The discourse use of French donc in imperative sentences

It seems that the French particle donc is not always used as a conjunction of argumentation, linking the antecedent to the consequent and presenting the consequent as a kind of logical result of the antecedent, as is the case in its inferential use: ‘Il pleut, donc Paul reste à la maison’ (It is raining, DM Paul stays in). When this kind of inferential analysis is applied to utterances like ‘Tais-toi donc’ (Be quiet DM), it becomes obvious that donc is used as a discourse marker without a clear link to any antecedent whatsoever. In this paper I will investigate, from a pragmatic point of view, if it can be maintained that French donc, used in imperative sentences, is indeed a discourse marker and whether this use is to be analyzed along the same lines as inferential donc is.