Unpacking the meaning of the DM now through its Polish translation equivalents

Abstract

Depending on context, the English lexeme now can be used either as a time adverb or a discourse marker (DM). Unlike its temporal counterpart, the discursive now does not lend itself to a straightforward translation into Polish, representing instead a complex, one-to-many kind of relationship between the original and the target language. Based on the assumption that cross-linguistic research making use of translation data may be highly revealing about semantically opaque expressions, such as DMs, the study aims to gain a deeper insight into the nature of now by looking at its Polish equivalents from the perspective of their potential to bring to the surface and elucidate the functions that the marker serves in various contexts. The image of the DM now which emerges from the study is that of a contextually richly nuanced expression, fulfilling numerous discourse-structuring and intensifying functions. In its structural role, now proves capable of marking a number of different relations between discourse segments, such as contrast, result, return, explanation or elaboration. As an intensifying device, the DM can be more explicitly emotive (expressing, for instance, irritation or disbelief), emphatic or conative in nature. In more general terms, the paper shows how a translation-based study may inform pragmatic research.