A Study On The Pragmatic Functions Of The Discourse Marker “I Mean” In Ted Talks From The Perspective Of Relevance Theory

Discourse markers are an important part of natural language,which is of great significance in deepening discourse understanding and promoting discourse coherence.In recent years,many domestic scholars have studied the pragmatic functions of conversational markers from the perspectives of relevance,adaptation or coherence.The subjects of the study gradually shifted from English to Chinese or other languages.This thesis takes the discourse marker “I mean” in TED talks as the research object,establishes a small text corpus,and examines its frequency as a discourse marker.It also discusses its pragmatic functions in different contexts in the framework of relevance theory.It is found that the frequency of “I mean” as a discourse marker is not high.Through the analysis of TED talks,“I mean” mainly has pragmatic functions such as reminding emphasis,supplementary explanation,organizing discourse,enhancing clarity,expressing emotion and attitude,correcting.In the TED talks,the position of “I mean” only appears at the beginning and in the middle of an utterance,which shows that “I mean” can lead the discourse,act as a transition.It helps to relieve the pressure of speaking and achieve the goal of smooth expression.The thesis also has some limitations,which can be addressed in future studies.