"Polite" Discourse Markers In Rapport-Managing

The functional mechanism of politeness often plays a very important role in verbal communication.The success or failure of people’s communication relies largely on the proper use of strategies.The use of discourse markers(DMs)is a politeness strategy.In order to achieve successful communication and build a harmonious interpersonal relationship,people often use discourse markers in their daily life.As an important part of interpersonal communication,discourse marker has always been concerned by linguists.Scholars have made a lot of academic achievements.However,the pragmatic studies of discourse markers mainly adopt Politeness Principle,Face Theory,Relevance Theory,Adaptation Theory,etc.Although these studies provide reference to understand discourse markers,there are still some gaps in the study of this linguistic phenomenon.The role of discourse markers played in rapport management needs further study.In view of this,this thesis attempts to use Spencer-Oatey’s Rapport Management Theory(2000,2008)as a theoretical framework to conduct a qualitative study of discourse markers in English interview program Ellen Show and Chinese one Intimate Talk with Li Jing.Rapport Management Theory is the latest development of politeness theory.It discusses how to use language to establish,maintain or threaten interpersonal relations,including face management and sociality rights management.Therefore,under the guidance of Rapport Management Theory,the author tries to answer three research questions:(1)What types of discourse makers are used as linguistic strategies to express politeness in the interview programs?(2)How do discourse markers make contribution to the realization of rapport in the interview programs?(3)What are the factors that influence the use of discourse markers in interview programs to achieve polite rapport management?Based on the analysis of Chinese and English interview data,it is found that both sides of communication use a lot of discourse markers in interview programs.This thesis first reclassifies discourse markers into eleven types:intensifiers,mitigators,assessment-speculation discourse markers,other-words discourse markers,quotation discourse markers,subjectivity discourse markers,qualification discourse markers,estimation discourse markers,honesty discourse markers,explanation discourse markers and intersubjectivity discourse markers.Second,it is found that discourse markers in interview programs help maintain polite interpersonal relationships through face management and sociality rights management.For quality face management,the speaker often uses intensifiers to enhance the quality face of the hearer,and uses mitigators,assessment-speculation DMs to reduce the threat to the quality face of the hearer,maintaining the harmonious interpersonal relationship and achieving politeness;while for social identity face management,the speaker employs intensifiers to enhance the identity face of the hearer and uses quotation DMs to maintain the identity face so that the hearer can recognize the role in social life.Furthermore,for equity rights management,subjectivity DMs,estimation DMs and qualification DMs are mostly used to maintain the equity rights of the hearer and avoid imposing on him;for the management of association rights,honesty DMs,explanation DMs and intersubjectivity DMs are used to strengthen the relation between the two sides of communication,so as to shorten the social distance in communication and coordinate interpersonal harmony.In a word,discourse marker is not only a language phenomenon,but also an important communication strategy,which can be an effective means for interlocutors to achieve communication goals and maintain harmonious interpersonal relations.Third,through the analysis,it is found that based on the good rapport orientations,contextual variables and sociopragmatic conventions,the speaker uses different types of discourse markers to protect the face and enhance sociality rights of the hearer,and then to build a good human relationship.Through the study of discourse markers in interview programs from a new perspective,this thesis provides a new angle for the study of discourse markers from the perspective of interpersonal pragmatics,fully proves the explanatory power of Rapport Management Theory for discourse markers,and makes up for the deficiency of the classical face theory in politeness studies.In addition,the study can help people better understand discourse markers.Meanwhile,the findings are helpful to deepen people’s understanding of discourse marker as a communicative strategy in daily life.