<p>This investigation examined the functions of two Spanish discourse markers, <i>pues</i> and <i>bueno</i>, in the interlanguage of intermediate English-speaking learners of Spanish. <i>Pues</i> is translated in English to ‘so’, ‘then’, ‘cos’, and ‘well’, and <i>bueno</i> is translated in English to ‘well’ and ‘alright’. Discourse markers like <i>pues</i> and <i>bueno </i>provide cohesion in spoken interaction, and despite the lack of attention received in second language research and classrooms, they are important linguistic features for second language users. While several studies have addressed discourse markers by non-native speakers, the present investigation contributed to the scarce body of research on interlanguage discourse marker use in Spanish and to general theoretical discussions about second language discourse marker use and acquisition by considering discourse marker frequency in input and describing the use of <i>pues</i> and <i>bueno</i> in the interlanguage of Spanish learners. In this investigation, frequency of use, functional range, and functional distribution were analyzed as three distinct facets of discourse marker proficiency.</p> <p>Using a native speaker functional framework established by Travis (2005) for reference, the analyses responded to the following general questions: How do Spanish learners compare to native speakers of Peninsular Spanish in their frequency of use, functional range, and functional distribution of <i>pues</i> and <i>bueno</i>? How are these three variables among learners affected by a 6-week, language immersion study abroad program? Finally, how do native speakers of Peninsular Spanish and second language learners of Spanish compare in their characteristic patterns of <i>pues</i> and <i>bueno</i> functional use? Using oral interviews of 58 non-native (L2) Spanish speakers at the beginning and end of a program abroad and 14 native speakers (NS) of Spanish from Madrid, all tokens of <i>pues</i> (<i>N</i> = 506) and <i>bueno</i> (<i>N</i> = 273) were analyzed according to the functional framework (Travis, 2005). Analyses revealed infrequent L2 use of <i>pues </i>and <i>bueno</i> with a limited range of functions and distinct functional distribution compared to NS data. Over the program abroad, learners significantly increased their functional range of <i>pues</i>.<i> </i>No other significant differences in learner use over the program were identified. Detailed analysis of the patterns of use of native speakers and learners led to the identification of unique discourse marker uses in the interlanguage of learners. These findings were discussed in light of issues of interlanguage discourse marker use, discourse marker frequency in input, and second language instruction.</p>

<p>This investigation examined the effectiveness of different types of explicit classroom instruction on second language (L2) development of the Spanish discourse marker (DM) <em>pues</em>. While several studies have addressed the positive effect of explicit instruction on L2 DM development, the current investigation moves beyond the explicit-implicit method debate by examining the comparative effectiveness of different types of explicit instruction, specifically by comparing the effects of concept-based instruction (CBI), rule-based instruction (RBI), and a control group (CTRL). This investigation contributes to the field of instructed pragmatics by demonstrating how different types of explicit instruction can affect the robustness of pragmatics learning outcomes. Furthermore, with the inclusion of CBI, this investigation expands theoretical paradigms for L2 pragmatics teaching to include a less explored framework for instruction — sociocultural theory (Vygotsky, 1987).</p> <p><br></p> <p>Given the learnability problem posed by the low perceptual salience and extensive multifunctionality of DMs, along with their conceptual connections to important interactional practices and to a semantic core that guides their use in discourse, DMs and <em>pues</em> specifically were identified as a potentially ideal candidate for development through CBI. <em>Pues</em> is translated in English to ‘so’, ‘then’, ‘cos’, and ‘well’ and is a highly frequent feature of Spanish conversation (Domínguez García, 2016; Stenström, 2006a; Stenström, 2006b). DMs like <em>pues </em>contribute to speakers’ ability to communicate effectively and participate in social interaction (Crible & Pascual, 2020; Hayano, 2011; Hoshi, 2017; Thörle, 2016) and, thus, they are important linguistic features for L2 speakers.</p> <p><br></p> <p>Using a pre, post, and delayed post design, data were collected using an oral decision-making task and a dialogue reflection task. The analyses addressed whether CBI, RBI, and CTRL produce the same effect on L2 Spanish learners’ <em>pues</em> frequency of use, <em>pues</em> functional range, and use of <em>pues</em> in interaction. As a secondary objective, the analyses also considered whether CBI and RBI produce the same effect on L2 Spanish learners’ ability to transfer learning to unlearned DMs.</p> <p><br></p> <p>Quantitative analyses, which addressed the learners’ ability to use <em>pues</em> frequently and for a range of functions, indicated an advantage for the CBI group, with CBI learners using <em>pues</em> with greater frequency of use and functional range than RBI and CTRL learners. The qualitative analysis, which addressed the learners’ ability to use <em>pues</em> in interaction, also indicated an advantage for the CBI group, with CBI learners using <em>pues</em> to express a stance of givenness towards utterances as well as to manage turn-taking in interaction. CBI learners’ use of <em>pues</em> for accomplishing these two interactional practices indicated a deeper understanding of <em>pues</em> and how the DM can be used to accomplish social actions in interaction.</p> <p><br></p> <p>Overall, the findings provide support for the claim that CBI is superior to traditional explicit models of instruction (Erikson, Lanning, & French, 2017) and suggest that the learnability problem of DMs may be lessened by providing a conceptual structure that presents learners with a framework for organizing DM multifunctionality and that also highlights the interactional importance of DMs as tools that can be used to accomplish social actions. The findings are discussed considering the role of conceptual knowledge in L2 DM development and implications for pragmatics instruction.</p>

English is used as a lingua franca to communicate when interlocutors' do not share a first language (DeBartolo, 2014). This is prominent in academia, where teachers and students in international exchange programs communicate daily in English as a lingua franca (ELF). Previous research suggests that ELF speakers in this context use discourse markers (DM) as a pragmatic strategy to support their output and maintain a comprehensible discourse. However, most previous studies only used small corpora for qualitative analysis. This thesis adds to preceding research by combining qualitative and quantitative analysis of new data from an ELF corpus previously not used from this perspective. The context of the study is ELF spoken between students and teachers during academic consultation hours and possible pragmatic strategies in their use of the DMs yeah, okay and so. The analysis shows frequent use of DMs for both groups, but, perhaps due to the speaker roles, they favour different ones. For example, teachers use the function to explain and elaborate fourfold to students, this supports the nature of teacher exposition. Conversely, students' most frequently used functions indicate an active listener role, such as signalling receipt of messages. The results from this study indicate that, in an academic ELF context, teachers and students frequently use these DMs as pragmatic strategies to support their output and indicate attentiveness.

Le présent travail part d'un concept heuristique, le « travail de l'altérité », pour élucider un faisceau de propriétés syntaxiques et fonctionnelles des mots du discours en allemand. Nous posons l'idée d'une coexistence entre points de vue différents à l'intérieur d'un même énoncé, et distinguons trois types de prise en compte de cette altérité constitutive. Un énoncé peut être pris comme une expression partielle et partiale de ce qu'il y aurait à dire, et coexister avec d'autres points de vue sur un mode cumulatif. C'est le domaine d'intervention d'une classe d'adverbiaux que nous qualifions de perspectivaux et que l'on peut identifier par un ensemble de propriétés distributionnelles précises. L'énoncé peut être construit par contrepied vis-à-vis d'autres énoncés possibles, correspondant à des solutions préconstruites (phénomènes de focalisation). On distingue alors les adverbiaux paradigmatisants, classe fonctionnelle associée à des propriétés sémantico-syntaxiques précises, de l'ensemble plus vaste des adverbiaux sensibles au focus, mais aussi des adverbes spécialisés dans l'expression du parcours sur une classe d'arguments. Ceux-ci accèdent à la fonction d'adverbial paradigmatisant, mais peuvent apparaître dans d'autres fonctions. Enfin, la gestion de la pluralité des points de vue peut correspondre à la coexistence d'avis divergents sur la validité du contenu. Ce mode d'altérité est géré en allemand par les particules modales, classe strictement fonctionnelle dont l'analyse débouche sur une reconsidération des types d'énoncés, conçus comme des configurations d'indices locutoires, dans une perspective austinienne. / This study deals with three groups of discourse markers in German: (i) disjuncts and attitudinal adverbials (henceforth "perspectival adverbials"), (ii) focus particles ("paradigm-scanning adverbials") and (iii) modal particles. The starting point of the analysis is the heuristic notion of "Otherness at work", i.e. the constitutive role of coexisting heterogeneous viewpoints: the three groups of discourse markers, each of which has the status of a functional class with recurring distributional properties, correspond to three modes of Otherness. First, an utterance can be seen as expressing a biased and selective perspective on "What there is". It thus coexists with other, possible yet dispreferred perspectives. Modal adverbials, argumentative disjuncts and metalinguistic markers are various subtypes of these perspectival adverbials. Further, the utterance (or a constituent thereof) can be located into a set of conflicting alternatives thanks to various focussing strategies. It is necessary to distinguish between focus-sensitive adverbials as a whole, the functional class of paradigm-scanning adverbials, and the lexical set of contrastive adverbs that can access the aforementioned function. The traditional class of "focus particle" is thus deconstructed along three different, non-parallel levels. Finally, constitutive otherness can stand for conflicting or mixed views about the validity of the propositional content. This kind of Otherness, which can (but needs not) correspond to modal intersubjectivisation, is the semantic domain of modal particles, which are analyzed here in their interaction with sentence mood.

Cette thèse analyse la transition topicale en anglais américain à l’aide d’un corpus audio de conversations spontanées entre proches. L’objet d’étude principal est l’action interactionnelle qui consiste à changer de topique discursif, ainsi que les diverses stratégies linguistiques que les participants ont à leur disposition. Trois modalités de marquage sont prises en compte : les questions, les marqueurs de discours, et le registre de la voix. Chaque modalité est analysée pour sa contribution individuelle, ainsi que pour les associations avec d’autres modalités qu’elle peut occasionner. Se pencher sur différentes modalités de marquage crée une vue d’ensemble composite de l’influence que la trajectoire topicale d’une conversation a sur sa grammaire et sa prosodie. Dans le cadre d’une approche mixte mêlant analyses qualitatives et quantitatives, cette étude se situe à la croisée de plusieurs cadres théoriques, empruntant tant à l’analyse conversationnelle et à la linguistique interactionnelle pour l’analyse qualitative située, qu’à la linguistique de corpus de par ses méthodes quantitatives telles que le codage systématique des données et le recours aux statistiques. Ce projet multi-domaines est complété par une comparaison entre conversations typiques et atypiques. Les personnes schizophrènes peuvent connaître des difficultés dans la gestion des topiques d’une conversation, ce qui peut occasionner des transitions non-canoniques. Comparer ce type de données à celles de participants typiques apporte un éclairage supplémentaire sur certaines des attentes, préférences et standards, par ailleurs moins visibles lorsque la transition topicale est plus aisée. / The research presented in this dissertation analyzes topic transition in American English interaction, focusing on audio recordings of spontaneous conversations between friends and relatives. The main object of inquiry is the interactional action of transitioning to a new discourse topic, as well as the different linguistic strategies that participants have at their disposal. Three main types of cues are investigated: questions, discourse markers, and pitch register. Each type of cue is analyzed for its individual contribution to topic transition design, as well as for the way it can combine with, supplement, or contradict other cues. Analyzing different types of cues – verbal and prosodic – creates a composite picture of the various ways in which the topic trajectory of a conversation shapes its grammar – including its prosody. This study uses a mixed-methods approach which draws on the qualitative-oriented theoretical frameworks of Conversation Analysis and Interactional Linguistics, combining them with quantitative methods used in Corpus Linguistics, such as systematic coding and statistics. This multi-domain account is completed by elaborating a comparison between typical and atypical interactions. Persons suffering from schizophrenia can experience difficulties in managing the topics of a conversation, and they can produce non-canonical transitions. Comparing their data with that of typical participants thus sheds light on some of the expectations, preferences and standard formats which can otherwise remain hidden when topic transition goes smoothly.

<p>This work investigates into the semantic domain of evidentiality and its grammatical expression in Spanish. A model for describing the evidentiality domain is outlined, which emphasises the scalar nature of the proposed parameters: information source (subject-internal ↔ external), access to information (exclusive ↔ universal) and mode of access (sensory ↔ cognitive), all of which are construed as bipolar continua. Support is also provided for the relevance of using the notions of deixis and perspective in describing evidentiality.</p><p>The prevailing view in current research is that of evidentiality being a grammatical category to be analysed separately from other evidential strategies. The present study challenges this view as it attempts to broaden the perspective on how evidential meanings, expressed by various grammatical means, fit into an overall picture of human cognition and communication patterns. The theoretical framework adopted is that of Cognitive Grammar, which, it is argued, is particularly suited for investigating evidentiality, in particular due to the central role given to perspective, metaphor and category fuzziness in describing grammar and grammatical structures.</p><p>Four articles constitute the body of this work, in which four different prototypical aspects of the encoding of evidentiality into grammatical devices in Spanish are addressed. In the first, the marking of common knowledge in consecutive connectives is argued to depend on a perspective shift; the second proposes the evidential values of tense morphemes to be their core meaning, time deixis being an inference; in the third and the forth it is claimed that the evidential and modal effects of both subject-raising and clitic climbing are determined through the attribution of varying degrees of prominence to the relational participants.</p>

In any human culture the telling of stories for representing past events is likely to have a centralplace. The aim of this dissertation is to describe storytelling among Swedish adolescents from astructural, interactional and functional perspective, and to demonstrate how the meaning of thestory is interactionally constructed. The material consists of a corpus of 258 stories taken from 30 hours of tape recordings of conversations between adolescents, aged 10-15, of both sexes, mostly in naturally occurring situations. The majority of the recordings were made in the late 80's and early 90's, while others datefrom 1974-1984. The study tries to combine the theoretical and methodological ideas of conversational analysis(CA) and sociolinguistic discourse analysis. The method is basically qualitative and the analysesare carried out through detailed scrutiny of pieces of recordings and transcriptions. The aspects ofstorytelling that arc studied include the way the stories are introduced and accounted for in the ongoing conversation, how they are designed by the teller in order to propose and make the listeneraccept a certain version of what happened, and how the listener through his contributions duringthe telling can accept, modify, reject and negotiate the meaning proposed by the teller. Another aspect studied is how the stories serve as means for self- and other-presentations. The results show that, both as tellers and listeners, Swedish adolescents make use of many different strategies to structure the telling and evaluate the story. These include verb tense, word orderand different kinds of discourse markers as well as highly emotional and dramatizing features suchas reported speech, onomatopoetic expressions and laughter. A very important evaluative deviceis the discourse marker ba. Dramatization is also found in many of the listener's contributions tothe telling. It is also shown that there are substantial differences between boys and girls, both in the use of (some of) these dramatizing features and in the way they construct and present themselves and others in the stories. This seems to be due to the fact that storytelling serves different functions in groups of boys and girls. Finally, it is argued that there are some indications of an ongoing change in the narrative style of Swedish adolescents.

This work investigates into the semantic domain of evidentiality and its grammatical expression in Spanish. A model for describing the evidentiality domain is outlined, which emphasises the scalar nature of the proposed parameters: information source (subject-internal ↔ external), access to information (exclusive ↔ universal) and mode of access (sensory ↔ cognitive), all of which are construed as bipolar continua. Support is also provided for the relevance of using the notions of deixis and perspective in describing evidentiality. The prevailing view in current research is that of evidentiality being a grammatical category to be analysed separately from other evidential strategies. The present study challenges this view as it attempts to broaden the perspective on how evidential meanings, expressed by various grammatical means, fit into an overall picture of human cognition and communication patterns. The theoretical framework adopted is that of Cognitive Grammar, which, it is argued, is particularly suited for investigating evidentiality, in particular due to the central role given to perspective, metaphor and category fuzziness in describing grammar and grammatical structures. Four articles constitute the body of this work, in which four different prototypical aspects of the encoding of evidentiality into grammatical devices in Spanish are addressed. In the first, the marking of common knowledge in consecutive connectives is argued to depend on a perspective shift; the second proposes the evidential values of tense morphemes to be their core meaning, time deixis being an inference; in the third and the forth it is claimed that the evidential and modal effects of both subject-raising and clitic climbing are determined through the attribution of varying degrees of prominence to the relational participants.

This thesis deals with the correlative markers d’une part… d’autre part, d’un côté… de l’autre and non seulement… mais in French and their Swedish counterparts dels… dels, å ena sidan… å andra sidan and inte bara… utan. These markers are composed of two separate parts generally occurring together, and announce a serial of at least two textual units to be considered together. The analyses of the use of these three French and three Swedish markers are based upon two corpora of non-academic humanities texts. The first, principal corpus, is composed only of original French and Swedish texts. The second, complementary corpus, is composed of source texts in the two languages and their translations in the other language. By the combination of these two corpora, this study is comparative as well as contrastive. Through application of the Geneva model of discourse analysis and the Rhetorical Structure Theory, a semantic and functional approach to correlative markers and their text-structural role is adopted. The study shows similarities as well as differences between the six markers, both within each language and between the languages. D’une part… d’autre part and dels… dels principally mark a conjunctive relation, whereas d’un côté… de l’autre and å ena sidan… å andra sidan more often are used in  a contrastive relation, even though they all can be used for both kinds of relations. Non seulement… mais and inte bara… utan mark a conjunctive relation, but can also indicate that the second argument is stronger than the first one. By the use of these two markers, the language users also present the first one as given and the second one as new information. In general, the French correlative markers appear to have a more argumentative function, whereas the text-structural function is demonstrated to be the most important in Swedish.

Mémoire (M.A.)-- Université du Québec à Chicoutimi, 1992. / Ce mémoire a été réalisé à l'UQAC dans le cadre du programme de maîtrise en linguistique extensionné de l'Université Laval à l'UQAC. CaQCU Bibliogr.: f. [81]-86. Document électronique également accessible en format PDF. CaQCU