A Pragmatic Analysis On "OH" In Spoken Discourse From The Perspective Of Relevance Theory

This research attempts to analyze the pragmatic function of "OH" as a discourse marker from the perspective of relevance theory.In this thesis, a review of the previous researches on discourse markers is made first, based on which the author proposes that relevance theory is a more interpretative theoretical framework in the study of discourse markers. The research chooses the natural-language data of an American soap opera, Friends (Season 1), as the studying material, and analyzes the functions of "OH" in the data in a systematic way. The objective of this study is to provide a general overview of the pragmatic functions of oh in spoken discourse mentioned above, and to demonstrate the intricate operations of DM oh in literal interaction at a level of detail that the dictionary definitions have failed to rapture. The method the author has chosen for the study is to list out every oh, and according to their functions in the given context, to describe them one by one, to group them into different categories and then to draw adequately verifiable conclusions. There are altogether 818 uses of "OH" in Season 1. These pragmatic appearances of "OH" altogether cover eleven categories of pragmatic functions: as an emotion marker (352), a conversation trigger marker (130), a coherence marker (78), a turn-taking marker (68), a receipt marker (60), an answer marker (43), a contemplation marker (26), a closing marker (24), a persuasion marker (14), a correcting marker (12) and a mitigation marker (11).The author supposes that the meaning of such a research can improve the addresser and addressee's skillful use of DM oh and improve the ability of the readership, and benefit, to a great extent, such endeavors as pragmatics, translation studies and English studies.