English Discourse Markers Research Articles

Discourse Markers Audiovisual Rendition into Modern Standard Arabic and Colloquial Egyptian Arabic

Discourse markers are omnipresent in language and are gaining more attention, especially, in audiovisual translation studies. This study aimed at examining the strategies used by translators in rendering six commonly used English discourse markers into Arabic. Moreover, it shed light on the discourse markers found in seven children’s animated movies and seeks to investigate the differences between three renditions of these movies: Arabic subtitles, Modern Standard Arabic dubbed version and colloquial Egyptian Arabic dubbed version. It also focused on the effect that the two audiovisual modes, subtitling and dubbing, have on the translation of these devices and the choices of translation strategies. The data consisted of 944 instances of the six discourse markers extracted from the movies’ original scripts and their equivalents taken from the Arabic subtitled and dubbed versions of the movies. The findings reveal that the avoidance of SL discourse marker strategy was used by translators in both modes of audiovisual translation. Moreover, the equivalents found in the colloquial Egyptian Arabic dubbed version were more diverse compared to the other two translations (the subtitled version and MSA dubbed version).

Discourse markers in Spanish in the Tijuana-San Diego border area

Abstract This study examines the use of discourse markers among speakers of Spanish residing in Tijuana, Mexican immigrants in San Diego, and heritage Spanish speakers in San Diego. We find a core set of discourse markers that is common to all speakers, as well as subsets of discourse markers for Tijuana, San Diego immigrant, and San Diego heritage speakers. Four English discourse markers are attested in the border: okay as a general, established borrowing; so only among immigrant and heritage speakers; and like and you know only among heritage speakers. In a language-contact situation, discourse markers whose lexical content is less analyzable and whose functions are more operational detach first from the pragmatically-dominant language (Matras 1998). We find that the operational properties of okay, like, and you know make them borrowable into the Spanish of the border. However, so is borrowed in San Diego with operational and content-related features by heritage speakers, and with content-related features only by immigrant speakers.

An instructional account for «on the contrary» based on studies on counterargumentative connectors

The aim of this paper is to contribute to the pragmalinguistic explanation of the English discourse marker on the contrary applying the instructional framework developed by Portolés (2001) for Spanish discourse markers. In order to account for the procedural meaning of this marker, particular attention is paid to his descriptions of the counterargumentative connectors por el contrario, en cambio and al contrario, and to the development of polyphonic instructions (Ducrot 1980, Portolés 2011, Murillo 2016). In the current proposal, on the contrary encodes counterargumentive, informative, and polyphonic instructions, and the main polyphonic configurations are presented and exemplified. A comparison between on the contrary, por el contrario and al contrario is subsequently offered, and some issues for translation are addressed.

The Socratic method in developing spoken English discussion discourse markers: A case study

Socratic pedagogy is a systematized method that encourages learners to question themselves and each other - without being judgmental. It aims at boosting empathy and developing an ability to reach informed conclusions. It supports the acquisition of social skills and fosters collaboration while helping them to think critically, deepen their understanding, and find reality in equilibrium. In reaching for insights, students acquire vital skills, knowledge, and practices. Socratic learning depends on how participants can use systematic dialogue. This study monitored the effects of students' use of specific discourse markers (DMs) over a series of speaking tasks undertaken in Socratic seminars. Each task was devised to support the learning objectives of a standardized English language course given to pre-service English teachers in Turkey. Recordings were used to provide feedback to ten participants and then analyzed for appropriate use of spoken DMs. The findings of the study revealed solid evidence of accurate and contextually appropriate DM usage as the number of appropriate DM use increased significantly in the seminars conducted at the end of the intervention period.

Spanish in the Southeast: What a Swarm of Variables Can Tell Us about a Newly Forming Bilingual Community

The southeastern United States has experienced rapid growth in the Hispanic population in recent decades, giving rise to a newly forming bilingual community. The present study builds on previous work by the authors via expansion of a “variable swarm”: the analysis of multiple linguistic variables simultaneously for the same set of speakers, with the goal of understanding patterns of accommodation and change within the community. The initial study included four linguistic variables (prosodic rhythm, bilingual discourse markers, the realization of /bdg/ and vowel space), and the present study adds an additional four variables (bilingual filled pauses, subject pronoun realization, code switching, and the labiodental realization of orthographic <v>) for 23 speakers of Mexican and Central American origin across two sociolinguistic generations (G1 vs. G2). Results for individual speakers show a pattern of adoption of some features by speakers of both generations (such as English-influenced prosodic rhythm and phonological filled pauses), while other, possibly more salient forms directly integrated from English (English discourse markers and code switching) exhibit later, highly variable rates of adoption, suggesting that speakers may consciously manipulate these variables as part of a process of active identity construction. Likewise, G1 speakers show fewer correlations among linguistic variables than G2 speakers, and patterns reveal that some bilingual forms are incorporated in tandem due to shared phonological traits or discourse functions. The innovative swarm analysis further contributes to the advancement of techniques employed in sociolinguistic research by serving as a bridge between traditional first- and second-wave studies that focus on a single variable, and third-wave studies that focus more on variation at the individual level.

Semantic features of discursive markers in English and Azerbaijani languages

The paper deals with the contrastive study of the semantic features of the discourse markers in the English and Azerbaijani fictional texts. It discusses various views of the researchers (D. Blakemore, T. Van Dijk, M. Hansen, Y. Maschler, D. Schiffrin, E. Chiglincheva, M. Kamenski) who extensively studied the semantic status of the discourse markers in English. The instances of the use of the discourse markers have strong correlation with communicative situation and the type of discourse. Defining the type of discourse clarifies other issues related to communicative situation. Discourse markers are key connecting devices between the parts of discourse motivated by the intention of the sender (author). Even the most complicated ideas can be shaped in discourse either explicitly or implicitly using discourse markers. Discourse markers are also quite common in Azerbaijani like in all other languages and they play very important role in the distribution of information in discourse. The results of our analysis suggests that the discourse markers in the languages under analysis have mostly common semantic features. The difference is that in contrast to English some discourse markers with the semantics of modality in Azerbaijani are formulated through the transformation of sentence and also the case suffixes can function as discourse markers in this language.

English Discourse Markers in Estonian-English Bilingual Blogs and Vlogs

English Discourse Markers in Estonian-English Bilingual Blogs and Vlogs

Corpus Processing of Multi-Word Discourse Markers for Advanced Learners

Aim/Purpose. The most crucial aspects of teaching a foreign language to more advanced learners are building an awareness of discourse modes, how to regulate discourse, and the pragmatic properties of discourse components. However, in different languages, the connections and structure of discourse are ensured by different linguistic means which makes matters complicated for the learner. Background. By uncovering regularities in a foreign language and comparing them with patterns in one’s own tongue, the corpus research method offers the student unique opportunities to acquire linguistic knowledge about discourse markers. This paper reports on an investigation of the functions of multi-word discourse markers. Methodology. In our research, we combine the alignment model of the phrase-based statistical machine translation and manual treatment of the data in order to examine English multi-word discourse markers and their equivalents in Lithuanian and Hebrew translations by researching their changes in translation. After establishing the full list of multi-word discourse markers in our generated parallel corpus, we research how the multi-word discourse markers are treated in translation. Contribution. Creating a parallel research corpus to identify multi-word expressions used as discourse markers, analyzing how they are translated into Lithuanian and Hebrew, and attempting to determine why the translators made the choices add value to corpus-driven research and how to manage discourse. Findings. Our research proves that there is a possible context-based influence guiding the translation to choose a particle or other lexical item integration in Lithuanian or Hebrew translated discourse markers to express the rhetorical domain which could be related to the so-called phenomenon of “over-specification.” Recommendations for Practitioners. The comparative examination of discourse markers provides language instructors and translators with more specific information about the roles of discourse markers. Recommendations for Researchers. Understanding the multifunctionality of discourse markers provides new avenues for discourse marker application in translation research. Impact on Society. The current study may be a useful method to strengthen students’ language awareness and analytic skills and is particularly important for students specializing in English philology or translation. Beyond the empirical research, an extensive parallel data resource has been created to be openly used. Future Research. It should be noted that the observed phenomenon of “over-specification” could be analyzed further in future research.

Crosslinguistic paths of pragmatic development

Abstract Diachronic studies of discourse markers suggest they follow a unidirectional developmental path, from propositional to textual and expressive uses. The present study tests whether children acquire the propositional (literal) before the expressive (pragmatic) functions of two adversative discourse markers in French and English, which have similar core meanings and pragmatic functions. Our results partially confirm the propositional-first hypothesis but semantics and pragmatics appear to work together, rather than first one then the other, at least in this case, and this runs counter to both diachronic theories and usage-based accounts of L1 acquisition. 88 occurrences of en fait and 174 of actually were extracted from the CHILDES database, and coded for two functions (adversative and elaborative) and three domains (propositional, textual, expressive). The results suggest that the pragmatic functions of actually are used by children as young as two years old, but the same is not true of en fait, which is almost exclusively propositional in the early years. By contrast, before age 5, French children start to use en fait for textual and elaborative functions to a greater extent than actually. The role of syntactic position and parental input are discussed.

L1 and non-L1 perceptions of discourse markers in English

Although critical reception of discourse markers (DMs) such as like and you know has often been noted, surprisingly little research has actually investigated this attitudinal perspective on usage. Moreover, a recent, rapidly expanding body of research on non-L1 speakers’ use of discourse markers in English has suggested that their more or less frequent use of specific markers may be due to familiarity with these markers and positive or negative marker perceptions. The present study presents the results of a survey measuring British English L1 speakers’, English as Foreign Language (EFL) learners’, and English as a Lingua Franca (ELF) speakers’ perceptions of the discourse markers so, like, well and you know and their reactions to either abundance or lack of DMs. The survey measured speaker attitudes by asking participants to evaluate the usage of other DMs. We found that L1, EFL, and ELF have varying attitudes about certain markers, and these markers are perceived differently for traits like politeness and friendliness. Generally speaking, L1 speakers were more positively disposed towards markers than either of the other groups, who in their turn rated the propositional functions of the markers as more acceptable than interactional functions.

The use of English discourse markers across gender: A corpus-based study

The current study aims to investigate the kinds of discourse markers (DMs) used by Indonesian university students in their cause-and-effect essay writing with consideration of gender groups. Twenty-nine cause-and-effect essays composed by 10 male and 19 female university students were analyzed using the DM taxonomy adapted from Fraser’s (1999) and Halliday and Hasan’s (1976) studies. AntConc 3.5.7 was utilized to find out the types and the frequency of the discourse markers in a corpus-based data analysis. The analysis identified 191 DMs from the 29 cause-and-effect essays. The findings revealed that, in terms of DM variability, there were no notable differences between the use of DMs by the male and female students. However, the study also observed some excessive use of DMs and a general lack of consideration of punctuations following the DMs by some of the male students. Taken together, our findings suggest a degree of similarities between the use of DMs by the male and female students with some potential limitations shown by the male students. Implications for the teaching of discourse markers as well as recommendations for future research are discussed.

Using English Discourse Markers to Enhance Speaking Skills: A Case Study at Van Lang University

Vietnamese learners of English have paid little attention to English discourse markers (DMs) although DMs play a significant role in the speech of native English speakers. Furthermore, few studies of DMs used by Vietnamese learners have been carried out. This research aims at identifying the participants’ perceptions of making use of DMs in conversational English and the ways they apply DMs in English conversations as the initial stage to prepare them for a plan of action that could fill the research gap. By means of audio recordings and questionnaires conducted in an English major class of 30 first-year students at Van Lang University (VLU), this research discovers that most of the participants acknowledge the vital roles of DMs in conversational English, such as facilitating general communication and indicating the speaker’s attitude. The research also finds that a plurality of the students is very limited in their use of DMs when making conversations. Therefore, as a recommendation, speaking courses should include DMs instructions. These results make a contribution to more studies on how to instruct DMs in conversational English so that the English-speaking skills of the students at VLU could be enhanced.

Lithuanian Discourse Markers in Parallel Corpus for Teaching Translation Awareness

The contrastive analysis of discourse markers in Lithuanian and English provides data on the functions of discourse markers to language teachers and translators. The study reveals that there is a tentative tendency for translators to rarely choose to run an explicit discourse marker and leave it only in the implied translation. It is essential that philology students are taught in detail about discourse markers, and TED-MBD is an excellent medium for teaching text coherence.

Unpacking the function(s) of discourse markers in academic spoken English: a corpus-based study

Discourse markers can have various functions depending on the context in which they are used. Taking this into consideration, in this corpus-based research, we analyzed and unveiled quantitatively and qualitatively the functions of four discourse markers in academic spoken English. To this purpose, four discourse markers, i.e., “I mean,” “I think,” “you see,” and “you know,” were selected for the study. The British Academic Spoken English (BASE) corpus was used as the data gathering source. To detect the discourse markers, concordance lines of the corpus were carefully read and analyzed. The quantitative analysis demonstrated that from among the four discourse markers, “you know” and “you see” were the most and the least frequent ones in the corpus, respectively. In line with the quantitative analysis, the qualitative analysis of the concordance lines demonstrated that there were various functions with regard to each of the four discourse markers. The findings of this study can have implications in fields such as corpus-based studies, genre analysis, and contrastive linguistics.

Elements of Biblical Exegesis: A Basic Guide for Students and Ministers

Elements of Biblical Exegesis: A Basic Guide for Students and Ministers

A Study on the Functions of Chinese Discourse Marker “N” (嗯) from the Perspective of English-Chinese Translation

The study investigated the functions of Chinese discourse marker “N” (嗯) from the perspective of English-Chinese translation. To explore the topic, 200 pairs of English-Chinese translation sentences are collected from a parallel corpus. From observation and analysis, it is found that (1) there are 20 different English discourse markers that were translated into “N” (嗯); (2) the functions of “N” (嗯) suggested from the translation are mainly threefold: to introduce a question for information, to hint that the speaker is going to provide information, and to create a period of time for thinking how to say something in a better way; (3) the function description of “N” (嗯) in Chinese dictionary is relatively limited. Finally, the study indicates that there is no single English discourse marker that corresponds to “N” (嗯). Instead, the correspondent relation between English discourse markers and “N” (嗯) actually depends on whether the English discourse marker could meet any of the three main functions of “N” (嗯).

Study on Discourse Markers Used by Teachers in Online TCSOL Classroom

The article selects the online Chinese teachers volunteers’ comprehensive class video as the research object, through literature research, classroom observation, recording writing, corpus analysis and comparison of different teachers in class to discuss the category of class discourse markers, and found the problems when teachers use discourse markers in the online classroom, put forward the corresponding teaching advice and specification requirements. This paper takes the discourse markers of Chinese teachers in online teaching classrooms as the research object, and comprehensively analyzes the use of Chinese and English discourse markers by teachers in the classroom. The full text has four chapters: chapter 1 explains the reasons, research significance and literature review; chapter 2 defines and classifies the discourse markers in classroom language; chapter 3 addresses the problems of Chinese teachers in classroom discourse markers, and finally, chapter 4 summarizes the full text. The main conclusions of the whole article are: (1) the two Chinese teacher volunteers have the problems of single discourse marker style and redundant discourse marker in the use of discourse markers in the classroom. (2) Teachers should give due attention to discourse markers in the preparation before class and in the process of classroom teaching, and strengthen the self-monitoring awareness of the use of discourse markers in teaching.

Cognitive Analysis of Pragmatic Functions of Discourse Markers in Spoken English in the Context of Computational Intelligence.

To improve the level of oral English teaching, improve students' oral communicative competence (OCA), and promote successful communication with native English speakers, this study studies the pragmatic function of dialogue markers and constructs the cognitive evaluation system of artificial intelligence (AI) by comparing the two cognitive evaluation systems of human subjectivity and knowledge base; in this study, the credibility of human subjective evaluation and the coupling degree of machine objective evaluation are discussed. The key coefficient R2 is obtained by the linear regression method, and the correlation is obtained by the Spearman correlation algorithm. The cognitive effects of knowledge base and AI are verified; the results show that the cognitive analysis system of pragmatic function of discourse markers in oral English based on AI has good teaching value. In the context of AI computing, we can put forward targeted learning methods and learning methods for students according to the amount and accuracy of markers in oral English that students have mastered, so that students can quickly improve the learning quality and the learning effect of oral English markers, which is more conducive to improving students' oral English level and realizing students' effective communication.

Research on the Construction of Value Evaluation Model of Pragmatic Function of Spoken English Discourse Markers Under the Perspective of Smoking Cessation Discourse

In view of the needs of the use of spoken English discourse markers in different situations under cross-cultural communication, it is necessary to standardize the language use of communicators and give full play to the pragmatic value of spoken English discourse markers. By establishing the pragmatic function evaluation model of spoken English discourse markers in the context of smoking cessation and tobacco control from the perspective of smoking cessation discourse, English communicative conversation in the context of smoking cessation and tobacco control is studied in this paper. Based on the analytic hierarchy process (AHP), and starting from four layers including the target layer, criterion layer, index layer and scheme layer, this paper designs an evaluation model of pragmatic functional value of spoken English discourse markers from the perspective of smoking cessation discourse through hierarchy theory model construction, judgment matrix construction, hierarchical single ranking and consistency test, hierarchical total ranking and consistency test. The model is used in the context of communication, language training and language assessment. The model is suitable for simulating communicative behavior, language ability training and language ability assessment in smoking cessation and tobacco control scenarios. It can improve the accuracy of the use of discourse markers, facilitate the reasonable choice of discourse markers in special communication scenarios, ensure the efficiency of English communication, and highlight the unique value of discourse markers in different communication scenarios.

ОСОБЛИВОСТІ ДАВНЬОАНГЛІЙСЬКОГО СИНТАКСИСУ ЯК ПЕРЕДУМОВА ГРАМАТИКАЛІЗАЦІЇ ФОКУСУВАЛЬНИХ АДВЕРБІВ

The article deals with the preconditions of focusing adverbs grammaticalization in Old English, which function as one of the markers of sentence information structure in Modern English. With major strategies of highlighting the components of information structure in the language of VII-XI cen. being analyzed, the study found that the order of arranging the elements in the sentence was, namely, most sensitive to old/new information allotment, as well as, sentence topic and focus marking, which explains the word order variations in the clause. Adverbs as a class in this period were represented by temporal, VP- and sentential ones. All these types have relevance for the current study given that they may serve as one of the sources of grammaticalization for focusing adverbs in further periods of the English language development. The other source for the highlighted adverbs formation were adverbial suffixes -ly or -e added to adjectives, nouns and verbs. It was proved that the major adverbial discourse markers in Old English are temporal adverbs þa/thonne, her and nu. Therefore, this class presumably served the basis for the formation of new focusing adverbs at further stages of the language evolution.