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Article published In: Models of Discourse Units in Romance Languages
Edited by Margarita Borreguero Zuloaga, Vahram Atayan and Sybille Große
[Revue Romane 53:1] 2018
► pp. 121–158

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The combination of discourse markers in spontaneous conversations

Keys to untying a Gordian knot

 | Valencia University
Published online: 10 August 2018
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/rro.00008.pon
Abstract
This paper attempts to establish some basis for the combination of discourse markers in conversations. The analysis presented here will be based on Spanish spontaneous conversations and will make use of the Val.Es.Co model of discourse units developed in the last ten years (Briz, A. and Grupo, Val.Es.Co. 2003. Un Sistema De Unidades Para El Estudio Del Español Coloquial. Oralia 61, pp. 7–63.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar; Grupo, Val.Es.Co. (2014): Las unidades del discurso oral. La propuesta Val.Es.Co de segmentación de la conversación (coloquial). L. Cortés (coord.): Estudios de Lingüística del español/Infoling, 35/1, pp. 13–73.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar) and a corpus of spontaneous conversations. As a result, patterns of combination of DMs will be established; some types of combinations will be described, and a distinction will be drawn between lexicalization of DMs, adjacency of DMs in two neighboring discourse units, and combination proper. In addition, some places are favored for the combination of discourse markers: the initial positions of the discourse units act and intervention. Binary combinations are preferred to ternary or 4-ary combinations. Finally, DMs with textual functions are preferred in the combinations studied when compared to modal or interpersonal DMs.
Article outline
  • Introduction
  • 1.The issue of a non-issue
  • 2.Models of discourse segmentation: Disassembling conversation
  • 3.An introduction to the VAM
    • 3.1.Discourse units
  • 3.2.Discourse markers as discourse units
  • 3.3.Discourse positions
  • 4.Previous issues in the analysis
    • 4.1.On the notion of DMs
    • 4.2.On the combination of DMs
      • 4.2.1.Adjacence
      • 4.2.2.Conversational idioms
      • 4.2.3.Combinations in reported speech
      • 4.2.4.Syntax / discourse relationships
      • 4.2.5.Repeated DMs
  • 5.Results of the analysis
    • 5.1.Kinds of DMs in combinations
    • 5.2.Combinations in positions
      • 5.2.1.Unsurprisingly, initial positions of discourse units are the privileged locus for combinations
      • 5.2.2.Medial positions – as defined in this model – are not a preferred place for the combination of DMs
      • 5.2.3.In the corpus, final positions seem specialized for the expression of modal values related to the speaker’s stance
  • 6.Conclusions
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
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