The journey of non-standard discourse markers in Quebec French

In this study, I look at the history of several non-standard discourse markers in Quebec French. I attempt to explain how certain markers have become specialized so as to take on a conventional role in spoken discourse. Furthermore, my current interest focuses on discourse markers and their relationship with discursive structures.

I will illustrate the organization of discursive “networks” through the presentation of two case studies, the exemplification/opposition network — from the study of par exemple —, and the exemplification/approximation network, from the study of mettons, disons, comme, genre and style.

Data are taken from sociolinguistic corpora of French spoken in Montreal, which total approximately 300 hours of sociolinguistic interviews carried out in 1971, 1984 and 1995 with speakers who are representative of the Montreal francophone sociolinguistic community.