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Free-Standing Interjections as Turn-Initial Pragmatic Markers—Examples from American Sitcom The Big Bang TheoryDOI: 10.4236/oalib.1103809, PP. 1-11 Subject Areas: Linguistics Keywords: Interjections, Pragmatic Markers, Turn-Initial Position, The Big Bang Theory Abstract
Interjections in everyday conversations routinely function
as pragmatic markers, especially when they are used to initiate utterances. In
turn-initial position, the overall incidence of interjections is higher than
non-interjectional pragmatic markers, as shown in the data from an American sitcom The Big Bang Theory. In the light of
Fraser’s “grammatical-pragmatic” approach to pragmatic markers, free-standing
interjections are specifically discussed in the paper. Some instances of such
“independent” interjections accord with what Fraser has defined as “basic
markers”, while others not. Also, it is found in the data that some
interjections of this kind can serve as “parallel markers”, or rather “vocative
markers” and “speaker displeasure markers”. Moreover, considering the large
percentage that utterance-followed interjections account for in the frequency
calculation of turn-initial interjections, it is believed that this type of
“dependent” (i.e. not free-standing)
interjections is also worthy of research, though has not been covered in detail
in this paper.
Mao, A. (2017). Free-Standing Interjections as Turn-Initial Pragmatic Markers—Examples from American Sitcom The Big Bang Theory. Open Access Library Journal, 4, e3809. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.4236/oalib.1103809. References
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