Pragmatic Studies Of English Inserted Discourse Markers

The discourse marker often appears in our daily speech act. In broad sense, it includes connectives, inserted structures, etc. Inserted structures are usually taken as a kind of interruption of the utterance from the traditional semantic and coherent points of view. However, the inserted structure of the discourse marker called inserted discourse marker is helpful to both the whole coherence and the utterance interpretation. It is often explanatory and supplemental in the utterance interpretation. Two cases, you know and I mean are taken as examples of inserted discourse markers to illustrate the pragmatic functions of the inserted discourse marker within the frame work of Relevance Theory. Relevance-based context is dynamic context. In order to make the speaker and the hearer be mutual manifest within the context, the hearer's cognitive context needs to be activated and adjusted. Only by this way, can it reduce the hearer's processing efforts. Owing to the inserted character, the inserted discourse marker has the function of adjusting the cognitive context and constraining the utterance interpretation. Studies of inserted discourse markers in depth can make more contribution to the language user's psychological study, which will be useful to explore the nature of the language. Making good use of inserted discourse markers can improve the communicative competence of the language users; reduce the possibility of misunderstanding and contribute to language learning and teaching as well.