Contents

Acknowledgements

Abstract

摘要

Chapter One Introduction-1

1.1 The Background and Significance of the Research-1

1.2 The organization of the Thesis-1

Chapter Two Literature Review-2

2.1 Definition of Discourse Markers-2

2.2 Studies of You Know as a Discourse Marker-2

Chapter Three Theoretical Framework and Methodology-4

3.1 Brief Introduction of Revelence Theory-4

3.2 Discourse Markers and Procedural Encoding/Conceptual Encoding-4

3.3 Discourse Markers and Contextual Effect/Processing Effort-5

3.4 Discourse Markers and an Explicature/an Implicature-5

3.5 Research Methodology-6

Chapter Four the Pragmatic Functions of You Know in Modern Family-7

4.1 Frequency of you know in Modern Family-7

4.2 Distinct Functions of you know in Modern Family-7

4.2.1 You know as a Reminding Marker-7

4.2.2 You know as an Exemplifying Maker-8

4.2.3 You know as a providing-new-information Marker-9

4.2.4 You Know as a Face-threatening Mitigating Marker-9

4.2.5 You Know as a Turn-shifting Marker-11

4.2.6 You Know as a Further Elaborating Marker-12

4.2.7 You Know as a Supposing Marker-13

Chapter Five Conclusion-14

5.1 Major Finding-14

5.2 Limitation of the Present Study-14

References-15

Abstract

In daily communication, discourse markers like well, oh, so, I mean, after all, you know are frequently used by people, which has drawn many scholar’s attention at home and abroad. As very common discourse elements, discourse markers mainly influence the construction and understanding of an utterance instead of affecting the specific content of it. Therefore, it is very important to do researches on discourse markers both theoretically and practically.

There are many studies of discourse markers overseas. In general, those researches are divided into three different perspectives: the coherence theory represented by Schiffrin, the grammatical-pragmatic theory by Fraser and the relevance theory by Blakemore . At home, although more and more linguists tend to do researches on discourse markers, studies of you know as a discourse marker are still rare.

On the basis of previous studies, this paper takes the discourse marker you know in Modern Family (Season 1) for instance and analyzes its pragmatic function with the quantitative and qualitative methods in the relevance theory. It can be seen that the discourse marker you know in Modern Family (Season 1) is mainly used as a reminding marker, an exemplifying marker, a providing-new-information marker, a face-threatening marker, a turn-shifting marker, a further elaborating marker and a supposing marker. Thus the thesis will give a broader researches on discourse marker you know than before and can do a great help for Chinese English learners to better understand and use discourse marker. 

Keywords:  discourse marker  you know  relevance theory