Chapter 1. The emergence of Hebrew loydea / loydat (‘I dunno masc/fem ’) from interaction
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Yael Maschler
Abstract
A general approach to discourse markers is sketched through an analysis which approaches grammar as emerging in interaction and coming into being through mundane language use (Hopper 1987, 2011). The study continues work on mental verb constructions in a variety of languages. By analyzing all 191 tokens of the (subj)-neg-pred construction of the Hebrew mental verb yada (‘know’) employed throughout audio-recordings of over 7.5 hours of Hebrew casual interactional data, I trace the route of this construction’s gravitation towards the discourse marker loydea / loydat (‘I dunno masc/fem’). I argue that employment of the construction is highly formulaic, not necessarily epistemic, and that its uses are closely tied to its prosodic, morphophonological and syntactic properties, to its position within the ongoing turn and sequence, and to the particular activities in which participants engage in interaction. Based on a mostly synchronic analysis of the data, I suggest two grammaticization paths leading to employment of this construction as a discourse marker. This is then supported with some diachronic evidence. The study of Hebrew loydea / loydat (‘I dunno masc/fem’) shows that the boundaries between the three categories of discourse marker, pragmatic marker, and modal particle can be rather blurred.
Abstract
A general approach to discourse markers is sketched through an analysis which approaches grammar as emerging in interaction and coming into being through mundane language use (Hopper 1987, 2011). The study continues work on mental verb constructions in a variety of languages. By analyzing all 191 tokens of the (subj)-neg-pred construction of the Hebrew mental verb yada (‘know’) employed throughout audio-recordings of over 7.5 hours of Hebrew casual interactional data, I trace the route of this construction’s gravitation towards the discourse marker loydea / loydat (‘I dunno masc/fem’). I argue that employment of the construction is highly formulaic, not necessarily epistemic, and that its uses are closely tied to its prosodic, morphophonological and syntactic properties, to its position within the ongoing turn and sequence, and to the particular activities in which participants engage in interaction. Based on a mostly synchronic analysis of the data, I suggest two grammaticization paths leading to employment of this construction as a discourse marker. This is then supported with some diachronic evidence. The study of Hebrew loydea / loydat (‘I dunno masc/fem’) shows that the boundaries between the three categories of discourse marker, pragmatic marker, and modal particle can be rather blurred.
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Preface ix
- Introduction. Pragmatic Markers, Discourse Markers and Modal Particles 1
-
Part 1. General theoretical questions and quantitative approaches
- Chapter 1. The emergence of Hebrew loydea / loydat (‘I dunno masc/fem ’) from interaction 37
- Chapter 2. Towards a model for discourse marker annotation 71
- Chapter 3. Towards an operational category of discourse markers 99
- Chapter 4. A corpus-based approach to functional markers in Greek 125
- Chapter 5. Discourse markers and discourse relations 151
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Part 2. The status of modal particles
- Chapter 6. Modal particles and Verum focus 171
- Chapter 7. Italian non-canonical negations as modal particles 203
- Chapter 8. A format for the description of German modal particles and their functional equivalents in Croatian and English 229
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Part 3. Language-specific and diachronic studies
- Chapter 9. Vocatives as a source category for pragmatic markers 257
- Chapter 10. Paths of development of English DMs 289
- Chapter 11. Grammaticalization of PMs/DMs/MMs in Japanese 305
- Chapter 12. Dubitative-corrective constructions in Italian 335
- Chapter 13. On the pragmatic expansion of Polish gdzieś tam ‘somewhere (there)/about’ 369
- Chapter 14. A pragmatic approach to Joseph Wright’s English Dialect Dictionary 399
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Part 4. Language contact and variation
- Chapter 15. Italian discourse markers and modal particles in contact 417
- Chapter 16. Functional markers in llanito code-switching 439
- Chapter 17. Just a suggestion 459
- Author index 481
- Language index 487
- Subject index 489
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Preface ix
- Introduction. Pragmatic Markers, Discourse Markers and Modal Particles 1
-
Part 1. General theoretical questions and quantitative approaches
- Chapter 1. The emergence of Hebrew loydea / loydat (‘I dunno masc/fem ’) from interaction 37
- Chapter 2. Towards a model for discourse marker annotation 71
- Chapter 3. Towards an operational category of discourse markers 99
- Chapter 4. A corpus-based approach to functional markers in Greek 125
- Chapter 5. Discourse markers and discourse relations 151
-
Part 2. The status of modal particles
- Chapter 6. Modal particles and Verum focus 171
- Chapter 7. Italian non-canonical negations as modal particles 203
- Chapter 8. A format for the description of German modal particles and their functional equivalents in Croatian and English 229
-
Part 3. Language-specific and diachronic studies
- Chapter 9. Vocatives as a source category for pragmatic markers 257
- Chapter 10. Paths of development of English DMs 289
- Chapter 11. Grammaticalization of PMs/DMs/MMs in Japanese 305
- Chapter 12. Dubitative-corrective constructions in Italian 335
- Chapter 13. On the pragmatic expansion of Polish gdzieś tam ‘somewhere (there)/about’ 369
- Chapter 14. A pragmatic approach to Joseph Wright’s English Dialect Dictionary 399
-
Part 4. Language contact and variation
- Chapter 15. Italian discourse markers and modal particles in contact 417
- Chapter 16. Functional markers in llanito code-switching 439
- Chapter 17. Just a suggestion 459
- Author index 481
- Language index 487
- Subject index 489