Frequency Of Discourse Markers Research Articles

Speech Characteristics as Indicators of Personality Traits

This study examines the relationship between speech characteristics and personality traits by drawing on pseudo-naturalistic conversations and on personality dimensions identified by the Myers–Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) model which assesses four personality dimensions of introversion-extroversion, sensing-intuiting, thinking-feeling, and judging-perceiving. The speech of 30 participants was recorded and transcribed, after which a number of speech features including pitch, loudness, response time (i.e., how fast one responds to a prompt), speech rate, and discourse markers were extracted and analyzed. Results show that several speech features correspond to different personality dimensions. Specifically, speech rate as measured by words per minute reveals significant differences between judging individuals and perceiving individuals (perceiving individuals speak faster than judging individuals); there is a significant difference in response time for extroverts and introverts (extroverts respond faster); a significant difference is observed in loudness between judging and perceiving individuals (judging individuals are louder). The frequency of discourse markers is significantly higher for intuiting individuals than sensing individuals. The study discusses these findings in further inquiring the relationship between language and personality.

Frequency and Stylistic Variability of Discourse Markers in Nigerian English

This paper examines the choice, frequency and stylistic variability of discourse markers in Nigerian English, using the International Corpus of English-Nigeria. Three types of discourse markers: elaborative, contrastive and inferential discourse markers were examined in the Nigerian corpus and these were compared with the International Corpus of English-Great Britain, from a variational pragmatic approach. The results were subjected to loglikelihood test and paired sample t test. The results indicate that there was both a significant difference in the overall frequency of discourse markers in Nigerian English and British English, and in the stylistic variability of these markers in the two corpora. Nigerian English speakers use elaborative and contrastive discourse markers less frequently than British English speakers, but utilise inferential discourse markers more frequently than British English speakers. Moreover, speakers of Nigerian English use a reduced inventory of discourse markers compared to British English speakers and exhibit distinct preference patterns for a few individual discourse markers. The paper also identifies the rise of a new discourse marker moreso/more so in Nigerian English which is used differently from its adverbial form. There were also differences and similarities in the stylistic variability of the discourse markers across the two varieties, which may be dependent on the status of Nigerian English as a second language and the influence of British English on Nigerian English.

The Use of Discourse Markers among Mandarin Chinese Teachers, and Chinese as a Second Language and Chinese as a Foreign Language Learners

This study investigates how the use of discourse markers reflects speaking fluency in Chinese learners. In this study, 220 min of online Chinese courses were transcribed, with 17 Chinese learners and 5 native Chinese teachers as participants. Half of the transcribed data were drawn from students living in Taipei, Taiwan, a Chinese-speaking environment, learning Chinese as a second language. The other portion of the data was collected from students living in non-Chinese-speaking countries, learning Chinese as a foreign language with little exposure to the language outside the classroom. Analysis of the transcripts supported the hypothesis that the frequency of discourse markers used by individual speakers reflects their fluency in the target language. Further analyses of the function of discourse markers produced by the three participant groups suggested that understanding the ability to use discourse markers can be a valuable tool to evaluate, assess, and gauge richness of spoken content, as well as to aid in the development of teaching methods.

Discourse markers, structure, and emotionality in oral narratives

This paper presents a comparative analysis structure and frequency of discourse markers in two kinds of oral narratives: objective, emotionally neutral ones on the one side, and highly emotional, spontaneous ones on the other. The results prove that emotionality plays a crucial role in the structuring of oral narratives as well as in the type of discourse markers employed in them. Objective oral narratives show a higher number of discourse markers, whereas highly emotional ones present a higher variety of discourse markers, as well as a higher frequency of other pragmatic markers, in order to guide the listener through the multiplicity of side stories and the broken structure they show. In short, this work highlights the relationship between linguistic activity (language in context or use) and linguistic form.

A contrastive corpus-based analysis of the frequency of discourse markers in NE and NNE media discourse: Implications for a “universal discourse competence”

AbstractThis article examines whether there are differences in the frequency of discourse markers (DMs) between Native English (NE) and Non-native English (NNE) corpora of political media discourse. Based on the grammatical-pragmatic perspective of discourse markers (Fraser, 2004), the discourse markers identified in the corpora were divided into four semantic categories: contrastive discourse markers (CDM), elaborative discourse markers (EDM), implicative discourse markers (IDM) and temporal discourse markers (TDM). The results revealed that: (i) in both corpora, implicative discourse markers (IDMs) and elaborative discourse markers (EDMs) have the lowest and highest frequency counts respectively, (ii) there are significant differences across the four types of discourse markers in both corpora, (iii) there is no significant difference in the aggregated frequency of discourse markers across NE and NNE political news discourse, and (iv) there are no relative NE/NNE frequency differences within each category of discourse markers. The findings point to the need for revisiting Kaplan's contrastive rhetoric, and provide evidence for the plausibility of a “ universal discourse competence” in advanced NNE written discourse.

A study of the acquisition of discourse markers by Chinese learners of English

<p>This study investigates the acquisition of discourse markers by Chinese learners of English in terms of gender, style and individual identity. The subjects of the study are 15 female university students and 15 male university students. The data is collected by means of audio recording in the classroom discussion and in the interviews. The examined discourse markers are <em>like, yeah, oh, you know, well, I mean, right, ok</em> and <em>actually</em> , and a total of 1292 tokens for these discourse markers are identified in the subjects’ classroom discussion and interviews. The results of the study show that: (1) the female subjects use discourse markers more frequently than the male subjects. (2) all the subjects employ discourse markers in the interviews at a higher rate than in the classroom discussion. (3) the subjects’ individual identity has the effects on their use of discourse markers. (4) the subjects display their individual variations in their frequencies of discourse markers in the interviews and in the classroom discussion respectively.</p>