On the Pragmatic Functions of Discourse Markers in Relevance Theory

This paper studies the functions of discourse markers from the perspective of cognitive pragmatics based on the framework of Relevance Theory.It points out that discourse markers are found not to contribute to the propositional contents of the discourses to which they are attached,instead they perform a function of generating and understanding discourses by marking anaphoric and cataphoric relationships among discourse elements to make discourses comprehensible.To conclude,the function of discourse markers consists in three aspects: discourse constraint,discourse organization and metalanguage.