英语口语中话语标记语的语用功能

英语口语中话语标记语的语用功能

Abstract:Discourse markers (hereafter DMs) are pervasively used in spoken language, which have very important pragmatic functions-repair function and politeness function. It plays a very important role in our daily communication, and enables speakers to make logical and coherent utterances.

Key words:discourse markers; communication; pragmatic functions

I. Introduction

When paying attention to spoken English, one will notice a group of lexical expressions in utterances. They do not convey any propositional meaning, but they are part of a discourse segment. These expressions are called discourse markers (DMs). DMs have very important pragmatic functions in communication. Many scholars (Schiffrin, 1996; Fraser, 1987; Blakemore, 2001) have showed keen interest in DMs and some have carried out a series of researches in an attempt to name and define these lexical expressions. This paper analyzes repair function and politeness function of DMs.

II. Properties of DMs

The first and most established study of DMs is reported in Schiffrin(31). She defines DMs as “linguistic elements that signal relations and participation framework levels of the discourse”. To get a general knowledge about DMs, we can look at the following basic features that characterize DMs: they are free morphemes; they are more often used in spoken language; they are used to express speakers’intentions in communication, and to make utterances more fluent; they do not contribute to the meaning of utterances. If a discourse marker is removed from an utterance, the utterance will not become ungrammatical or change its meaning.

III. Pragmatic Functions of DMs

There is no agreement on the pragmatic functions of DMs. In China, Ran Rongping (58) mainly analyzes the functions of “well”, that is, face-threatening mitigator, markers of hesitation, markers of lacking information, and markers of repair. Since the pragmatic functions of DMs in the present research are to add discourse coherence, a good command of employing DMs can make our conversation more lively, personal and genuine. And this study will especially focus on the repair function and the politeness function.

A. Repair Function

In verbal communication, we often find that the speaker may have a slip of tongue or a slip of ear; he may choose incorrect words or misunderstand what the other has said. In such cases, the speaker or the hearer may “repair on line”.Bois put out four kinds of repair markers: reference editing (that is), difference editing (rather), error editing (I mean), and sta tement editing (well). The insertion of “well” in the discourse may fulfill the function of editing. For example: “The author stands for, well, is in favor of gun control.” The function of well is used to correct the mistake made by the speaker. The speaker may wake up to something incorrect in his utterance, for example, the slip of the tongue, a wrong use of a word or a wrong