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Article published In: Discourse-pragmatic markers, fillers and filled pauses: Pragmatic, cognitive, multimodal and sociolinguistic perspectives
Edited by Kate Beeching, Grant Howie, Minna Kirjavainen and Anna Piasecki
[Pragmatics & Cognition 29:2] 2022
► pp. 222–245

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L1 and non-L1 perceptions of discourse markers in English

ORCiD logo with link | KU Leuven
ORCiD logo with link | KU Leuven
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Available under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) 4.0 license.

For any use beyond this license, please contact the publisher at rights@benjamins.nl.

Open Access publication of this article was funded through a Transformative Agreement with KU Leuven.

Published online: 11 April 2023
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https://doi.org/10.1075/pc.21023.bla
Although critical reception of discourse markers (DMs) such as like and you know has often been noted, surprisingly little research has actually investigated this attitudinal perspective on usage. Moreover, a recent, rapidly expanding body of research on non-L1 speakers’ use of discourse markers in English has suggested that their more or less frequent use of specific markers may be due to familiarity with these markers and positive or negative marker perceptions. The present study presents the results of a survey measuring British English L1 speakers’, English as Foreign Language (EFL) learners’, and English as a Lingua Franca (ELF) speakers’ perceptions of the discourse markers so, like, well and you know and their reactions to either abundance or lack of DMs. The survey measured speaker attitudes by asking participants to evaluate the usage of other DMs. We found that L1, EFL, and ELF have varying attitudes about certain markers, and these markers are perceived differently for traits like politeness and friendliness. Generally speaking, L1 speakers were more positively disposed towards markers than either of the other groups, who in their turn rated the propositional functions of the markers as more acceptable than interactional functions.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Literature review
  • 3.Data and methodology
  • 4.Results
    • 4.1Absence versus abundance of discourse markers
    • 4.2Attitudes towards like, so, well and you know
      • 4.2.1Friendliness
      • 4.2.2Education
      • 4.2.3Politeness
      • 4.2.4Confidence
    • 4.3Summary of main results
  • 5.Discussion and conclusion
    • 5.1Attitudes towards abundance/absence of discourse markers
    • 5.2Attitudes towards like, so, well and you know
    • 5.3Conclusion
  • Note
  • References
References (27)
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