The Pragmatic Functions Of Discourse Markers Used By Chinese Talk Show Hosts: A Cognitive Perspective

Discourse markers have been a topic of interest in the research community for decades. Despite the vast number of scholarly outputs dedicated to this area, it appears that little has been done on the use of discourse markers by the talk show hosts. This thesis attempts to address this largely neglected sector by examining the pragmatic functions of discourse markers used by the show hosts in twenty-five episodes of talk shows and seeks to provide a tailor-made answer to the following questions: Why are discourse markers employed in Chinese talk shows? How are they employed by the show host to manage the conversation? How are they used to guide the audience's interpretation?At the preliminary stage of the collected data treatment, discourse markers will be classified according to their discourse functions in interactions. After that the present study continues to discuss the pragmatic motivations of employing discourse markers in talk shows and then further analyze their pragmatic functions in two sections: pragmatic connectivity and cognitive constraints. In the section of pragmatic connectivity, the pragmatic function is approached from the two orientations: information orientation and personal orientation. As for cognitive constraints, the collected data will be analyzed in three ways proposed by Sperber & Wilson (1986, 1995). Results show that crucial for both hosts and audience of talk shows, discourse markers help the audience to better understand the host's utterances and facilitate smooth management of the host. This gives rise to the implications that both the hosts and the audience of talk shows should realize the importance and constraining functions of discourse markers.