Self-Monitoring Discourse Markers in Classroom Monologue Narratives

In a monologue narrative, the speech floor is by and large occupied by an individual speaker; rarely are verbal interactions between interlocutors observed. Inaccurate utterances, if there are any, are seldom corrected by addressees so that the speaker's positive face can be maintained in public. Without listeners' active utterance-checking activities to ensure the appropriateness of their speech, addressers tend to self-monitor their words attentively while doing their presentations. As speakers are monitoring their speeches, a number of pragmatics particles are uttered sub-consciously. In this study, function, distribution, and frequency of those self-monitoring devices in monologue narratives are focused on. The data of the present investigation were collected from students' presentations and professors' lectures in a university located in northern Taiwan. In this corpus, the Chinese markers heh, hao, N-1, and dui as well as the English markers alright, right, okay, yeah, and yep are observed. These particles can be functionally classified into four groups-self-confirmation markers, self-assurance markers, current-utterance completeness markers, and utterance-internal completeness markers. These markers' pragmatic functions are not arbitrarily derived; instead, they are highly grounded on their lexical interpretations. Restrictions on forming compound monitoring mechanisms and how those pragmatic functions are derived from their lexical interpretations are also discussed.