A Study on Discourse Coherence and Tone Transmission in the Discourse Markers "X-lai" — Taking "shuōlái, kànlái, xiǎnglái" as Examples

Authors

  • Meng Zhang

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.54691/tcgmhk47

Keywords:

Discourse markers, discourse coherence, modal transmission, presupposition mechanism, stance expression.

Abstract

This study focuses on three typical discourse markers in modern Chinese—"shuōlái", "kànlái", and "xiǎnglái"—systematically revealing their discourse cohesion mechanisms and mood transmission functions through a combination of corpus analysis and pragmatics theory. Findings indicate that these markers achieve discourse coherence through frame presupposition, topic shift, and stance expression, while simultaneously fulfilling modal functions such as objective statement, subjective conjecture, and reflective evaluation. This research not only enriches the multidimensional analytical framework for Chinese discourse markers but also provides linguistic feature references for discourse analysis in natural language processing.

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References

[1] Chen, L. H. (2018). Semantic evolution and pragmatic functions of "xiǎnglái" in modern Chinese. Chinese Language Learning, (4), 45–53.

[2] Li, J. (2020). A study on the pragmatic functions of the discourse markers "shuōlái" and "shuōqù". Chinese Language Construction, (12), 98–100.

[3] Wang, J. (2019). A study on the discourse distribution and pragmatic functions of “ni kan ni”. Language Teaching and Linguistic Studies, (3), 72–79.

[4] Zhang, T. (2021). A study on the pragmatic functions of Chinese discourse markers based on the BCC corpus [Master’s thesis]. East China Normal University.

[5] Zhou, M. (2017). A study on the semantic evolution and discourse function of "so to speak". Chinese Language Learning, (2), 56–64.

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Published

19-10-2026

Issue

Section

Articles

How to Cite

Zhang, M. (2026). A Study on Discourse Coherence and Tone Transmission in the Discourse Markers "X-lai" — Taking "shuōlái, kànlái, xiǎnglái" as Examples. Frontiers in Humanities and Social Sciences, 6(10), 182-186. https://doi.org/10.54691/tcgmhk47