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ua (2005) explores the use of Clausal DMs by the non-English majors in theirargumentative writings by applying the corpus-based method. However, the conclusionsof the above researches are not consistent in the use of DMs in the writing, and none ofthem pay attention to the use of DMs in the different genres. Therefore, in this thesis,the author will conduct the experiment to explore the DMs used in the college students’writing from a new perspective.

1.2 Purpose and Significance of the Study
Some early studies on DMs focus on the use of certain spoken DMs such as well, Imean, you know, but, so, etc. These studies of DMs range mainly from pragmatics tosociolinguistics. Some recent DMs studies have related DMs used in writing tolanguage acquisition and language pedagogy. In China, some researchers have beeninterested in the DMs used in the written discourse. To explore Chinese collegestudents’ use of DMs from a coherence perspective and provide valuable informationand evidence on the use of DMs by non-English majors in their English writings, theauthor conducts the research based on the following questions:

Chapter Two Literature Review

Since the 1970s, a myriad of papers and books have been written on individualmarkers and on the question of what discourse markers are. And also, there are a lot ofrelevant theoretical researches about the discourse markers used in the written discourse.So, in this chapter, the author will give a brief review of theories about DMs, especiallythe DMs in the written discourse.

2.1 Definitions and Classifications of Discourse Markers

2.1.1 Definitions of Discourse Markers
What are discourse markers? Although most researchers agree that DMs areexpressions which relate discourse segments, there is no census on how to define DMs.DM is one of the labels (e.g., by Schiffrin, 1987; Jucker & Ziv, 1998; Schourup, 1999)used for the seemingly empty linguistics items with high frequency in oral discourse,such as well, I mean, like, oh, and you know. Other labels in the literature include“discourse particle” (e.g., Schourup, 1985; Aijmer, 2002), “discourse connective” (e.g.,Blakemore, 1987), “pragmatic particle” (e.g., Ostman, 1995), “pragmatic expression”(e.g., Erman, 1986), “pragmatic marker” (e.g., Brinton, 1996; Fraser, 1996; Anderson,2001), and “discourse markers” (Fraser, 1996; Lenk, 1998; Schiffrin, 1987). Theseterms reflect different attitudes of the authors to the question of the uniformity of theclass of discourse markers (Jucker & Ziv, 1998). The term, DMs, is more generallyaccepted and employed by most researchers now, so it is adopted in this thesis.It seems that researchers hold different opinions about the definition of DMs.Because they work in the different disciplines and tend to give the definition from theirown perspectives and approaches. Therefore, it is necessary to draw a general picture ofthe definition of DMs.Levinson (1983: 87-88) suggests that some words and phrases such as “but，therefore, in conclusion, to the contrary, still, however, anyway. Well, beside, actually,all in all, so, after all, and so on.” are “generally conceded that truth words have at leastcomponent of meaning that resists truth-conditional treatment…what they seem to do isindicate, often in very complex ways, just how the utterance that contains them is aresponse to, or a continuation of, some p本论文由英语论文网提供整理，提供论文代写，英语论文代写，代写论文，代写英语论文，代写留学生论文，代写英文论文，留学生论文代写相关核心关键词搜索。