Learning the probability of immediate interactional cues: Children’s acquisition of the discourse marker un in Japanese

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tomoko Tatsumi ◽  
Giovanni Sala

How do children learn to use discourse markers in conversational interactions? This study focused on a Japanese discourse marker un, typically used as a positive response for yes-no questions and as a backchannel, and tested our prediction that children first learn to use un to respond to questions and then use it as backchannels after interlocutors signal the continuation of their discourse. To this end, we built generalised linear models on the longitudinal conversation data from seven children aged between 1 and 5 years and their caregivers. Our model revealed that children not only increase the general probability of un to reach adults’ rates, but also learn to use un in response to yes-no questions as we predicted. Children also tend to produce un as a backchannel after the interlocutor’s final modal particle ne, which is typically used to set a common ground. Our results show that children gradually learn different interactional contexts for the use of un from local probabilistic coherence between turns in conversations.

2020 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 53-82 ◽  
Author(s):  
Seongha Rhee

Abstract Hortative constructions are good sources of discourse markers (dms) because they have an engaging effect on the addressee. Such an engaging illocutionary effect enables hortative-based dms to acquire diverse functions, such as attracting and maintaining the addressee’s attention and foiling the interlocutor’s initiating an utterance. The dm eti poca (‘well, let’s see’; literally ‘where, let’s see’) is not a genuine hortative requesting the addressee to direct visual attention to something or somewhere together with the speaker, but is a strategic signal for management of interaction, information and the speaker’s self. The detailed functions that emerged through time include marking the speaker’s intent to hold the floor by way of filling unwanted pauses, to solicit common ground, to signal responsiveness, to encourage self to better concentrate on a task, and to affirm the self’s stance on the issues at hand.


Linguistics ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 58 (6) ◽  
pp. 1543-1579
Author(s):  
Paula Rodríguez-Abruñeiras

AbstractThis article discusses the diachronic development of the Spanish multifunctional formula en plan (with its variant en plan de, literally ‘in plan (of)’ but usually equivalent to English like). The article has two main aims: firstly, to describe the changes that the formula has undergone since its earliest occurrences as a marker in the nineteenth century up to the early 21st century. The diachronic study evinces a process of grammaticalization in three steps: from noun to clause adverbial and then to discourse marker. Secondly, to conduct a contrastive analysis between en plan (de) and the English markers like and kind of/kinda so as to shed new light on the potential existence of a universal pathway of grammaticalization in the emergence of discourse markers.


Micromachines ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (6) ◽  
pp. 689
Author(s):  
Luis Humberto Diaz-Saldierna ◽  
Jesus Leyva-Ramos

In this paper, a high step-up boost converter with a non-isolated configuration is proposed. This configuration has a quadratic voltage gain, suitable for processing energy from alternative sources. It consists of two boost converters, including a transfer capacitor connected in a non-series power transfer structure between input and output. High power efficiencies are achieved with this arrangement. Additionally, the converter has a common ground and non-pulsating input current. Design conditions and power efficiency analysis are developed. Bilinear and linear models are derived for control purposes. Experimental verification with a laboratory prototype of 500 W is provided. The proposed configuration and similar quadratic configurations are compared experimentally using the same number of components to demonstrate the power efficiency improvement. The resulting power efficiency of the prototype was above 95% at nominal load.


Biometrika ◽  
1994 ◽  
Vol 81 (4) ◽  
pp. 709-720 ◽  
Author(s):  
GAUSS M. CORDEIRO ◽  
DENISE A. BOTTER ◽  
SILVIA L. DE PAULA FERRARI

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (6) ◽  
pp. 116
Author(s):  
Basim Alamri

Discourse markers (DMs) are used in everyday conversations to serve different meanings and functions. The present exploratory study investigated grammatical positions of focuser like among 60 undergraduate native-English-speaking students at a midwestern university in the United States. Students were asked to read and place focuser like in this sentence: “We have to read five chapters for the final exam”. Then students were required to indicate a degree of acceptability of the placement of like at every possible position in sentences that contained the discourse marker like in 10 different grammatical positions. The results showed that students preferred inserting the DM like before a noun phrase, at the beginning of a sentence, and before a verb phrase, respectively. In terms of gender, females frequently posited focuser like before a sentence, whereas males placed it before a noun phrase. Also, the discourse marker like does not occur within auxiliary. Finally, this study draws conclusions about different grammatical positions and broader usages of discourse marker focuser like among younger students. 


Author(s):  
Valentina Benigni

This paper offers a survey of list markers in contemporary Russian, i.e. discourse markers that signal the presence of a list and fulfil specific semantic and pragmatic functions, such as generalization (и все такое ‘and things like that’), exemplification (типа ‘such as/kind of’) or reformulation of the list content (так сказать ‘so to speak’). It also explores the structural and functional properties of general extenders within the framework of CxG, focusing particularly on the process of lexicalization and grammaticalization of the discourse marker и все такое ‘and things like that’.


Author(s):  
Christian Koops ◽  
Arne Lohmann

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt:This paper deals with the grammatical properties of discourse markers (DMs), specifically their ordering preferences relative to one another. While the data presented here are synchronic, we approach the topic of DM sequencing from the perspective of grammaticalization. From this perspective, DMs can be understood as the result of a process in which elements serving other functions, for example grammatical functions at the level of sentential syntax, come to be conventionally used as markers of discourse-level relations, or what Schiffrin (1987: 31) operationally defined as “sequentially dependent elements which bracket units of talk.” Here we are concerned with the final outcome of this process. We ask: to what degree do fully formed DMs retain or lose the grammatical properties associated with their previous role, specifically their syntactic co-occurrence constraints? In other words, what degree of syntactic decategorialization (in the sense of Hopper 1991) do DMs display?


2017 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 162-179
Author(s):  
Wu Guangjun

Abstract Discourse markers are a special category of words or expressions which have been shown to pose challenges during the translation process. This article adopts a relevance-theoretic perspective and, based on the two English translations of the Chinese play Leiyu (Thunderstorm), explores the use of the discourse marker well in translation from Chinese into English. The findings show that the discourse marker well in translation from Chinese into English is added in two scenarios: to intensify weaker forms of a similar Chinese discourse marker or as an addition when omitted in Chinese. Moreover, interlingual pragmatic enrichment will ensue and the English translations, in comparison with their Chinese originals, become more determinate. Based on this study, we can conclude that discourse markers are important pragmatic elements in translation from Chinese into English. Likewise, contrastive pragmatics is shown to be of potential in the process of translation.


Biometrika ◽  
1995 ◽  
Vol 82 (2) ◽  
pp. 426-432 ◽  
Author(s):  
FRANCISCO CRIBARI-NETO ◽  
SILVIA L. P. FERRARI

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