An Adaptation Theory-Based Analysis Of Discourse Markers In The Sitcom Good Luck,Charlie

Discourse Markers(DMs)are common linguistic phenomena in daily communication,and although there are non-substantive influences on the propositional content of utterances,they contribute to effective discourse communication,exerting significant impacts on interactive behaviour.Related studies of DMs are mainly from the perspectives of discourse coherence,grammatical-pragmatics and relevance theory.Adaptation theory proposed by Verschueren(1999)offers a perspective on language that can better interpret the linguistic performance in a new way.The thesis focuses on the three most frequently used DMs and,oh,so in the sitcom Good Luck Charlie from the perspective of adaptation theory,exploring how communicators choose DMs in the process of utterance production and interpretation,how the use of DMs and,oh,so reflects the adaptability and what metapragmatic functions they perform in the adaptation process.It is found that DM and is used most frequently among the three DMs,which mainly appears in the medial position of an utterance for the discourse organization.The next is DM oh that mostly applies in the utterance-initial position,many of which co-occur with other interjections,mainly used to express the emotion.DM so is used mostly at the beginning of an utterance to mark the topic of the discourse.The application of and,oh,so reveals the adaptation to the mental,social and physical world,discourse coherence,dynamics of adaptability and salience of the adaptation process.DMs are inseparable from contexts in speech acts,and the application of DMs is actually a process by which communicators adapt to multiple contexts and express themselves through language based on both linguistic and extra-linguistic factors.Metapragmatic awareness governs the application of DMs by language users.The findings indicate that DMs and,oh,so perform three major metapragmatic functions in Good Luck Charlie,namely,discourse construction,information management and attitude markers.Through analysis,it can be seen that DMs are not only special linguistic phenomena in the process of adaptation but also pragmatic strategies to achieve effective discourse transmission in specific communicative contexts.The study helps to promote the application of DMs effectively by English language learners and also has some implications for English language teaching.