The aim of this Master´s thesis is the contrastive analysis of discourse markers on a selected type of texts in Spanish and Czech language. The thesis is divided in two parts theoretical and practical part. Firstly, in the theoretical part of the thesis, is introduced the textual linguistic the field which studies discourse markers. For wholeness, are briefly mentioned all of the seven standards of textuality with profound focus on textual coherence. Other part of the thesis aims on terminology of discourse markers (especially on conectores), which is problematic, and various classifications according to Czech and Spanish authors. The last part of the theoretical part is dedicated to attitude markers the main theme of this thesis, their characteristics, functions and examples. The practical part of the thesis is introduced by contrastive analysis of attitude markers carried out on selected sample of texts. Firstly the attitude markers are identified and secondly described and classified. Also is mentioned the absolute and relative frequency and comparison of the contrasts and coincidences in both languages. The thesis is finally summarized in Spanish résumé.

Using a corpus of school essays of Swedish students in year 9 and 12 of junior and senior high school, the present study compares the level of formality and frequency of discourse markers in the respective year groups. Based on previous literature, discourse markers found in the essays are categorized as either formal or informal. Ten randomly selected essays from each year group are analyzed. The results show that there are discrepancies between grade 9 and year 12 in both formality and frequency of discourse markers. The differences can be connected to second language acquisition and contexts in which the Swedish students acquire English. Outer input of English, made possible by new technology and globalization, has a significant impact on language acquisition, a phenomenon which is new and relatively unexplored.  The results of the current study are discussed in the light of the relevance and impacts of the frequent exposure to English through internet activities and media consumption and how it effects language learning. By focusing on discourse markers, which make up an important part of written and spoken language, I attempt to point out patterns that may be relevant and useful for English teachers. Awareness of how combined mechanisms effect and develop students´ acquisition and how to interpret differences in how students use specific grammatical elements such as discourse markers may be useful as a pedagogical analyzing tool. Not least when it comes to the assessment of essays.

Este trabalho tem como objetivo descrever os meios de expressão das relações retóricas de causa e de resultado em elocuções formais do tipo aula. A partir da aplicação da Teoria da Estrutura Retórica, teoria funcionalista criada por Mann e Thompson (1987), utilizada para descrever as relações que se estabelecem entre as partes de um texto, pretende-se verificar a importância das relações de causa e de resultado na construção de um discurso que se propõe a explicar e ensinar, conforme seu tipo de marcação em determinado contexto de aula. Para tanto, as relações foram identificadas no corpus e, em seguida, classificadas quanto ao tipo de marcação. Depois foi observado como as relações foram empregadas para que os professores que foram informantes atingissem seus propósitos comunicativos. O corpus da pesquisa é constituído de três elocuções formais (aulas) pertencentes ao banco de dados do Funcpar (Grupo de Pesquisas Funcionalistas do Norte/ Noroeste do Paran·). Os informantes da pesquisa são professores universitários que nasceram ou residem na cidade de Maringá (PR) há mais de 10 anos. Para a coleta dos dados, foram realizadas gravações durante as aulas de graduação, as quais foram transcritas conforme padrões baseado nas normas do projeto NURC, com algumas adaptações e segmentadas em unidades entonacionais, conforme Chafe (1987). Os resultados da pesquisa apontam que a an·lise das relaÁıes de causa e resultado na fala dos professores contribuiu não só com seus propósitos de ensinar, mas também com a inclinação da interpretação dos alunos diante das explicações e objetivos comunicativos dos professores. Isso acontece porque tanto a causa quanto o resultado auxiliam na explicação de determinado assunto, pois parecem facilitar o entendimento por parte dos alunos, uma vez que é mais fácil se compreender um resultado quando sua causa é apresentada. Por meio desta dissertação de mestrado, espera-se contribuir com as pesquisas sobre organização textual, sobretudo do discurso falado, pois as escolhas feitas pelo produtor de um texto, conforme seu gênero, podem influenciar não só sua coerência e entendimento, mas também os propósitos que o produtor deseja atingir. A descrição dos meios de expressão dessas relações também pode servir como base para trabalhos de geração e interpretação automática de textos na Linguística Computacional e também para a criação de materiais de produção textual / The aim of this paper is to describe how the rethorical relations cause and result are expressed in formal elocutions (lectures). By the Rethorical Structure Theory aplication, functional theory developed by Mann e Thompson (1987) which describes the established relations between the parts from a text, itís intended to verify the relations cause and result relevance in a construction of a discourse which are proposed to explain and teach, according to its kind of mark in a particular lecture context. The relations were indetified in the corpus, and after they were classified s the sort of mark. Then, it was observed how de relations were applied to the lectures, who were the informers, got their comunicatives purpose. The research corpus is formed by 10 formal elocutions (lectures) which belong to Funcpar (Functional Research Group on North/ North-East of Paran·) database. The subjects of the research are university lecturers who were born in Maring· (PR) or have lived in it for at least 10 years. The data were recorded during graduation classes and were transcribed according to a pattern based on NURC project (PRETI, 1993, p. 11-12) with a few adaptations. The segmentation of the units of the corpus followed Chafeís (1987) concept of intonation units. Results indicate the analysis of the cause and result relations in the teachersí speech not only contributed to their purpose of teaching, but also with the bent of the students interpretation in front of the teachersí explanations and communicative goals. This is because both the cause and results help in explaining subjects, because they seem to facilitate the understanding by students, since it is easier to understand a result when its cause is presented. Results of the research have showed a contribution with researches about textual organization, mainly the oral discourse, because the text producer, according to its genre, can influence not only in its coherence and compreension, but also to the purposes which the text producer aims to get. The description of this relationsí ways of comunication can serve as base to researches about textsí automatic generation and interpretation in Computational Linguistic and also to the textual production tools

abstract: ABSTRACT The teaching of formulaic sequences (FSs) to improve speech fluency is a time honored tradition in the field of English as a Second Language (ESL). However, recent research seems to indicate that certain discourse markers, specifically transition and personal stance markers, are more useful than other FSs. This study is an attempt to partially replicate (on a very small scale) one of these studies to see if the findings are similar when the standardized test materials are from the Test Of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) rather than the International English Language Testing System (IELTS). The hope is that teacher researchers could have access to readily available, standardized assessment materials with which to create their own research studies consisting of a standardized pretest and posttest. Four students of various levels in an Intensive English Program (IEP) were given a practice listening and speaking exam utilizing TOEFL preparation materials found online. The results were analyzed to see if there was a noticeable correlation between the use of the specified discourse markers on the speech portion of the test and the performance of the students on the listening portion of the test. The findings show some discrepancy between the two studies' results. It appears possible to have a high perceived fluency rate and still have a lower overall speaking fluency when taking into account listening comprehension and various other measures. / Dissertation/Thesis / M.A. English 2014

Orientador: Ingedore Grunfeld Villaça Koch / Tese (doutorado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de Estudos da Linguagem / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-15T18:30:14Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Penhavel_Eduardo_D.pdf: 1049063 bytes, checksum: 580184886e99a8e923d3f7630c0cf65a (MD5) Previous issue date: 2010 / Resumo: O presente trabalho compreende, numa primeira parte, uma análise do atual estado da arte no que se refere a pesquisas sobre Marcadores Discursivos (MDs) e, numa segunda parte, uma análise específica de MDs particularmente no âmbito da Perspectiva Textual-Interativa (Jubran e Koch, 2006). Na primeira parte, apresentamos uma proposta de classificação de abordagens de MDs, baseada em Fischer (2006a), segundo a qual podem ser distinguidos três tipos básicos de abordagens: (i) as que analisam como MDs expressões integradas a um enunciado matriz, com função de conexão e que se referem a um aspecto desse enunciado; (ii) aquelas que tomam como MDs expressões constituindo um enunciado independente, com função de gerenciamento da conversação e que se referem a planos de referência; (iii) as que consideram como MDs ambos os tipos de expressões. Em seguida, focalizamos a questão da pluralidade desordenada de abordagens particulares, típica do cenário atual de estudos sobre MDs, e argumentamos que essa situação deve-se, em parte, à natureza processual das expressões estudadas e, em parte, à diversidade desarticulada de modelos de análise que caracteriza a própria área de estudos linguísticos atualmente. Na segunda parte da tese, procuramos demonstrar, especificamente, de que forma os MDs contribuem para o processo de estruturação intratópica. Defendemos que, particularmente no gênero Relato de Opinião, esse processo funda-se na relação central-subsidiário, ou seja, na combinação, potencialmente recursiva, de conjuntos de enunciados que constroem referências centrais e conjuntos que constroem referências subsidiárias em relação a uma ideia nuclear em pauta no decorrer de um Segmento Tópico. Assumimos, então, que é em relação a esse esquema de organização que os MDs atuam em termos de estruturação intratópica e sistematizamos três aspectos desse uso: (i) definimos o traço sequenciador tópico, como consistindo na introdução de grupos de enunciados com estatuto tópico central ou subsidiário; (ii) demonstramos que os MDs operam em relação a domínios de estruturação intratópica; (iii) distinguimos dois padrões básicos de uso de MDs, correspondentes à marcação total e parcial das partes componentes de um domínio / Abstract: This dissertation is about discourse markers (DMs). It is organized into two parts. In the first part, a classification of approaches to DMs is proposed on the basis of Fischer's (2006) analysis. Three basic types are distinguished: (i) approaches that analyze DMs as expressions integrated into host utterances, with connecting functions and referring to a certain aspect of these utterances; (ii) approaches that take DMs as independent expressions, with functions regarding conversation management and referring to planes of reference; (iii) approaches that combine the first two types. In addition, the issue of the many different perspectives on DMs that presently exist is addressed, with the argument being that such a situation arises not only from the procedural nature of these items, but also from the unintegrated diversity of models of analysis available in linguistics nowadays. In the second part of the dissertation, within textual-interactive perspective (Jubran & Koch 2006), it is shown how DMs contribute to the process of intratopic structuring. It is argued that, in the genre Opinion Report, this process is based on the central-subsidiary principle. More specifically, it is argued that the intratopic structuring consists in a potentially recursive combination of groups of utterances that construct central references in relation to an ongoing core idea, with groups of utterances that construct subsidiary references in relation to such an idea. DMs are assumed to operate (in terms of intratopic structuring) with respect to this organizational mechanism, with three aspects of such use being systematized: (i) the feature topic sequencing is defined, and it is treated as involving the introduction of groups of utterances with central or subsidiary topic status; (ii) DMs are showed to operate in relation to intratopic structuring domains; (iii) two basic patterns of use of DMs are distinguished, corresponding, respectively, to the introduction of all, or a few of, the component parts of a domain / Doutorado / Doutor em Linguística

Orientador: Anna Christina Bentes da Silva / Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de Estudos da Linguagem / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-25T12:36:47Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Mariano_RafaelaDefendi_M.pdf: 5297623 bytes, checksum: e3025203a614cc57031fbb2da965c6ee (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014 / Resumo: Na presente pesquisa, procuramos investigar em que medida os recursos do nível textual são formatados e, de certa forma, formatam as situações de uso. Para tanto, analisamos as ações de textualização empreendidas pelos participantes do programa midiático "Manos e Minas", veiculado pela TV Cultura. Em função de um de nossos objetivos específicos ser o de demonstrar como um olhar para as ações de textualização empreendidas pelos participantes desse programa midiático pode nos auxiliar na percepção da estruturação composicional dos textos analisados, selecionamos os marcadores discursivos e as sequências textuais como unidades de análise. Para proceder, então, à análise dessas unidades, assumimos a noção de marcadores discursivos (doravante, MDs) da perspectiva textual-interativa e a noção de sequência textual proposta por Adam (2008). O corpus selecionado para análise é composto de três amostras do programa de auditório "Manos e Minas". Esse programa midiático pode ser considerado como lugar estratégico na televisão brasileira, uma vez que "Manos e Minas" se coloca como um programa de representação e de valorização de um campo de não-prestígio social e cultural: a periferia. A partir de nossas análises, observamos, no programa "Manos e Minas", relações de mútua constitutividade existentes entre (i) o emprego de certas sequências textuais e determinadas situações comunicativas desenhadas para atingir certos objetivos mais gerais do programa e entre (ii) a emergência de algumas sequências textuais e os papéis sociais específicos desempenhados pelos sujeitos dentro da estrutura de participação do programa. Também observamos que os MDs nesse programa parecem desempenhar um papel fundamental na estruturação dos microtextos produzidos pelos participantes do programa. De modo geral, podemos dizer que nossas análises deram visibilidade às inúmeras possibilidades de combinação de tipos e ações textuais, combinações estas que, em geral, são conectadas por meio de MDs. Por fim, podemos concluir que a textualidade constitutiva da produção discursiva analisada é plasmada pelas relações sociais estabelecidas entre os participantes do programa. A interação entre os interlocutores no "Manos e Minas" é fortemente marcada por um caráter fático e colaborativo, reforçado pela presença significativa dos MDs interacionais e pelo desenvolvimento de sequências textuais do tipo dialogal / Abstract: On this present research, we aim to investigate the extent in which textual-level resources are formatted and, somewhat, format the usage situations. To do that, we analyze the textualizing actions undertook by participants in media production "Manos e Minas", transmitted by TV Cultura. As one of our goals is to demonstrate how a deep look for the textualizing actions undertook by participants of this media production can help us to understand the compositional structuring of analyzed texts, we selected discourse markers and textual sequences as the analysis units. To proceed to the analysis of these units, we adopted discourse markers concept (from now on DMs) from textual-interactive perspective, and textual sequence concept proposed by Adam (2008). The corpus selected for analysis is composed from three samples of auditorium production "Manos e Minas". This media production can be seen as strategical spot on Brazilian television once "Manos e Minas" is situated as a production for representation and valorization of a social e cultural non-prestige field: the peripherie. From our analysis, we observed in "Manos e Minas" production an mutual constitution between (i) the use of certain textual sequences and communicative situations designed to reach more general objectives of the show; and (ii) the outbreak of certain textual sequences and the specific social roles played by subjects within the structure of participation on this auditorium TV show. We also observed that DMs on this show seems to play a critical role structuring micro texts produced by participants on the show. Overall, we can say that our analysis put into visibility the multiple combination possibilities of textual types and actions, which are generally connected through DMs. Finally, we can conclude that the textuality which constitutes this discursive production is shaped by social relationships established by its speakers. The interaction between speakers in "Manos e Minas" production is strongly marked by an phatic and collaborative nature, reinforced by significative presence of interactional DMs and development of dialogue sequences / Mestrado / Linguistica / Mestra em Linguística

The present comparative parallel corpus study of Russian and Swedish polar response particles shows that Swedish displays a highly polarity dependent answering system whereas Russian vacillates between an agreement/disagreement system and a polarity system and also uses echo responses to some degree. It is shown that aligning responses in Swedish always match the polarity of the prior turn. In most cases the Swedish response particles agree in polarity with the following proposition but this tendency is not decisive in the polarity assignment of response particles. In discourse marking functions the polarity of the response particles becomes less apparent.

Increasing involvement with students at the University of Namibia has indicated their overall difficulty with comprehending and recalling information from oral content lectures. It has also been observed that in general very little attention is given to the development of listening skills in L2 ESP and EAP courses. For this study, I conducted a quasi-experiment to determine whether the recognition and interpretation of discourse markers will enhance students' listening comprehension in academic lectures. Students were tested to determine their comprehension of content information in a video-taped lecture. Qualitative data were collected by means of a questionnaire. After an intervention period of eight weeks, where the experimental group received strategy training in the recognition and interpretation of discourse markers in spoken texts, both groups were again tested. Their results were statistically compared. I also looked at related findings of other researchers. Finally, aspects for possible future research will also be considered. / English Studies / MA - (Specialisation in TESOL)

Increasing involvement with students at the University of Namibia has indicated their overall difficulty with comprehending and recalling information from oral content lectures. It has also been observed that in general very little attention is given to the development of listening skills in L2 ESP and EAP courses. For this study, I conducted a quasi-experiment to determine whether the recognition and interpretation of discourse markers will enhance students' listening comprehension in academic lectures. Students were tested to determine their comprehension of content information in a video-taped lecture. Qualitative data were collected by means of a questionnaire. After an intervention period of eight weeks, where the experimental group received strategy training in the recognition and interpretation of discourse markers in spoken texts, both groups were again tested. Their results were statistically compared. I also looked at related findings of other researchers. Finally, aspects for possible future research will also be considered. / English Studies / MA - (Specialisation in TESOL)

Mitigation is the modification of language in response to social or cognitive challenges (stressors) in contexts of linguistic interaction (Martinovski, Mao, Gratch, & Marsella 2005). Previous mitigation research has been largely from social perspectives, addressing the word or utterance levels of language. This dissertation presents an empirical study of mitigating language resulting from both a cognitive stressor (degree of uncertainty) and social stressor (degree of imposition) in Spanish discourse, and the impacts of mitigation on interaction and interlocutors. The tripartite approach includes a: (1) quantitative analysis of discourse markers associated with mitigation (speaker-discourse, speaker-listener, and epistemic markers); (2) qualitative discourse analysis, relying on concepts from the Conversation Analysis framework; and (3) qualitative analysis of interlocutors’ perceptions of mitigation, using metalinguistic conversations. The results are discussed considering prior research on mitigation, politeness theories, and Clark’s (2006) model of ‘language use’ to address information types, interlocutor roles, and mutual knowledge. In addition, Caffi and Janney’s (1994) ‘anticipatory schemata’ and Pinker’s (2007) social psychological perspective of indirect language inform the theoretical framework. Results indicate that: (1) Mitigation devices vary depending on contextual factors prompting mitigation, significantly fewer speaker-listener markers are shown as evidence of mitigation, and epistemic markers, which are commonly analyzed mitigation devices, are infrequent overall in these data. These results provide evidence against the assumption that mitigation is associated with increased use of linguistic devices; (2) Two mitigating discourse structures were found, depending on the degree of uncertainty. Within contexts of high-imposition, the Co-reconstruction structure (CRS) is found in contexts with uncertainty and the Non-linear structure (NLS) is in contexts with certainty; and (3) The listeners’ metalinguistic comments indicate that the CRS, compared to the NLS, is preferred. Also, the results indicate how interlocutors address cognitive, social, and emotional stressors in interaction. Considering all analyses, a unifying definition of mitigation in discourse is provided. This phenomenon is characterized as the postponement of both confirmed knowledge and negotiation of the interlocutor relationship. This research contributes the first experimental investigation of mitigation as the result of cognitive and social stressors, and also the first systematic analysis of mitigation in Spanish discourse. / text