Cover not available

In:Applying Corpora in Teaching and Learning Romance Languages
Edited by Henry Tyne and Stefania Spina
[Studies in Corpus Linguistics 122] 2025
► pp. 206–228

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

Chapter 9
The frequency of French discourse markers in L2 speech and the impact of extralinguistic factors

 | Vanderbilt University
Published online: 20 November 2025
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/scl.122.09den
Abstract
In recent years, researchers in second language acquisition (SLA) have granted growing attention to studying discourse markers (DMs) in second language (L2) speech. However, most research is limited to examining one or several DMs at a time by looking at only one or two social factors. In this chapter, by exploring a corpus consisting of sociolinguistic interviews conducted in French with 40 L2 speakers, we established a frequency list of the 73 most frequent DMs used by L1 Chinese speakers of French. We also examined the impact of five extralinguistic factors relevant to L2 speakers by conducting statistical tests. The results showed that all five extralinguistic factors have a significant impact on the frequency and use of DMs in our corpus.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Discourse markers
    • 2.1Definition of discourse markers
    • 2.2Previous research on discourse markers
  • 3.Methodology
    • 3.1Corpus and data
    • 3.2Participants
    • 3.3Tokens
    • 3.4Extralinguistic factors
    • 3.5Statistical analysis
  • 4.Results and discussion
    • 4.1Frequency of discourse markers
    • 4.2Extralinguistic factors
      • 4.2.1Gender
      • 4.2.2Age
      • 4.2.3Professional status
      • 4.2.4Duration of stay in France
      • 4.2.5Extracurricular contact with L1 speakers
  • 5.Conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
References (62)
References
Abouda, Lotfi. 2022. L’émergence du marqueur méta-discursif du coup: De la conséquence à l’actualisation énonciative. Langages 226(2): 99–116. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Andersen, Hanne Leth. 2007. Marqueurs discursifs propositionnels. Langue française 154: 13–28. [URL].
Barron, Anne. 2006. Learning to say ‘you’ in German: The acquisition of sociolinguistic competence in a study abroad context. In Language Learners in Study Abroad Contexts, Margaret Dufon & Eton Churchill (eds), 59–88. Bristol: Multilingual Matters. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bartning, Inge & Schlyter, Suzanne. 2004. Itinéraires acquisitionnels et stades de développement en français L2. Journal of French Language Studies 14(3): 281–299. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Beaulieu-Masson, Anne, Charpentier, Mélanie, Lanciault, Lisanne & Liu, Xiaoyan. 2007. Comme en français québécois. Communication, lettres et sciences du langage 1(1): 27–41.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Beeching, Kate. 2002. Gender, Politeness and Pragmatic Particles in French [Pragmatics & Beyond New Series 104]. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Biernacki, Patrick & Waldorf, Dan. 1981. Snowball sampling: Problems and techniques of chain referral sampling. Sociological Methods & Research 10(2): 141–163. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Blakemore, Diane. 1987. Semantic Constraints on Relevance. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1996. Are apposition markers discourse markers? Journal of Linguistics 32(2): 325–347. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Blondeau, Hélène, Tremblay, Mireille, Bertrand, Anne & Michel, Elizabeth. 2021. A new milestone for the study of variation in Montréal French: The Hochelaga-Maisonneuve sociolinguistic survey. Corpus 22. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Boersma, Paul & Weenink, David. 2018. Praat: Doing Phonetics by Computer [Computer program]. Version 6.0. 37. [URL]
Bright, William. 1992. International Encyclopedia of Linguistics. Oxford: OUP. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bussmann, Hadumod. 1996. Routledge Dictionary of Language and Linguistics. London: Routledge. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cameron, Richard. 2011. Aging, age, and sociolinguistics. In The Handbook of Hispanic Sociolinguistics, Manuel Díaz-Campos (ed.), 205–229. Oxford: Blackwell. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Chanet, Catherine. 2004. Fréquence des marqueurs discursifs en français parlé: Quelques problèmes de méthodologie. Recherches sur le français parlé 18: 83–106.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Chevalier, Gisèle. 2001. Comment comme fonctionne d’une génération à l’autre. Revue Québécoise de Linguistique 30(2): 13–40. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Crystal, David. 1988. Another look at, well, you know…. English Today 4(1): 47–49. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Dailey-O’Cain, Jennifer. 2000. The sociolinguistic distribution of and attitudes toward focuser like and quotative like. Journal of Sociolinguistics 4(1): 60–80. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
De Cristofaro, Elisa & Badan, Linda. 2021. The acquisition of Italian discourse markers as a function of studying abroad. Corpus Pragmatics 5: 95–120. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Deng, Delin. 2017. Oui and Voilà: Analysis of two discourse markers used by Chinese-L1 speakers of French in France. Language Discourse & Society 5(1–9): 93–104.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Denison, David. 2002. History of the sort of construction family. Second International Conference on Construction Grammar 7: 279–304.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Pekarek Doehler, Simona & Berger, Evelyne. 2018. L2 interactional competence as increased ability for context-sensitive conduct: A longitudinal study of story-openings. Applied Linguistics 39(4): 555–578. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Dostie, Gaétane. 2004. Pragmaticalisation & marqueurs discursifs: Analyse sémantique et traitement lexicographique. Louvain-la-Neuve: De Boeck Supérieur. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2009. Discourse markers and regional variation in French. In Sociolinguistic Variation in Contemporary French [IMPACT: Studies in Language, Culture and Society 26], Nigel Armstrong, Kate Beeching & Françoise Gadet (eds), 201–214. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Eckert, Penelope. 2017. Age as a sociolinguistic variable. In The Handbook of Sociolinguistics, Florian Coulmas (ed.), 151–167. Oxford: Blackwell. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Erman, Britt. 2001. Pragmatic markers revisited with a focus on you know in adult and adolescent talk. Journal of Pragmatics 33(9): 1337–1359. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Fernandez, Jocelyne. 1994. Les particules énonciatives dans la construction du discours. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Fernández, Jocelyne. 2013. Social Networks and Youngspeak in Study Abroad. PhD dissertation, Pennsylvania State University. ProQuest LLC. [URL]
Field, Ronald. 2007. Analysis of variance (ANOVA). In Encyclopedia of Measurement and Statistics, Neil Salkind (ed.), 33–36. Newbury Park CA: Sage. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Fleischman, Suzanne & Yaguello, Marina. 2004. Discourse markers across languages? Evidence from English and French. In Discourse across Languages and Cultures [Studies in Language Companion Series 68], Aida Martinovic-Zic & Carol Lynn Moder (eds), 129–147. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Fraser, Bruce. 1988. Types of English discourse markers. Acta Linguistica Hungarica 30(1–4): 19–33. [URL]
. 1996. Pragmatic markers. Pragmatics 6: 167–190. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1999. What are discourse markers? Journal of Pragmatics 31(7): 931–952. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Frawley, William (ed.). 2003. The International Encyclopedia of Linguistics. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gilquin, Gaëtanelle. 2016. Discourse markers in L2 English. In New Approaches to English Linguistics: Building Bridges [Studies in Language Companion Series 177], Olga Timofeeva, Anne-Christine Gardner, Alpo Honkapohja & Sarah Chevalier (eds), 213–249. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Haiyan, Gao, Peng, Wang & Tam, Tony. 2024. Chinese social value change and its relevant factors: an age-period-cohort effect analysis. The Journal of Chinese Sociology 11(1): 7. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hansen, Maj-Britt Mosegaard. 1998. The Function of Discourse Particles: A Study with Special Reference to Spoken Standard French [Pragmatics & Beyond New Series 53]. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hennecke, Inga. 2017. The impact of pragmatic markers and hedging on sentence comprehension: A case study of comme and genre. Journal of French Language Studies 27(3): 355–380. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hobbs, Jerry. 1985. On the coherence and structure of discourse. CSLI Technical Report 85–37.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Johnson, Martin & Majewska, Dominika. 2022. Formal, Non-formal, and Informal Learning: What are They, and how can we Research Them? Research Report. Cambridge: CUP & Assessment Research Report. [URL]
Jucker, Andreas H. & Ziv, Yael (eds). 1998. Discourse Markers: Descriptions and Theory [Pragmatics & Beyond New Series 57]. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Knott, Alistair & Dale, Robert. 1994. Using linguistic phenomena to motivate a set of coherence relations. Discourse Processes 18(1): 35–62. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Labov, William & Fanshel, David. 1977. Therapeutic Discourse: Psychotherapy as Conversation. New York NY: Academic Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Labov, William. 1986. The social stratification of /r/ in New York City department stores. In Dialect and Language Variation, Harold B. Allen & Michael D. Linn (eds), 304–329. New York NY: Academic Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Levinson, Stephen C. 1983. Pragmatics. Cambridge: CUP. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Liao, Silvie. 2009. Variation in the use of discourse markers by Chinese teaching assistants in the US. Journal of Pragmatics 41(7): 1313–1328. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Liu, Binmei. 2016. Effect of L2 exposure: From a perspective of discourse markers. Applied Linguistics Review 7(1): 73–98. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2009. Chinese discourse markers in oral speech of mainland Mandarin speakers. In Proceedings of the 21st North American Conference on Chinese Linguistics (NACCL-21), Yun Xiao (ed.), 358–374. Smithfield RD: Bryant University.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mitchell, Rosamond & Tyne, Henry (eds). 2021. Language, Mobility and Study Abroad in the Contemporary European Context. New York NY: Routledge. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Müller, Simone. 2005. Discourse Markers in Native and Non-native English Discourse [Pragmatics & Beyond New Series 138]. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mann, William C. & Thompson, Sandra A. 1988. Rhetorical structure theory: Toward a functional theory of text organization. Text 8(3): 243–281. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Nestor, Niamh & Regan, Vera. 2015. The significance of age and place of residence in the positional distribution of discourse like in L2 speech. In Pragmatic Markers in Irish English [Pragmatics & Beyond New Series 258], Carolina P. Amador-Moreno, Kevin McCafferty & Elaine Vaughan (eds), 408–432. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Redeker, Gisela. 1990. Ideational and pragmatic markers of discourse structure. Journal of Pragmatics 14(3): 367–381. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1991. Linguistic markers of discourse structure. Linguistics 29(6): 1139–1172. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Sankoff, Gillian, Thibault, Pierrette, Nagy, Naomi, Blondeau, Hélène, Fonollosa, Marie-Odile & Lucie Gagnon. 1997. Variation in the use of discourse markers in a language contact situation. Language Variation and Change 9(2): 191–217. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Schiffrin, Deborah. 1987. Discourse Markers. Cambridge: CUP. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Schorup, Lawrence. 1985. Common Discourse Particle in English Conversation: Like, well, y’know. New York NY: Garland. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Secova, Maria. 2011. Discourse-pragmatic Features of Spoken French: Analysis and Pedagogical Implications. PhD dissertation, Queen Mary, University of London.
Snedecor, George & Cochran, William. 1989. Statistical Methods, 8th edn. Ames IA: Iowa State University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Tagliamonte, Sali. 2005. So who? Like how? Just what? Discourse markers in the conversations of young Canadians. Journal of Pragmatics 37(11): 1896–1915. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Zwicky, Arnold. 1985. Clitics and particles. Language 61(2): 283–305. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue