantees the relevance of utterances by guiding the hearer to communicate and negotiate with the speaker.When you see functions as a seeking approval marker,a turn taking marker,and a closing marker,it stimulates the hearer to make a certain response and interact with the speaker so as to promote information exchange.Through interaction between communicators,you see can help reduce the processing effort of the hearer and achieve the optimal relevance of utterances.This study has made some contributions from the following three aspects.Firstly,to some degree,this study enriches the research on discourse markers,especially the study on the discourse marker you see in academic spoken English discourse.Secondly,this study expands the study scope of the relevance theory.From a cognitive perspective,it analyses and explains the pragmatic functions of the discourse marker you see within the framework of relevance theory.Thirdly,based on Michigan Corpus of Academic Spoken English,this study applies both qualitative and quantitative research methods to explore the pragmatic functions of you see,which promotes people’s understanding of you see in academic spoken discourse.This study helps English learners to understand the function of the discourse marker you see,and improve their ability to use it to facilitate the effective communication in English.