Types of English discourse markers
... There are few studies of reformulation DMs in English, notably Fraser (1988) and Del Saz (2003Saz ( , 2007, compared with those carried out in other languages. Fraser (1988) considers that DMs fall within three functional classes: topic markers, discourse activity markers, and message relationship markers. ...
... There are few studies of reformulation DMs in English, notably Fraser (1988) and Del Saz (2003Saz ( , 2007, compared with those carried out in other languages. Fraser (1988) considers that DMs fall within three functional classes: topic markers, discourse activity markers, and message relationship markers. The latter includes a subclass dubbed elaboration markers, including some recapitulatives, with others spread across various categories. ...
... As the formal resources that can function as recapitulatives constitute an open class in both languages, we approach the selection by listing potential English recapitulative DMs, using Fraser (1988) and Del Saz (2003). The same was done for Spanish, drawing on Martín Zorraquino and Portolés (1999) and Del Saz (2006). ...
This paper unveils the similarities and differences between original English and Spanish recapitulative discourse markers (DMs), in fiction (F) and non-fiction (NF), and between translated and non-translated Spanish. It also aims to show that combining parallel and monolingual corpora can produce more focused results when tracking trends across language boundaries. Original English and Spanish data show how recapitulative DMs are distributed in both languages. Then, DMs with a low mutual correspondence (MC) value are selected for further analysis. English triggers to be compared with original Spanish data are identified in the English originals via the Spanish translations. Also, translated and non-translated Spanish are compared to identify translation trends. Results indicate that recapitulation is signalled by DMs more frequently in Spanish than in English. DMs in Spanish translation most frequently derive from well, anyway, you know/see, in short, I mean and after all. Additionally, many DMs in the translations do not have a trigger in English. Translated and non-translated Spanish results show the following trends, according to register: a) normalization in F (en fin, en síntesis) and counter-normalization in NF (en síntesis, en definitiva), b) deflation in F (en fin, en definitiva, total, a fin de cuentas) and in NF (en fin, en definitiva), c) dilation in NF (definitivamente, en resumidas cuentas, en síntesis), and d) equalization in F (definitivamente, en resumidas cuentas, en síntesis) and in NF (a fin de cuentas). The results may help to enhance contextual learning in generative language technology, leading to improved crosslinguistic performance.
... Due to being referred to with different names and appearing in different syntactic structures, as well as being evaluated from various perspectives by different researchers (e.g. Keller, 1979;Goldberg, 1980;Edmondon, 1981;Östman, 1981;1982;Levinson, 1983;James, 1983;Zwicky, 1985;Erman, 1987;Blakemore, 1987;1992;Fraser, 1988;1990;1993;Schiffrin, 1987;Redeker, 1991;Maschler, 1994;Lenk, 1998;Schourup, 1999;Aijmer, 2013;Degand & Fagard, 2011;Crible & Degand, 2019;2021), it can be seen that there are various approaches to define DMs. Therefore, it is pretty challenging to provide an exact definition for DMs. ...
Shajara-i Tarākima, transcribed in Classical Chagatai Turkic by Abu al-Ghazi Bahadur Khan during the 17th century, is one of the most significant works in Turkology studies. Since the 19th century, it has garnered substantial interest among Turkology researchers from various nations, becoming the subject of numerous scholarly investigations. However, these studies have primarily focused on critiquing and revising the previous researchers’ works, overlooking the characteristics of spoken language present in the text. Nevertheless, considering that the fundamental basis of the work lies in oral narratives, it is evident that the text incorporates abundant features of colloquial language. Therefore, a pragmatic evaluation of the Shajara-i Tarākima is crucial to better comprehending and interpreting the work. This study analyzes the discourse markers in the Shajara-i Tarākima to achieve this purpose. The research builds upon the new model proposed by Crible and Degand (2019), which identifies discourse markers based on their combination of domain and function. The study asserts that in intralingual or interlingual translations of historical texts containing features of colloquial language, discourse markers play a vital role in ensuring the accurate transfer of meaning.
... On pourra consulter, par exemple,Anscombre et Ducrot 1978, Gülich & Kotschi 1983, Schourup 1999, Schiffrin 1987, Fraser 1988, Nølke 1988, Portolés 1993 ...
L'objectif de ce travail est d'aborder la séquence c'est dire d'un point de vue tout d'abord diachronique, afin de suivre la trace des étapes de sa grammaticalisation. On verra comment les valeurs les plus anciennes de c'est dire, en premier lieu employé en tant que matrice verbale (rection forte) de l'énoncé, puis avec une valeur de reformulation, qui se teint ensuite d'intensification, se conservent dans une certaine mesure, tout en se modifiant, dans le dernier palier de son évolution et de sa formation comme marqueur discursif. Nous nous attacherons enfin à décrire alors ses propriétés sémantico-pragmatiques et à mettre en avant les propriétés qui nous permettent de le classer parmi les marqueurs discursifs. The aim of this paper is to approach the sequence c'est dire, first, from a diachronic point of view, in order to trace the stages of its grammaticalization. We will see how the oldest values of c'est dire, that is first used as a verbal matrix of the utterance (strong valency), and takes a rephrasing value at a later stage, which is then tinged with intensification, are preserved to a certain extent, and how it is modified, in the last stage of its evolution and formation as a discourse marker. Finally, we will describe its semantic-pragmatic properties and highlight the properties that allow us to classify it as a discourse marker.
Discourse markers (DMs) are essential for improving the quality of speaking and writing as well as increasing comprehension of spoken and written text. This research aims at investigating the effects of two techniques (textual input enhancement and inputflooding) on students' comprehension and retention of macro/ micro discourse markers functions. 96 EFL University students were randomly chosen from a population of 120 students. The study subjects were split into two experimental groups and one control group and they took part in 8 sessions to teach them L2 DMs, by using two techniques, i.e., textual input enhancement and inputflooding. The students are tested before and after the sessions by the comprehension test of DMs functions. The outcomes showed that all two experimental groups did better than the control group in their post-tests. Moreover, the findings indicated a significant difference in the comprehension test between the two experimental groups in favour of the textual input enhancement group. Moreover, the performance of the Textual Enhancement group on the DMs Posttest is somewhat close to its performance in the retention test. On the other hand, the statistically significant effect of the inputflooding technique on the DMs Posttest is greater than its effect on the retention test. It is recommended to use input enhancement techniques to help the EFL students to master L2 materials effectively.
Resumo Este artigo analisa a multifuncionalidade do marcador discursivo então na Língua Brasileira de Sinais (Libras) em interações entre pessoas surdas. O arcabouço teórico do estudo fundamenta-se, principalmente, em trabalhos de Castilho, Fraser, Marcuschi, Quadros, Quadros et al., Risso, Risso et al. e Schiffrin. O corpus é composto por vídeos disponibilizados na internet pelo projeto Corpus de Libras, da Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina. Os resultados evidenciam que, além de atuar como marcador de resultado e conclusão, o então contribui para introduzir e desenvolver tópicos discursivos, prefaciar perguntas e respostas, atenuar recusas a convites e orientar a exposição de argumentos na interação.
This comparative study investigates the use of discourse markers (DMs) in essays of EFL undergraduate Saudi and American students. It intends to determine the features of DMs in terms of syntactic category, syntactic distribution and semantic function. For the non-native students (NNS), the researcher collected 65 essays from English major at faculty of humanities and social sciences, Northern Border University. In addition, he gathered 43 essays from the corpus of university of Michigan, which is part of the Louvain Corpus of Native English Essays (LOCNESS). The researcher followed a classification adopted from Halliday and Hasan (1976), Biber et al (1999) and Ron Cowan (2008). Quantitative and qualitative methods are followed. For quantitative analysis the researcher focuses on frequency of use of DMs in non-native students writing (NNSW) and native students writing (NSW). The qualitative method shows the similarities and differences between non-native students (NNS) and native students (NS) in terms of syntactic category, syntactic distribution and semantic function. In terms of syntactic category both NNS and NS employ most of DMs as linking adverbial, followed by coordinators and then subordinators. Regarding syntactic distribution, NNS use most of DMs sentence initially and paragraph initially. Also, they use them interclausally but less frequently. On the other hand, NS use DMs in different positions: inter-clausally, sentence initially, medially and finally; paragraph initially and medially. Both NNS and NS use most DMs in similar functions; however, NS provide more functions for some DMs, while NNS use DMs in limited functions.
This study examines the challenges faced by undergraduate Saudi students in the effective use of discourse markers (DMs) in their writing. The research involved two participant groups: Group A, comprising fourth-year undergraduate Saudi students majoring in English. 65 argumentative essays were collected at the Department of Languages and Translation, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences. Group B consisted of undergraduate American students from the University of Michigan. 43 argumentative essays sourced from the Louvain Corpus of Native English Essays (LOCNESS). Utilizing a taxonomy based on the frameworks of Halliday and Hasan (1976), Biber et al. (1999), and Ron Cowan (2008), the researcher adopted a qualitative approach to categorize the errors made by Saudi students into nine distinct categories. The findings revealed that the most prevalent issue was the misuse of DMs, followed closely by their overuse. These results highlight the need for targeted instructional strategies to enhance EFL learners' writing coherence and overall proficiency.
Pragmatics markers are linguistic units of multiple functions as they are used to meet different needs in both writing and speaking. Thus, this linguistic set is an inevitable part of learning for foreign language learners. Thus, from a metalinguistic perspective, they are supposed to be aware of identifying and using such markers relying on the knowledge they already provided in the class. Identifying this assumption, this paper investigates the metalinguistic awareness of Kurdish EFL students in manipulating the pragmatic markers in the English language. Recognizing the gaps related to this lexical area can guide EFL instructors to train their students to be better communicators in the English language. To meet these aims, a test has been designed in which the students were required to identify the appropriate pragmatic marker to use in a suitable context. The results indicate that EFL learners require more focused exposure to pragmatic markers to enhance their proficiency in both academic and everyday English communication. To achieve this, teachers need to highlight the materials with pragmatic content in the modules they teach to enable learners to consciously internalize them. To a
For years, discourse markers have been one of the focal points of turbulent linguistic research, which resulted in manifold theoretical approaches to investigating these linguistic units. The results of numerous studies are there-fore difficult to synthesize into a coherent and consistent whole. Consequently, the integration of individual findings into an empirically grounded theory has become a quite challenging task. The paper provides a critical review of three most influential approaches to the theoretical determination of discourse markers, with special reference to the English language.
ResearchGate has not been able to resolve any references for this publication.