A Corpus-Based Study of the Discourse Marker“Well”and Its Pragmatic Functions in L2 Learners’Dialogues

This paper focuses on the pragmatic function of the discourse marker“well”in conversational interaction of second language learners.Based on the corpus,we divide the pragmatic functions of“well”into four levels:content level,structural level,interpersonal level,and without level(interlanguage marker).This will help us understand the use of markers,such as“well”in interlanguage and provide references for improving the pragmatic competence of second language learners.

Errors in the Subtitling of Discourse Markers From English Into Arabic

This study aims at investigating errors which occur in the subtitling of discourse markers from English into Arabic in the subtitles of two movies,Wonder and Seven.Specifically,this study investigates the subtitling of five discourse markers,namely,well,yeah,you know,so,and oh by two movie websites,Netflix and Egybest.The findings reveal that two major errors occurred in the subtitles of the two movies,which are omission and wrong equivalence.The findings also show that omission occurred more frequently than wrong equivalence when subtitling these five discourse markers from English into Arabic.

A Mini Study of Discourse Markers and Age in Spontaneous English Conversations

This is a mini study of the variation of the use of discourse markers by the age dimension.The study finds salient differences in the choice and frequency of use of discourse markers between elder and younger native American English speakers.Younger and female speakers have a more extensive choice of tokens and use them much more frequently.EFL learners should adopt more discourse markers in target language interaction,as it could be a sign of fluency.

On Pragmatic Functions of Discourse Marker I mean

Discourse markers are among the basic building blocks of spoken language.This study gauges the use of the discourse marker I mean in spoken English,specifically in the talk show setting,with the aim of providing a comprehensive description of the pragmatic functions of I mean.After extracting large quantities of extended conversations from various talk shows,a corpus for fur⁃ther extensive discourse analysis will then be established.Our small-scale yet fine-grained study proposes that the core functions of I mean includes reformulation,elaboration,lexical search and interpersonal management.The wide use of discourse markers in TV talk shows serves to promote the logic and organization of interviewing language as well as the overall discourse setting whereby the talk shows proceed smoothly with the interlocutors’dynamic devotion into conversation.

A Pragmatic Account of the Discourse Marker Look in the Big Bang Theory

This study focuses on analyzing the pragmatic functions of the discourse marker look in casual conversations.Through the anal-ysis of the collected data from the American sitcom The Big Bang Theory(season eight),it is found that look can act respectively as(1) astart marker of a new topic or a topic shift marker,(2) a coherence marker,(3) a repair marker in different contexts,(4) an emotionalmarker,and(5) a mitigator of face-threatening acts.These functions show that although look as a discourse marker is just a single word,it can improve the way of communicating in the conversation and help speakers express more than what they say.

Research on Discourse Markers from the Perspective of Relevance Theory

Discourse markers are a common discourse phenomenon that is now widely used in spoken and written language.For the study of discourse markers,all major schools have their own characteristics and advantages.The unique understanding of the cogni?tive characteristics and process of human communicative activities fully demonstrates the rationale for the existence of discourse markers.The pragmatic role of discourse markers in the process of discourse generation and discourse comprehension points out a new direction for the study of discourse markers.This paper draws on the relevant viewpoints of relevance theory and attempts to explore the discourse markers to illustrate that the unique interpretation of the discourse markers of relevance theory has broad ap?plication prospects.