Co-occurrence and ordering of discourse markers in sequences: A multifactorial study in spoken French

Abstract

While discourse marker (DM) sequences are rather frequent, not any DM can co-occur with any other, or in any order. In this study, we aim at uncovering which linguistic features constrain DM co-occurrences. More precisely, our objective is to disentangle the role of syntax (source grammatical category), prosody (intonation boundaries) and pragmatics (functions and domains of use) on the degree of integration and order of DMs in sequences. This multifactorial approach reflects our view that different constraints may affect different subsets of DMs and different aspects of their use. Our analysis of 420 co-occurring DMs in a sample of conversational French showed the relevance of functional orientation (backward vs. forward) and, to a lesser extent, of prosody to distinguish between different degrees of integration. It further revealed that the order of DMs in integrated sequences is mainly explained by the persistence of syntactic constraints, often mapping with functional tendencies, such as the “weak first, strong second” rule.