On the Pragmatic and Social Functions of Discourse Markers Now and Then

This paper aims to explore the discoursal,pragmatic and social functions of discourse markers now and then by analyzing their uses in Pride and Prejudice based on the knowledge of discourse analysis.It is found that discourse markers serve as:1)contextual coordinators to present the semantic relationship of preceding utterances and following talks;2)indicators of topic-shift,turn-taking;3)mitigators of offence which can reduce the face-threatening activities;4)linguistic parameters to identify the social power of the given character.