傳統的研究將臺灣話的「人」視為人稱代名詞，並著重於它的指示代名詞使用。但出現於言談中的「人」卻多不做此用。因此，本研究旨在探討這種不做指示代名詞用的「人」，及其在言談上的功能。 　　根據Schiffrin提出的言談分析模式，「人」在五個層面--語意結構、行為結構、交談順序結構、訊息狀態、及交談者關係--都有其功能。大體而言，「人」的主要功能是在語意結構上，它在言談間作為一個「逆向承接標記」，它的出現顯示著上下文有著相反或對比的關係。藉由這種承接的作用，能使說話者更明確地表達語意，並使聽話者更精確地掌握語意，因而使得言談更為順暢。 / The present study investigates the behavior of the non-referential lang and the functions it performs in Taiwanese spoken discourse. 　　Based on　Schiffrin's (1987) model of discourse coherence, lang. plays roles on the five planes of discourse. The predominant function of lang is found in the ideational structure, where it explicitly marks contrastive relations between propositions.　In the action structure, it prefaces speech acts like defense, dispute, and refutal when a speaker disagrees the other participant's accusation, assertion, and request.　In the exchange structure, it is employed to claim/fight for or retain the turn.　In the information state, it signals contrasts between the upcoming proposition and speaker knowledge or speaker/hearer meta-knowledge.　In the participation framework, it functions to change the relative relations between interlocutors in a conversation and to indicate a discrepancy between interlocutors in the subjective attitude toward an event. As a whole, lancr serves as a contrastive marker, thus informing a discontinuity in a discourse. 　　The syntactic distribution of lang and its co-occurrence restrictions with Taiwanese sentence-final particles further support our analysis that lang functionsas a marker of contrast.