A great amount of sociolinguistic research in contact situations has centered on phonological and morphosyntactic variables, but studies of discourse-pragmatic features in contact situations are scarce and incipient. Discourse-pragmatic features are syntactically optional elements that are used to guide, structure, or express a stance towards discourse (Pichler, 2013, p. 4). These features are hallmarks of grammaticalization because of their decategorialization to fulfill pragmatic functions (Brinton, 2006; Traugott, 1995). Their analysis in language contact situations can shed light on contact-induced change, since they occur on the periphery of grammar and appear to constitute a part of grammar that is highly permeable (e.g. Brody, 1987; 1995; Dajko & Carmichael, 2014). Previous studies of discourse-pragmatic features in contact situations widely focus on a recipient language in which discourse-pragmatic features from a donor language are inserted or calqued (e.g. Lipski, 2005; Salmons, 1990; Torres, 2002), without considering the linguistic and social conditioning of these features in the donor language, which is crucial to assess the permeability of discourse. This dissertation assesses the permeability of discourse in the speech of eighteen Spanish-English bilinguals from Southern Arizona. In doing so, it analyzes the linguistic and social conditioning of three discourse-pragmatic features that are prominent in both languages. These discourse-pragmatic features include the discourse marker like in English and its equivalents como, como que, and like in Spanish, quotatives, and general extenders. It was expected that these discourse-pragmatic features would be highly permeable in the speech of these bilinguals; however, contact with English did not radically influence the use of any of these discourse-pragmatic features in the Spanish of these bilinguals. This dissertation contributes to our understanding of the permeability of discourse in bilingual speech. In addition, it explores how this knowledge can be applied in pedagogical contexts.

General extenders are examined in a collection of spoken data drawn from the two sub-corpora Business and Leisure of the British National Corpus. This study investigates the use of the 110 instances of or something, and everything, and and stuff in native speakers’ discourses. The speakers are males and females aged 15-59 years. This study focuses on the frequency and functions of general extenders, and explores whether there is a relationship between the use of GEs and speakers’ ages as well as the gender of speakers. For the purposes of this study, both quantitative and qualitative methods are used. The analysis shows that the most frequent form is or something (representing 65.45% of the data), followed by and everything (20.90%) and and stuff (13.63%). This study reports that general extenders are multifunctional, and that they indicate ideational and interpersonal functions. However, there is considerable variation in the use of general extenders. These forms are mainly used to implicate a category. The predominant use of these forms occurs in young speakers’ discourses, and their frequency decreases as the speakers get older. In addition, this study points to the differences between female and male speakers in using general extenders, and that females use these expressions more frequently than males. / General extenders undersöks i språkbrukares tal som härrör från två sub-corpora Business och Leisure från British National Corpus. Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka 110 instanser av or something, and everything, och and stuff hos brittiska mäns och kvinnors tal i åldersspannet 15-59 år. Denna studie fokuserar på general extenders frekvenser samt funktioner, och undersöker huruvida om deras användningen är korrelerade med språkbrukarnas ålder och kön. I denna studie används både kvantitativa och kvalitativa analysmetoder. Resultaten visar att den vanligaste formen är or something som motsvarar 65.45% av datan, följt av and everything 20.90%, medan den lägsta användningen gäller and stuff 13.63%. Denna studie visar att general extenders är multifunktionella det vill säga de indikerar ideella och interpersonella funktioner. Språkbrukare använder dock general extenders huvudsakligen för att implicera en kategori. Den övervägande användningen av general extenders sker i unga talares diskurser, deras frekvens minskas i äldre språkbrukares tal, samt kvinnor använder dem mer än män gör.

Pervasive in spontaneous informal conversation, general extenders (GEs) are vague multiword expressions (e.g. or something (like that), and stuff (like that) vs. nebo něco (takovýho), a tak(ový věci)) that have been shown to fulfil a number of communicative functions, ranging from propositional to expressive. But while the English extenders have received a lot of meticulous attention in nearly four decades of research, the corresponding Czech constructions remain largely overlooked (perhaps with the exception of Tárnyiková 2009 and Novotný & Malá 2018). The current study aims to (1) present a wide range of English and Czech GE forms (collected using the method of collocational frames (Aijmer 2015) and then categorised according to structural similarities, thus suggesting possible GE patterns); and (2) examine their communicative functions in contemporary English and Czech as represented in comparable corpora of informal spoken discourse (Spoken BNC2014 and ORAL2013, respectively). Relying extensively on functional frameworks introduced in previous research (e.g. Overstreet 1999, 2014), this study confirms what has been known about English GEs and investigates the degree of applicability to the respective Czech constructions. A close qualitative analysis of some of the collected GE forms (in total,...

This study analyses the translation of pragmatic markers from English into Swedish. The source text that was translated and used as a basis for the study is an article called “Black Books”, which was published in the British music magazine Prog in January 2013. The study is limited to question tags, general extenders and single-word pragmatic markers. It aims to investigate how these types of pragmatic markers can be translated in a dynamic and natural way, as well as how a careful analysis can facilitate the search for appropriate translation equivalents. Previous research and theories were used to determine the functions of the pragmatic markers in the source text, and the translation choices made on the basis of these findings were supported by corpus searches in the English-Swedish Parallel Corpus and Korp. The study revealed that because of the different ways in which pragmatic functions are expressed in English and Swedish, almost none of the pragmatic markers in the source text could be translated directly into Swedish. Formally equivalent solutions such as tja as a translation of well were generally considered too unnatural. While the study is too small to provide any general guidelines, it shows how a careful analysis may help the translator find more dynamically equivalent and natural solutions in the form of, for instance, other Swedish pragmatic markers, modal particles, adverbs and conjunctions.

El objetivo de este estudio es investigar la secuencia y las funciones de un tipo de marcador discursivo denominado apéndice generalizador en textos del siglo XVI. Los apéndices generalizadores son marcadores discursivos que van introducidos por la conjunción ‘o’ o ‘y’ y su función primaria es la de generalizar el significado del miembro discursivo a que va añadido. Nuestro estudio enfoca los apéndices del tipo ‘o cosa(s)’ en textos del siglo XVI e investigamos cuales son las funciones discursivos que cumplen los apéndices en los textos y en qué nivel discursivo operan. Los diferentes niveles discutidos son la modalización del significado, la autorregulación, la intersubjetividad y la fuerza ilocutiva. Analizamos los apéndices generalizadores según su función pragmática y presentamos distintos casos de las diferentes funciones que asumen en el discurso. Llegamos a la conclusión que los apéndices generalizadores operan en tres de los cuatro niveles discursivos a saber en el nivel de la modalización del significado, de la autorregulación y de la fuerza ilocutiva con la excepción del nivel de la intersubjetividad donde no encontramos ningún apéndice.