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Article published In: Pragmatics & Cognition
Vol. 32:2 (2025) ► pp.261–286

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On the rise of contrastive discourse markers

Evidence from English and Greek

 | Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
Published online: 13 November 2025
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https://doi.org/10.1075/pc.24047.vel
Abstract
In this paper, I consider contrastive discourse markers (CDMs) in English and Greek in terms of their etymological origins. In particular, I argue that English and Greek CDMs draw on sources inspired by the same basic cognitive categories: namely, PLACE, QUANTITY, and MANNER; and that these sources are designations of three apparently distinct concepts: namely, allness, sameness, and oppositeness. What makes this consensus even more interesting, not to say curious, is that Greek does not belong to the group of the Indo-European family that includes English. I will suggest that our world experience is the common denominator of the three designated concepts. It is hoped that this suggestion will be grounds not only for explaining the attested unanimity among English and Greek but also for illuminating the development of CDMs cross-linguistically.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.‘Allness’
    • 2.1Implicit ‘allness’
      • English
      • Greek
    • 2.2Explicit ‘allness’
      • English
      • Greek
  • 3.‘Sameness’
    • English
    • Greek
  • 4.‘Oppositeness’
    • English
    • Greek
  • 5.A speaker-based explanation
    • 5.1‘allness’ and world experience
    • 5.2‘Sameness’ and world experience
    • 5.3‘Oppositeness’ and world experience
  • 6.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgments
  • Notes
  • References
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