A Multi-Perspective Study of Discourse Markers: An Attempt to Sort out the Muddle among EFL Teachers-Students
Abstract
This study aims at sorting out the confusion among EFL teachers caused by the feature of multi-functionality ascribed to Discourse Markers, by studying them pragmatically from various perspectives. The study hypothesizes that the multifunctional aspect attributed to Discourse Markers resides in the social and situational factors in which they are used such as the gender of the speakers, the relationship between them, the topic they talk about, and its theme. It also hypothesizes that females and males are strategically different in terms of using discourse markers, which brings about the multifunctional feature of discourse markers. The results of the analysis show that males and females use the same Discourse Markers for different purposes. The type of topic has an impact on the participants to use a particular Discourse Marker over the other types. Participants who are in a solidary or symmetrical relationship employ Discourse Markers differently from other participants who are in an asymmetrical relationship. Participants arrange their speech according to the goal they want to reach and they subjectively use DMs accordingly. The general theme, which covers the entire discourse, guides the participants to use particular types of Discourse Markers that address its requirements. The capacity of Discourse Markers is generated by means of being semantically bleaching which leads them to serve more than one function.
References
Aijmer, K. (2013). Understanding pragmatic markers: A variational pragmatic approach. Edinburgh University Press.
________ (2002). English discourse particles: Evidence from a corpus (Vol. 10). John Benjamins Publishing.
Andersen, G. (2001). Pragmatic markers and sociolinguistic variation. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins.
Bazzanella, C. (1990). Phatic connectives as interactional cues in contemporary spoken Italian. Journal of Pragmatics, 14(4), 629-647.
Biber, D., Johansson, S., Leech, G., Conrad, S., Finegan, E., & Quirk, R. (1999). Longman grammar of spoken and written English (Vol. 2). London: Longman.
Brinton, L. J. (2017). The evolution of pragmatic markers in English: Pathways of change. Cambridge University Press.
Brown, P., & Fraser, C. (1979). Speech as a marker of situation. In Social markers in speech (pp. 33-62). Cambridge University Press.
Erman, B. (2001). Pragmatic markers revisited with a focus on you know in adult and adolescent talk. Journal of pragmatics, 33(9), 1337-1359.
Fischer, K. (2014). 10. Discourse Markers. Pragmatics of discourse, 3, 271.
Flowerdew, J. (1994). Research of relevance to second language lecture comprehension: An overview. Academic listening: Research perspectives, 7, 29.
Fraser, B. (1988). Types of English discourse markers. Acta Linguistica Hungarica, 38(1/4), 19-33.
________. (1999). What are discourse markers?. Journal of pragmatics, 31(7), 931-952.
Gumperz, J. J. (1982). Discourse strategies (No. 1). Cambridge University Press.
González, M. (2004). Pragmatic markers in oral narrative: The case of English and Catalan (Vol. 122). John Benjamins Publishing.
Habib, R. (2021). The use of the discourse markers yaʕni and ʔinnu:‘I mean’in Syrian Arabic. Journal of Pragmatics, 178, 245-257.
Hansen, M. B. M. (1998). The function of discourse particles: A study with special reference to spoken standard French (Vol. 53). John Benjamins Publishing.
Hellermann, J., & Vergun, A. (2007). Language which is not taught: The discourse marker use of beginning adult learners of English. Journal of pragmatics, 39(1), 157-179.
Jucker, A. H., & Ziv, Y. (Eds.). (1998). Discourse markers: Descriptions and theory (Vol. 57). John Benjamins Publishing.
Labov, W., & Fanshel, D. (1977). Psychotherapy as Conversation. New York: Academic
Levinson, S. C. (1983). Pragmatics. Cambridge university press.
Longacre, R. E. (1976). Mystery particles and affixes. In Papers from the... Regional Meeting. Chicago Ling. Soc. Chicago, Ill (No. 12, pp. 468-475).
Lutzky, U. (2012). Discourse markers in early modern English (Vol. 227). John Benjamins Publishing.
Marmorstein, M., & Maschler, Y. (2020). Stance-taking via ya′ ani/ya′ anu: A discourse marker in a Hebrew-Arabic language contact situation. Language in Society, 49(1), 1-30.
Miller, A. (1961). Death of a Salesman: Revised Edition. Published by the Penguin Group Penguin, London.
Müller, S. (2005). Discourse markers in native and non-native English discourse (Vol. 138). John Benjamins Publishing.
Murdhy, A., & Naimah, A. G. (2021). Multi-Functionality of the Discourse Marker haweɪh in Ghamdi Dialect of Hijazi Arabic: Interaction of CP-Features?–A Minimalist-Cartographic Account. Cogent Arts & Humanities, 8(1), 1979307.
Östman, J. O. (1981). 'You Know': A discourse-functional study. John Benjamins
Schiffrin, D. (1987). Discourse markers (No. 5). Cambridge University Press. Publishing.
Sterling, E., & Sterling, E. J. (Eds.). (2008). Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman (Vol. 3). Rodopi.
Reppen, R. (2008). O’Keeffe, A., McCarthy, M. & Carter, R.(2007). From Corpus to classroom: Language use and language teaching. International Journal of Corpus Linguistics, 13(4), 564-566.
Redeker, G. (1990). Ideational and pragmatic markers of discourse structure. Journal of pragmatics, 14(3), 367-381.
Schourup, L. C. (1985). Common discourse particles in English conversation. Routledge.
Searle, J. R., & Searle, J. R. (1969). Speech acts: An essay in the philosophy of language (Vol. 626). Cambridge university press.
Short, M. (2018). Exploring the language of poems, plays and prose. Routledge.
Trillo, J. R. (2002). The pragmatic fossilization of discourse markers in non-native speakers of English. Journal of pragmatics, 34(6), 769-784. Lam, P. W. (2010). Discourse particles in corpus data and textbooks: The case of well. Applied Linguistics, 31(2), 260-281.
