NOW AND THEN: CLARIFYING THE ROLE OF TEMPORAL ADVERBS AS DISCOURSE MARKERS

2014 ◽  
pp. 303-324
Author(s):  
Steven E. Runge
2001 ◽  
Vol 37 (3) ◽  
pp. 527-550 ◽  
Author(s):  
JESÚS ROMERO TRILLO

The present article discusses the notion of variation in discourse as an essential characteristic of language and the linguistic parameters that can be used for its study. The article describes the different traditions in the study of variation and places special emphasis on the role of prosodic analysis in the study of spoken discourse. The study explores the use of discourse markers in the London-Lund Corpus and describes their linguistic variation by introducing the notion of APPROPRIATENESS. This notion, which combines the quantitative and qualitative presence of elements in discourse, is based on a mathematical index that can describe discourse variation with a sound systematic criterion.


2017 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 170-192
Author(s):  
Emad Mohamed

Abstract Discourse markers are lexical items that play the role of conveying the speaker’s attitude towards the topic of conversation. Although discourse markers have this function, they have little semantic content, yet their importance for understanding (oral) discourse can hardly be overestimated. As such, they have been widely studied in English. While the Qurʾān has a number of these discourse markers, none of them seem to have been properly noticed, let alone studied, by Arabic linguists and Qurʾān commentators. This article introduces what I believe to be the most frequent of these in the Qurʾān: araʾaytum (literally: “have you seen?”) in its various morphological manifestations. This article uses concepts from historical linguistics, pragmatics, and corpus linguistics – and in particular lexical co-occurrences – to examine the development of this form from a sense verb that simply means “to see” to a pragmatic attitudinal marker that is semantically vacuous and whose main function is to express the speaker’s dissatisfaction with, resentment at, or disapproval of the topic of conversation. While the analysis provided in this article is mainly linguistic, the findings will affect the way we read the Arabic-Islamic heritage, especially as regards the authenticity of what are known as the Satanic Verses, also known as the episode of the High-Flying Cranes (Qiṣṣat al-ġarānīq). This article also provides suggestions for the translation of this discourse marker.


2012 ◽  
Vol 14 (4) ◽  
pp. 419-455 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yael Maschler ◽  
Gonen Dori-Hacohen

Previous studies of Hebrew nu investigate this discourse marker in casual conversation. The current study explores nu on Israeli political phone-in radio programs and broadens our knowledge both about the functions and grammaticization processes of discourse markers and about some particularities of Israeli political talk radio. The comparison to casual talk reveals both qualitative and quantitative differences. In casual talk, the main function of nu is a sequential one – urging further development of an ongoing topic (69%). In the radiophonic data, the most common role of nu is as a keying token (53%), functioning in the affective realm. Furthermore, the talk-radio data show a wider variety of keys constructed by nu – which range from joking to sheer contempt – clustering closer towards the latter, in contrast to the case of casual talk, manifesting mostly the joking key. Structurally, whereas sequential functions are generally accomplished by stand-alone nu, affective tokens are accompanied by same-speaker talk. The analysis sheds new light on how a sequential token might come to function in the affective realm.


Author(s):  
Valery Amirov

The purpose of the article is to study the system of lexical markers, characteristic of female image formation in the Soviet media of the Great Patriotic War period. Critical discourse analysis method is applied to investigating the leading Soviet newspapers publications devoted to the role of women in the Great Patriotic War. In total over 300 publications issued during 1941–1943 were selected for analysis according to keywords and thematic relevance. The system of lexical markers, comprising the unified female image creation ways, is defined and analyzed. Ideology domination and militarization are noted to have been essential for unified image formation in the Soviet newspaper discourse of the Great Patriotic War period. The paper reveals the markers that reflect the dynamics of female image transformation: from a rear toiler replacing the man who had left for the front in the first period, to the soldier, the woman capable of taking the place of the fallen fighter in next war period. Classification and description of the markers are presented. The author points out, that the unified image is viewed as the 'image-function' deprived of characteristic female features, traditionally represented in journalistic texts. A conclusion is drawn upon designing the unified 'image-function': it was worked out only pursuing propaganda goals, with the main one – mobilization of women on fight against the enemy threatening the very existence of the state.


2020 ◽  
Vol 55 ◽  
Author(s):  
Оксана [Oksana] Юрьевна [IUrʹevna] Зелинская [Zelinskaia]

Warnings and Prohibitions as Means of Exerting Influence on the Addressee in Seventeenth– Eighteenth-Century Ukrainian Sermons In religious communication, psychological influence – as a result of which a person should change their subjective features (value orientations, ways of conduct, etc.) – is aimed at fostering compliance with religious norms. The tasks of a priest include religious education and correcting people’s behaviour, warning them against acts which contradict Christian values, in other words: preventing people from committing sins. This task is best achieved by means of verbal persuasion used in sermons.This paper offers a diachronic analysis of speech acts of warning and pro­hibition (preventives and prohibitives) on the basis of written monuments of the Ukrainian language: Ukrainian sermons from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. In the analysed sermons, they are used in order to achieve the aim of preventing sinful conduct. They refer both to everyday situations and to moral attitudes in general.In the texts under consideration, the semantics of warning and prohibition is conveyed using means of expression from different levels. At the lexical level, they are verbs with the general meaning ‘to warn’, ‘to be afraid’, and verbs of action creating a distance between the individual and sinful feelings, thoughts and actions: ‘to escape’, ‘to reject’. Words and phrases denoting cognitive processes play the role of discourse markers: ‘to know’, ‘to be aware of’, ‘to remind’.The speech acts of warning and prohibition are most frequently expressed with verbs in the form of negative imperative. One specific aspect of the use of preventives is that they are supplemented with recommendations which the addressee may accept of his/her own will.The preacher uses various rhetorical strategies to enhance the convincing function of warnings, such as references to widely known cases from the past (precedential phenomena), quotations from the Holy Scripture, and preventive exhortations. In order to better convince the congregation and urge them to follow the model of proper conduct, the preacher uses various means of expression: epithets conveying negative valuation, and stylistic figures: amplification, gradation, pairs of synonyms.The material under consideration makes it possible to conclude that the Ukrainian language of the seventeenth–eighteenth centuries had a considerable potential in terms of verbal persuasion, and opens prospects for the study of its dynamics.Ostrzeżenia i zakazy jako środki wywierania wpływu na adresata w XVII–XVIII-wiecznych kazaniach ukraińskich W komunikacji religijnej psychologiczne oddziaływanie na osobę nastawione na zmianę subiektywnych cech (wyznawanych wartości, zachowania itp.) ma na celu propagowanie życia w zgodzie z normami religijnymi. Do zadań kapłana należy wychowanie i poprawa ludzkich zachowań, ostrzeganie przed czynami i działaniami sprzecznymi z wartościami chrześcijańskimi, a więc zapobieganie grzechowi. Najskuteczniejszym środkiem realizacji tego celu w działalności homiletycznej jest zastosowanie perswazji słownej.Niniejszy artykuł przedstawia analizę diachroniczną dwóch typów aktów mowy o charakterze dyrektywnym: ostrzeżeń i zakazów (prewentywów i prohibitywów), przeprowadzoną na materiale zabytków piśmiennictwa ukraińskiego – XVII–XVIII-wiecznych kazaniach ukraińskich. W analizowanych kazaniach środki te odnoszą się zarówno do sytuacji życia codziennego, jak i ogólnych postaw moralnych, a ich zastosowanie ma na celu zapobieganie grzesznemu zachowaniu.W badanych tekstach semantyka zakazu i ostrzeżenia jest wyrażana na różnych poziomach. Na poziomie słownictwa są to czasowniki o ogólnym znaczeniu ‘ostrzegać’, ‘bać się’, a także czasowniki oznaczające działania wprowadzające dystans pomiędzy adresatem a grzesznymi uczuciami, myślami i działaniami: ‘uciekać’, ‘odrzucać’. Rolę znaczników dyskursu pełnią słowa i frazy oznaczające procesy kognitywne: ‘znać’, ‘wiedzieć’, ‘przypominać’. Ostrzeżenia i zakazy są najczęściej wyrażane czasownikami w formie przeczącej trybu rozkazującego. Jednym ze szczególnych aspektów ich zastosowania jest to, że są one uzupełniane zaleceniami, które adresat może zaakceptować z własnej woli.Kaznodzieja stosuje różne strategie retoryczne, żeby wzmocnić perswazyjną funkcję ostrzeżeń. Należą do nich odwołania do znanych zjawisk (zjawisk precedensowych), cytaty z Pisma Świętego czy zapobiegawcze zaklinania. Aby lepiej przekonać wiernych i nakłonić ich do przestrzegania modelu właściwego zachowania, stosuje różne środki wyrazu: epitety wyrażające negatywną ocenę, jak również figury stylistyczne: amplifikację, gradację czy pary synonimów.Badany materiał skłania do wniosku, że język ukraiński XVII–XVIII wieku miał znaczny potencjał w zakresie perswazji słownej i otwiera perspektywy badań nad dynamiką jej rozwoju.


1996 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 37-43 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nina N. Simmons-Mackie ◽  
Jack S. Damico

Discourse markers, expressions used to organize conversational interaction, are widely used by speakers in social conversation. An ethnographic investigation of compensatory strategies employed in natural communication by two aphasic subjects revealed a variety of behaviors fulfilling the requirements of discourse markers. The role of discourse markers as compensatory strategies to promote conversation in aphasia is discussed, with descriptive examples drawn from the ethnographic study.


2017 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 1 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mahboobeh Tavakoli ◽  
Amin Karimnia

This study followed two objectives: it primarily investigated the types of discourse markers (DMs) used in thespoken language of Iranian advanced EFL learners, and then explored the possible impact of gender on theparticipants’ use of DMs. To this end, 40 male and female EFL learners selected from an English language instituteparticipated in this study. The data were gathered through class observations. The researchers used Fraser’staxonomy of DMs and Fung’s category of interpersonal DMs as the theoretical framework of the study. To analyzethe data descriptive and inferential statistics were used. Results of the frequency test revealed that “and” was themost commonly used elaborative DM, whereas “but” was the most frequent contrastive DM. “Because” and “by theway” were respectively the only reason and topic-related DMs used by the participants, while “sure” was the mostfrequent interpersonal DM. In addition, results of the chi-square test revealed that learners significantly employedinterpersonal DMs more than the other sub-classes of DMs. Concerning the role of gender in the use of DMs, resultsdemonstrated that females significantly used more DMs compared with the males.


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