A Functional Approach To Discourse Markers Of Conjunctions In Japanese

In Japanese discourses, speakers attach appropriate language components to organize the discourses effectively, make their points clear, as well as control the process of the discourses. Such attached language components are called Japanese Discourse Markers. Discourse markers connect not only each sentence of the same turn, but also the sentences of adjacent turns in the discourses. They imply the expansion and the change of the subjucts, thus greatly effecting the expression and the understanding of the main information for those involved in the discourses. In Japanese teaching process, how to recognize the discourse markers and use them correctly became a difficult point for Japanese major students.The research of discourse markers sprang up in the last stage of1970s and lots of achievements were made during the past40years.Although scholars of different countries put particular emphasis on different aspects of discourse markers, they achieved a commen understanding that discourse markers do exsit and reached a relatively unified conclusion of its forms, composition and functions. In Japanese, conjunctions, adverbs, interjections, auxiliary words, phrases and sentences are often used as discourse markers, among which conjunctions take a quite share. However, in the past researches. Japanese scholars laid more emphasis on the contrast research with English discourse markers, or analysed the Japanese discourse markers from the English perspective. As for language itself, the researches limited in particular words or grammar functions, which shows a lack of systematic analysis for discourse markers.On the other hand. Chinese scholars emphasized more on discourse markers in Chinese language. Their researches about discourse markers in Japanese limited in particular adverbs or interjections, which also lacks clear analysis and systematic conclusions by now.In addition, the researches about Japanese conjunctions by Chinese scholars often focus on its position, definition, features, category and its differences with adverbs from traditional perspectives. As to the functions of conjunctions, the researches paid more attention to the grammar functions like linking up adjacent components as well as showing the relations between them. Some scholars pointed out that conjunctions play an important role in expressing the contents and connecting the adjacent parts to make the discourse more smooth, but they didn’t refer to the functions of discourse markers of conjunctions and continue the research.Through analyzing a great deal of materials from corpus, we can see that most Japanese conjunctions can be used as discourse markers, among which the most used conjunction "shikashi" has almost all the functions of discourse markers. So, we can say that the function of discourse markers is one of the important functions of conjunctions in Japanese. Discussing the functions of conjunctions in Japanese when they are used as discourse markers is of great significance no matter in the field of Japanese conjunctions research or in the field of Japanese discourse markers research.This paper tries to conclude the functions and features of Japanese discourse markers from the perspectives of discourse analysis and pragmatics theory, and take the most used conjunction "shikashi" to discuss its functions as discourse marker, through which making a conclution about the functions and features of conjunctions as discourse markers, thus deeping the understanding of conjunctions in Japanese and providing practical values for Japanese teaching in the future.