A Study Of Chinese Pragmatic Markers

The research on pragmatic markers, though rich and fruitful, is far from being complete. In addition, the study of Chinese pragmatic markers has not been paid much attention to yet. Liao Qiuzhong (1986) classifies Chinese discourse connectives and analyzes their functions, locations, characteristics and semantic meaning based on the theories put forward by Quirk (1972), Halliday & Hasan (1976) and Longacre (1972a), so his approach is basically syntactic and semantic rather than pragmatic. Within the framework of Relevance Theory and Linguistic Adaptation Theory, Ran Yongping (2000) concentrates his attention on the relevant constraints that Chinese pragmatic markers exert upon utterance interpretation, and then explores their existential cognitive-pragmatic motivation. However, he does not probe into the causes of the generation of Chinese pragmatic markers. Besides, his classification of Chinese pragmatic markers is not exhaustive.Our study therefore attempts to apply Relevance Theory and Grammaticalization Theory to a descriptive and explanatory account of Chinese pragmatic markers. Their classifications, their functions in a cognitive way in utterance interpretation, and their pragmatic motivation will be accounted for. Moreover, the causes of the generation of Chinese pragmatic markers will be investigated.After the analysis of the data taken from various Chinese written materials, Chinese pragmatic markers are classified into fourteen types, as shown in the following: conclusive markers, inferential markers, cause-effect markers, contrastive markers, additive markers, going-forward markers, attitudinal markers, formulational markers, reformulation markers, concessive markers, unconditional markers, evidential markers, commentary markers, and predicative markers.