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In:Pragmatic Markers, Discourse Markers and Modal Particles: New perspectives
Edited by Chiara Fedriani and Andrea Sansó
[Studies in Language Companion Series 186] 2017
► pp. 99–124

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Chapter 3
Towards an operational category of discourse markers

A definition and its model

 | Université catholique de Louvain
Published online: 13 November 2017
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/slcs.186.04cri
Abstract
The field of discourse markers (DMs) studies suffers from lack of consensus on the limits and definition of the category. There seems to be a crucial need for onomasiological studies that account for every kind of DM in cross-linguistic data. This study presents a proposal for an operational, corpus-based definition of DMs that addresses several theoretical and methodological shortcomings in the field. I claim that any categorical definition is only useful insofar as it is endorsed by an empirical model of identification and annotation. Such a model will be described and illustrated by relevant authentic examples from a pilot study on a comparable corpus of French and English interviews.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Definitions in contest
    • 2.1Terminology
    • 2.2Partial and overlapping definitions
      • 2.2.1Discourse markers and pragmatic markers
      • 2.2.2Discourse markers and modal particles
      • 2.2.3Discourse markers and subcategories
    • 2.3Interim discussion
  • 3.Bridging the gap: A corpus-based definition of DMs
    • 3.1Methodology for an extensive-intensive definition
    • 3.2Defining DMs with syntax and functions
    • 3.3Inclusions and exclusions from the category
  • 4.From theory to practice…
    • 4.1Methodology for a crosslinguistic annotation model
    • 4.2The model
    • 4.3Mapping the definition onto its annotation model
  • 5.… and back again: Retrieving membership from annotations
    • 5.1Relational and non-relational types
    • 5.2Dual position
    • 5.3Polysemous DMs
    • 5.4Hedges: DMs or MPs?
  • 6.Discussion: Reliability and exhaustivity of the definition
  • 7.Conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
  • Appendix
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