On The Pragmatic Function And The Pragmatic Translation Of The Discourse Marker OK

Discourse markers (DMs) are so indispensable in our dailycommunication that a good command of them can help the speakernot only achieve the coherence in the discourse but also fulfill the taskof interpersonal exchange during the intercourse. Therefore, theresearch on DMs is of great theoretical value and practical significance.Specifically, the research on the DM OK from the perspective of bothpragmatic functions and pragmatic translations deserves our particularattention.The present research is in an attempt to probe into the variouspragmatic functions and the corresponding pragmatic translations ofOK as a DM in the well-known American TV Drama the Big Bang Theory(Season1and Season2) on the basis of pragmatic approach.Based on the theory of interpersonal function and functionalequivalence, the research deals with16distinctive pragmatic functionsof the DM OK by excerpting38typical examples from the scripttogether with their subtitle translation for each of them, and establishesthe relationship between the pragmatic function and the pragmatictranslation in the certain context, aiming to provide evidence to theapplicability of the integration of pragmatics and translation studies.The present research is carried out by means of a qualitativeand quantitative analysis of the data, in which the word OK appears503times altogether and442times as a DM in the two seasons. As aresult, it is proved that the DM OK is not only pragmaticallymulti-functional since it can be classified into6sorts of discourse markers,that is, a transition marker, an introduction marker, a contemplationmarker on the textual level, and a turn-taking marker, a mitigationmarker, a repair marker on the interpersonal level, but also pragmatically translatable since its Chinese equivalence such as “嗯”,“来”,“好的”,“好吗”,“那么”,“这个”,“其实”,“够了”,“得啦”,“可是”,“恐怕”,“事实上”,“是这样”,“这么说”,“说不好”,“不是吧”,“算了吧”,“这样的话”,“那么是呀”,“那就这样吧”,“话又说回来了” varies from context to context in accordance with thetranslation principle of pragmatic equivalence.Notwithstanding this thesis is confined to only one DM OK in asingle play, the research can hopefully benefit the study of thepragmatic function and the pragmatic translation of other DMs, tosome extent.