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In:Empirical Studies of the Construction of Discourse
Edited by Óscar Loureda, Inés Recio Fernández, Laura Nadal and Adriana Cruz
[Pragmatics & Beyond New Series 305] 2019
► pp. 17–42

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Chapter 1
Challenges in the contrastive study of discourse markers

The case of then

 | University of Gothenburg
Published online: 6 August 2019
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/pbns.305.01aij
Abstract
I argue that the position of the discourse markers in the utterance should be part of the contrastive analysis on the basis of a corpus case study of then and its Swedish cognate då. The focus for the contrastive analysis has been on then which has been studied both in the left and the right periphery while då has been investigated only in its use in the right periphery. English and Swedish then/då seem to have partly overlapping polysemies reflecting the fact that they are not completely grammaticalized. However, when we take the position of then/då into account there are differences between them reflecting both the uncertain distinction between their uses as discourse marker or modal particle and that languages prefer different strategies.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Then in the left and the right periphery
  • 3.The use of then in the left and the right periphery in authentic corpus examples
  • 4.Then in the left periphery
    • 4.1LP then as a connective adverbial stating the consequence of an event or circumstance in the preceding discourse
    • 4.2Then as a discourse marker indicating that an utterance is a deduction from what has been said in the preceding discourse
    • 4.3Then as a discourse marker in non-declarative utterances indicating that a request or a question is warranted by the preceding discourse
  • 5.Then in the right periphery
    • 5.1RP then in questions
    • 5.2Then in assertions expressing modal uncertainty
    • 5.3RP then in requests for action with a mitigating function
    • 5.4RP then commenting on what has been said by adding a modification
    • 5.5RP then with textual functions on the information structure level
    • 5.6Summarising then as a modal particle in the right periphery
  • 6.Some cross-linguistic similarities and differences: A comparison between English then and Swedish då in the right periphery
    • 6.1RP då in questions
      • a.Då in wh-questions
      • b.Då in yes-no questions
      • c.Då in conclusions in the form of declarative sentences
    • 6.2Då in imperatives with a strengthening or weakening effect
    • 6.3Då in utterances signalling conclusion
  • 7.German correspondences of English then in final position
    • a.Then translated by denn in questions
    • b.Then in questions having declarative form (indicating a conclusion and a request for confirmation)
    • c.then in imperatives (justified requests)
  • 8.Conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
  • Appendix
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Cited by (1)

Cited by one other publication

Ruskan, Anna & Marta Carretero
2021. A cross-linguistic look at the right periphery. In Pragmatic Markers and Peripheries [Pragmatics & Beyond New Series, 325], ► pp. 415 ff. DOI logo

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