都_b[Dou_b(Dou₂、Dou₃)] as A Counter-Expectation Discourse-Marker: On the Pragmatic Functions of Dou_b from the Perspective of Discourse Analysis

Abstract

The conventional implicature of Dou_b indicates that a speaker make a judgment on the state of affairs described by a proposition, and he/she believes that the possibility of the state of affairs is inferior-to-expectation (or normal). It is a non-truth procedural pragmatic meaning which carries interpersonal functions and textual functions in discourse. In this paper, “counter-expectation information” is divided into two main classes, “adversity-to-expectation” and “deviation-from-expectation”, and four subclasses, “contradictory relation”, “contrary relation”, “superior-to-expectation”, and “inferior-to-expectation”. Based on this scheme, the semantic function and pragmatic functions of Dou_b as a counter-expectation discourse marker is analysed. This study has shown that the pragmatic scale of the possibility of occurrence or existence of a situation is the pragmatic scope of Dou_b; and the “inferior-to-expectation” is its pragmatic condition. The informative intention of Dou_b is to state that the possibility of occurrence or existence of a situation is lower than the expectation (or normal), and the communicative intention is to provide the proof or support for the declaration and the assertion of the speaker, namely for evidentiality or to enhance illocutionary force and mood in language. This is the meta-pragmatic awareness of Dou_b. In a textual structure, a Dou_b sentence is usually an “assistant” of a declaration or an assertion, and it is seldom used as an independent sentence/expression. The textual relevance types of Dou_b sentences mainly include: progressive, adversative, certificative, causation, and suppositional. And Dou_b is often used in spoken discourse.

This article uses Discourse Markers (or Pragmatic Marker) in the wide sense, i.e. those discourse ingredients that perform interpersonal functions and/or textual functions in a discourse, are Discourse Markers (see [1, 2]).