13 Discourse markers and second language acquisition
-
Abstract
The chapter discusses second language acquisition (SLA) research on discourse markers (DMs) in Romance languages. Existing research has mainly focused on the development of DM repertoires and form-function relations across proficiency levels. It is argued that the current state of research calls for a diversification of the target structures beyond lexical markers as well as an intensification of studies of naturally occurring language use in interaction, providing for a more fine-grained differentiation of interaction-organizational workings of DMs. We illustrate this type of research by presenting preliminary results from two ongoing studies on the interactional workings of multi-word expressions corresponding to English ‘I don’t know’: French je sais pas and Spanish no se. We suggest that a sequential micro-analytic approach to DMs adds to our understanding of the development of DMs and of interactional competence in SLA, and may shed light on how processes of grammaticalization shape up in social interaction.
Abstract
The chapter discusses second language acquisition (SLA) research on discourse markers (DMs) in Romance languages. Existing research has mainly focused on the development of DM repertoires and form-function relations across proficiency levels. It is argued that the current state of research calls for a diversification of the target structures beyond lexical markers as well as an intensification of studies of naturally occurring language use in interaction, providing for a more fine-grained differentiation of interaction-organizational workings of DMs. We illustrate this type of research by presenting preliminary results from two ongoing studies on the interactional workings of multi-word expressions corresponding to English ‘I don’t know’: French je sais pas and Spanish no se. We suggest that a sequential micro-analytic approach to DMs adds to our understanding of the development of DMs and of interactional competence in SLA, and may shed light on how processes of grammaticalization shape up in social interaction.
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter I
- Manuals of Romance Linguistics V
- Contents VII
-
Part I: What are Discourse Markers?
- 1 Discourse markers: What are they and where do they come from? 1
- 2 Discourse markers vs other types of pragmatic markers 29
-
Part II: Discourse Markers at Different Levels of Linguistic Description
- 3 The semantics and pragmatics of discourse markers 65
- 4 The grammatical status of discourse markers 97
- 5 Discourse markers and prosody 129
- 6 Discourse markers and discourse/ conversational units 163
- 7 Clusters of discourse markers 193
-
Part III: Approaches to the Study of Discourse Markers
- 8 Discourse markers in a contrastive perspective 227
- 9 Discourse markers and quantitative corpus linguistics 257
- 10 Discourse markers and genre 281
-
Part IV: Discourse Markers and Interfaces
- 11 Discourse markers and politeness 319
- 12 Discourse markers and social variation 351
- 13 Discourse markers and second language acquisition 377
- 14 Discourse markers and psycholinguistic processing 413
-
Part V: Discourse Markers in the Major Romance Languages
- 15 Discourse markers in French 447
- 16 Discourse markers in Italian 479
- 17 Discourse markers in Spanish 509
- 18 Discourse markers in Catalan 539
- 19 Discourse markers in Portuguese 563
- 20 Discourse markers in Romanian 595
- Index 625
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter I
- Manuals of Romance Linguistics V
- Contents VII
-
Part I: What are Discourse Markers?
- 1 Discourse markers: What are they and where do they come from? 1
- 2 Discourse markers vs other types of pragmatic markers 29
-
Part II: Discourse Markers at Different Levels of Linguistic Description
- 3 The semantics and pragmatics of discourse markers 65
- 4 The grammatical status of discourse markers 97
- 5 Discourse markers and prosody 129
- 6 Discourse markers and discourse/ conversational units 163
- 7 Clusters of discourse markers 193
-
Part III: Approaches to the Study of Discourse Markers
- 8 Discourse markers in a contrastive perspective 227
- 9 Discourse markers and quantitative corpus linguistics 257
- 10 Discourse markers and genre 281
-
Part IV: Discourse Markers and Interfaces
- 11 Discourse markers and politeness 319
- 12 Discourse markers and social variation 351
- 13 Discourse markers and second language acquisition 377
- 14 Discourse markers and psycholinguistic processing 413
-
Part V: Discourse Markers in the Major Romance Languages
- 15 Discourse markers in French 447
- 16 Discourse markers in Italian 479
- 17 Discourse markers in Spanish 509
- 18 Discourse markers in Catalan 539
- 19 Discourse markers in Portuguese 563
- 20 Discourse markers in Romanian 595
- Index 625
