Cover not available

Article published In: Pragmatics and Society: Online-First Articles

Get fulltext from our e-platform
JBE logo with link
EPUB logo with download linkDownload EPUB
authorization required

The role of well as a response-delaying marker in side story insertions

 | Kyoto Seika University
Published online: 17 July 2025
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/ps.24099.tak
Abstract
This study explores the use of the discourse marker well as a response-delaying marker in non-straightforward answers to wh-questions, specifically when responses involve inserting a side story. Through a detailed analysis of conversational data, particularly from interviews, this study identifies a pattern in which well is used to introduce background information as a side story before the core response is delivered, marked by but as a discourse marker. This sequential use of well and but serves to structure the discourse in a way that allows the speaker to provide the necessary context or background before directly addressing the question. The study examines this phenomenon within the framework of discourse analysis, providing insights into how such markers function in managing conversational flow and response coherence.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Well as a response marker
  • 3.Data and methodology
  • 4.Data analysis
  • 5.Exploration of sequentiality in varied environments
  • 6.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Note
  • References
References (36)
References
Aijmer, Karin. 2013. Understanding Pragmatic Markers: A Variational Pragmatic Approach. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Aijmer, Karin, Ad Foolen, and Anne-Marie Simon-Vandenbergen. 2006. “Pragmatic Markers in Translation: A Methodological Proposal.” In Approaches to Discourse Particle, ed. by Kerstin Fischer, 101–114. Leiden: Brill. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Barth, Dagmar. 2000. “‘That’s True, Although not Really, but Still’: Expressing Concession in spoken English.” In Cause — Condition — Concession — Contrast: Cognitive and Discourse Perspectives, ed. by Elizabeth Couper-Kuhlen, and Bernd Kortmann, 411–438. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Beeching, Kate. 2016. Pragmatic Markers in British English: Meaning in Social Interaction. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Beeching, Kate, and Ulrich Detges (eds). 2014. Discourse Functions at the Left and Right Periphery. Leiden: Brill.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Brinton, Laurel J. 2017. The Evolution of Pragmatic Markers in English: Pathways of Change. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Brown, Penelope, and Stephen C. Levinson. 1987. Politeness: Some Universals in Language Usage. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cameron, Deborah. 2001. Working with Spoken Discourse. London: Sage.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cuenca, Maria Josep, and Maria-Josep Marín. 2009. “Co-occurrence of Discourse Markers in Catalan and Spanish Oral Narrative.” Journal of Pragmatics 41 (5): 899–914. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cuenca, Maria Josep, and Ludivine Crible. 2019. “Co-occurrence of Discourse Markers in English: From Juxtaposition to Composition.” Journal of Pragmatics 1401: 171–184. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Du Bois, John W., Wallace L. Chafe, Charles Meyer, and Sandra A. Thompson. 2000. Santa Barbara Corpus of Spoken American English Part I. Philadelphia: Linguistic Data Consortium. Web Download. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Finell, Anne. 1989. “Well Now and Then.” Journal of Pragmatics 13 (4): 653–656. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1992. “The Repertoire of Topic Changers in Personal, Intimate Letters: A Diachronic Study of Osborne and Woolf.” In History of Englishes: New Methods and Interpretations in Historical Linguistics, ed. by Matti Rissanen, Ossi Ihalainen, Terttu Nevalainen, and Irma Taavitsainen, 720–735. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Fraser, Bruce. 2013. “Combinations of Contrastive Discourse Markers in English.” International Review of Pragmatics 5 (2): 318–340. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2015. “The Combining of Discourse Markers — A Beginning.” Journal of Pragmatics 861: 48–53. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Heritage, John. 2015. “Well-prefaced Turns in English Conversation: A Conversation Analytic Perspective.” Journal of Pragmatics 881: 88–104. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Izumi, Emi, Kiyotaka Uchimoto, and Hitoshi Isahara. 2004. The NICT JLE Corpus. Nihonjin 1200-nin no Eigo Supiikingu Koopasu [A spoken corpus of 1200 Japanese learners of English]. Tokyo: ALC Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Jucker, Andreas. 1993. “The Discourse Marker Well: A Relevance-theoretical Account.” Journal of Pragmatics 19 (5): 435–452. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lakoff, Robin T. 1973. “Questionable Answers and Answerable Questions.” In Issues in Linguistics. Papers in Honor of Henry and Renée Kahane, ed. by Braj B. Kahru, Robert B. Lees, Yacov Malkiel, Angelina Pietrangeli, and Sol Saporta, 453–467. Urbana: University of Illinois Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Nikiforidou, Kiki. 2009. “Constructional Analysis.” In Grammar, Meaning and Pragmatics, ed. by Frank Brisard, Jan-Ola Östman, and Jef Verschueren, 16–32. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Norrick, Neal R. 2009. “Interjections as Pragmatic Markers.” Journal of Pragmatics 41 (5): 866–891. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Östman, Jan-Ola. 2005. “Construction Discourse: A Prolegomenon.” In Construction Grammars: Cognitive Grounding and Theoretical Extensions, ed. by Jan-Ola Östman, and Mirjam Fried, 121–144. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Owen, Marion. 1981. “Conversational Units and the Use of ‘Well…’.” In Conversation and Discourse, ed. by Paul Werth, 99–116. London: Croom Helm.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Pomerantz, Anita. 1984. “Agreeing and Disagreeing with Assessments: Some Features of Preferred/dispreferred Turn Shapes.” In Structures of Social Action: Studies in Conversation Analysis, ed. by J. Maxwell Atkinson, and John Heritage, 57–101. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Pons Bordería, Salvador. 2018. “The Combination of Discourse Markers in Spontaneous Conversations: Keys to Untying a Gordian Knot.” Revue Romane. Langue et Littérature 53 (1): 121–158. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Pons Bordería, Salvador, and Maria Arguedas Estellés. 2009. “Expressing Digression Linguistically: Do Digressive Markers Exist?” Journal of Pragmatics 41 (5): 921–936. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Schegloff, Emanuel A. 2007. Sequence Organization in Interaction: A Primer in Conversation Analysis. vol. I1. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Schegloff, Emanuel A., and Gene H. Lerner. 2009. “Beginning to Respond: Well-prefaced Responses to Wh-questions.” Research on Language and Social Interaction 42 (2): 91–115. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Schiffrin, Deborah. 1987. Discourse Markers. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Schourup, Lawrence C. 2001. “Rethinking Well.” Journal of Pragmatics 33 (7): 1025–1060. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Svartvik, Jan. 1980. “Well in Conversation.” In Studies in English Linguistics for Randolph Quirk, ed. by Sidney Greenbaum, Geoffrey N. Leech, and Jan Svartvik, 167–177. London: Longman.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Takamura, Ryo. 2023. Discourse Marker Well in Spoken American English: Some Suggestions for Politeness and Cross-Linguistics. Yokohama: Shumpusha.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2025b. “From Intersubjective to Textual Use of Well as a Discourse Marker: A Study from the Perspective of Politeness.” In Semantic-Pragmatic Change from Intersubjective to Textual Meanings, ed. by Giulio Scivoletto, and Ryo Takamura, 76–103. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Tannen, Deborah. 2007. Talking Voices: Repetition, Dialogue, and Imagery in Conversational Discourse. 2nd ed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue