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Abstract Abstract: Discourse Markers (DMs) are vague in meaning but rich in functions. Previous studies have identified a close connection between DMs’ pragmatic functions and their lexical meanings, but fail to account for the mechanism behind. In order to explain the nature of DMs’ semantic traces and the mechanism by which they give rise to pragmatic functions, this paper explores the semantic evolution process and the pragmatic functions of the discourse marker "you know" by drawing insights from frame semantics, pragmatics and diachronic linguistics. Analyses show that "you know" still keeps the major frame elements of the frame evoked by know. The value assignment processes of these elements rely on pragmatic inferences, which give rise to the pragmatic functions of "you know". Meanwhile, these inference processes are sensitive to the variations of the contexts, which results in the diversity of the pragmatic functions. This study helps to elucidate the mechanism by which DMs’ semantic traces give rise to their pragmatic functions, while it also further develops Frame Semantics and extends the scope of its application.
Key words: discourse marker; frame semantics; semantic trace; pragmatic function
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