scholarly journals É vida, olha…: Imperatives as discourse markers and grammaticalization paths in Romance

2010 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 245-267 ◽  
Author(s):  
Benjamin Fagard
Keyword(s):  
Discourse Markers ◽  
Romance Languages ◽  
Reported Speech ◽  
Apparent Contradiction ◽  
Turn Taking ◽  
Established Fact

In this paper, we investigate the evolution from imperatives to discourse markers in Romance, with a corpus-based approach. We focus on the case of items coming from verbs meaning ‘to look’, in a semasiological perspective: Spanish and Catalan mira, Portuguese olha, Italian guarda, French regarde, Romanian uite. We show that they all share many uses, among which turn-taking, introduction of reported speech, hesitation phenomenon, topic-shifting and modalization, except for French regarde. We then establish (against Waltereit, 2002) that the development of these uses is the result of a process of grammaticalization, from lexical, clause-internal uses to uses as discourse markers, in a cline which tends to confirm the predictions made by Brinton and Traugott (2005). The lesser grammaticalization of French regarde could seem unimportant, but is in apparent contradiction with the now well-established fact that French is, of all Romance languages, the most grammaticalized. We try, in conclusion, to address this paradox: is French not so grammaticalized after all, or is this just an exception to the rule?

Conversation and Grammar

2006 ◽  
Vol 13 ◽  
pp. 235-261
Author(s):  
Haeyeon Kim
Keyword(s):  
Social Action ◽  
Reported Speech ◽  
Research Topics ◽  
Language Functions ◽  
Basic Assumptions ◽  
Turn Taking ◽  
Interactional Functions ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Korean Linguistics ◽  
Order Variability

Abstract. The last decade has seen considerable research on conversation and grammar, influenced by the conversation-analytic research of Sacks et al. (1974). Inspired by that line of research, some Korean linguists have examined conversation by adopting the assumptions and methodology of conversation analysis (CA) into discourse analysis. This study introduces basic assumptions and research topics relating to CA, and explores the possibility of adopting CA methodology into dis-course analysis in Korean linguistics. This paper first provides a brief overview of basic assumptions, methodology, and major research topics of CA and the development of conversation-analytic dis-course studies. Then it provides a brief overview of some major findings and research topics in the interaction-based studies which have dealt with conversational data in Korean linguistics in terms of: (i) turn-taking, turn-constructional units, and turn increments, (ii) interactional functions of certain clausal connectives and sentence-ending suffixes, and (iii) other interaction-based studies on such topics as repair, demonstratives, reported speech, and so on. This research discusses how interaction-based research can provide a new way of viewing language functions; it explores: (i) turn-taking and co-construction; (ii) word-order variability, turn increments, repair, and retroactive elaboration; (iii) a conversation-analytic approach to the clausal connective -nuntey, and (iv) an interactional ap-proach to the verbal affixes -ese and -nikka in conversation, among others. Overall, this paper shows what has been, and needs to be, studied regarding the relationship between conversation, social action, and grammar in conversation in Korean linguistics.

Interactions in L2: Some Features of Japanese Learner Talk

2019 ◽  
Vol 2018 (1) ◽  
pp. 183
Author(s):  
John Campbell-Larsen
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Discourse Markers ◽  
Video Data ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Interactional Competence ◽  
Japanese Learners Of English ◽  
Turn Taking ◽  
Japanese Learners ◽  
Spoken Interaction

The central use of language in all human societies is spoken interaction, and interactional competence is a tacit goal of language learning. Interaction is not just the utterance of correctly constructed sentences. Rather, learners must be aware of ways in which the target language is used pragmatically by native and proficient speakers to allocate turns, achieve intersubjectivity, co-construct understanding, sustain progressivity, and signal their attitudes and understanding of both their own talk and that of their interlocutor. This paper outlines some common interactional practices of Japanese learners of English, derived from extensive video data of student peer talk, collected over several years in Japanese universities. I highlight such areas as turn-taking, use of discourse markers, backchanneling, and L1 usage. I suggest that awareness of these issues can help both students and their teachers orient to an interactional view of language with concomitant consequences for teaching and learning. 全ての人間社会において言語の主な使用方法は会話であり、その会話に必要な相互行為能力の習得は言語学習においても必要不可欠なものである。相互行為は正確な構文の産出のみで完遂できるものではなく、学習者は発話ターン構造や間主観性・相互認識の構築、会話の継続・維持、参与者の心的状態の表出など、L2母語話者や熟練話者による語用方略を正確に認識し適切に遂行しなければならない。本稿では、多様な会話データから、日本人英語学習者の典型的なL2相互行為の特性を概説する。日本の大学で数年をかけ長期的に収集された日本人英語学習者のピア会話のビデオデータを用いて、学習者による会話中のターン構築、談話標識の運用、相槌やL1使用の方略に焦点を当てた分析を行う。本研究は、英語教師だけではなく、ひいてはその学習者にも言語を相互行為として捉える観点を与え、英語学習活動に相互行為能力の習得を導入する契機になることを目指す。

On the Importance of the Multimodal Approach to Discourse Markers

2016 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 36-54 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kazuki Hata
Keyword(s):  
Discourse Markers ◽  
Spoken Language ◽  
Discourse Structure ◽  
Shared Knowledge ◽  
Multimodal Approach ◽  
Human Communication ◽  
Turn Taking ◽  
Different Dimensions

Discourse markers (DMs) are pragmatic devices, which operate beyond the traditional word or phrase classification and have little to no effect on the propositional meaning. They have significant functions with regard to organising ongoing discourse by linking discourse segments, illustrating the current discourse structure to the interlocutors. Recent studies have discovered that DMs are truly multifunctional and thus play communicative roles at different dimensions simultaneously, ranging from managing discourse by denoting the speaker’s attitude, monitoring turn-taking activities to prompting the shared-knowledge between interlocutors. Nevertheless, few attentions have been paid on the fact that human communication is multimodal, wherein discourse includes both spoken language and gestures. Most DM studies predominantly investigate the use of DMs in text-based frameworks and therefore do not do justice to the non-linguistic DM functions, which are not easily amenable to text descriptions. The goal of this paper is to draw attention to this gap from the pragmatic perspective on DMs, demonstrating the importance of multimodal approaches to the study area.

scholarly journals The Realization of Casual Conversation Features of EFL Learners

2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-11
Author(s):  
Andi Tenry Lawangen Aspat Colle
Keyword(s):  
Discourse Markers ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
Filled Pauses ◽  
Exchange Information ◽  
Turn Taking ◽  
False Start ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Essential Contribution ◽  
Interpersonal Negotiation ◽  
Descriptive Qualitative

This study was descriptive qualitative, which aimed at explaining the casual conversation features between two learners and its functions in terms of negotiation meaning, spontaneity, interpersonality, and interactivity. To obtained data, firstly, recording the conversation was done, continued by transcribing, coding, and the last was analyzing the findings. The findings showed this conversation was dominated by exchange information and idea between the speakers rather than exchanging feelings because logico-semantic appeared more dominant than interpersonal negotiation. In terms of spontaneity feature, it could be shown by the learners’ laughter during the conversation. Meanwhile, interpersonality features occurred were filled pauses, repetition, false start, and chunk. Then, interactivity features were turn-taking, back-channeling, and discourse markers. Also, those number of features and its functions implied in this casual conversation have an essential contribution. For instance, filled pauses can be used to take time to think of what is going to say. This study suggests that further research investigates how cultural and gender affect the speakers’ spoken features in monologue and dialogue speech, and also both formal and non-formal situations

Code-switching Llibre dels Fets: Language ideology in the 13th century Crown of Aragon

2020 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Afra Pujol i Campeny
Keyword(s):  
Language Ideology ◽  
Group Membership ◽  
Code Switching ◽  
Romance Languages ◽  
Reported Speech ◽  
13Th Century ◽  
Linguistic Ideologies ◽  
James I ◽  
Crown Of Aragon ◽  
Express Group

AbstractIn this article, I explore code-switching in Llibre dels Fets (a 13th century chronicle that narrates the life and deeds of king James I of Aragon) from a glottopolitical perspective in order to uncover the linguistic ideologies reflected in the text through this phenomenon. Code-switching in contemporary Romance languages, as well as in Latin and Arabic, is found throughout the text, mostly within reported speech. Through the analysis of these fragments and the analysis of the labels used to refer to each of these varieties, it is shown that: (i) different varieties are used to express either allegiance (Catalan and Occitan) or opposition (Western Ibero-Romance) to the figure of the King, and that that Aragonese was erased as a language of the Crown of Aragon; (ii) code-switching in Latin is used to confer authority to the discourse; (iii) code-switching in the Romance languages is a mechanism to express group membership; and finally (iv) that mutual intelligibility between Catalan and the attested contemporary Romance varieties is assumed at the time of composition of the text.

The interpreter as a sequential coordinator in courtroom interaction

Interpreting ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 56-86
Author(s):  
Christian Licoppe ◽  
Clair-Antoine Veyrier
Keyword(s):  
Asylum Seeker ◽  
Discourse Markers ◽  
Ethnographic Study ◽  
Court Interpreting ◽  
Turn Taking ◽  
Courtroom Interaction

Abstract We present here an ethnographic study of asylum court interpreting with remote participants and video links. First, we describe the multimodal resources interpreters have at their disposal to manage turn-taking and begin interpreting while an asylum seeker’s answer to a question has not come yet to a recognizable completion point. We distinguish between ‘implicit’ configurations, in which a collaborative turn transition is apparently achieved through reorientations of body and gaze, the use of discourse markers, or other conversational strategies, like overlaps and cases where a turn transition is achieved through the use of ‘explicit’ resources such as instructions to stop and requests to give brief answers. We show that the collaborative production of such long answers is affected by the remote placement of the interpreter, and that recurrent trouble in the management of turn transitions between the asylum seeker and the interpreter during extended narratives may be detrimental to the asylum seeker’s case.

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