LINGUIST List 21.3570 Wed Sep 08 2010 Diss: Disc Analysis/Pragmatics: Buysse: 'Discourse Marker So in ...' Editor for this issue: Mfon Udoinyang <mfonlinguistlist.org> To post to LINGUIST, use our convenient web form at http://linguistlist.org/LL/posttolinguist.cfm. Directory         1.    Lieven Buysse, Discourse Marker So in Native and Non-Native Spoken English Message 1: Discourse Marker So in Native and Non-Native Spoken English Date: 08-Sep-2010 From: Lieven Buysse <lieven.buyssehubrussel.be> Subject: Discourse Marker So in Native and Non-Native Spoken English E-mail this message to a friend Institution: Ghent University Program: Germanic languages Dissertation Status: Completed Degree Date: 2010 Author: Lieven Buysse Dissertation Title: Discourse Marker So in Native and Non-Native Spoken English Linguistic Field(s): Discourse Analysis                             Pragmatics Subject Language(s): English (eng) Dissertation Director: Anne-Marie Simon-Vandenbergen Dissertation Abstract: In foreign language learning grammar and vocabulary typically take centre stage, leaving only a marginal position, if any at all, for pragmatic features. Learners thus appear to be expected to learn a language with little attention to context and the array of social actions they can perform with the target language. Among these pragmatic features are discourse markers, i.e. small words like 'so', 'well', 'you know' and 'I mean' that do not contribute much to the propositional content of a message but modify it in various subtle ways. These have been studied extensively in native speaker discourse over the past few decades, but their use in non-native spoken language has only recently started to attract some attention. This doctoral dissertation gauges the extent to which these pragmatic features, and the discourse marker 'so' in particular, are used (and may hence be assumed to have been acquired) by Belgian native speakers of Dutch who have almost reached the end of formal instruction in English. To this end a corpus of English-spoken interviews has been compiled with learners of English that exhibit distinct learner profiles. Half of the interviewees are undergraduates majoring in English Linguistics, and the other half are undergraduates majoring in Commercial Sciences. Not only is the use of discourse markers in these two sub-corpora juxtaposed from a quantitative and a qualitative perspective, the learner corpus is also set off against a comparable native speaker corpus, drawn from LOCNEC (the native speaker reference corpus of the LINDSEI project, hosted at the UCLouvain). The investigation has shown that the language learners exhibit a clear preference for some English markers, notably those with a more structural function (so, well), and neglect others, notably those with a more interpersonal function (you know, I mean, sort of, etc). The differences between the two learner sub-corpora are often subtle, but in general there is a tendency for the students of English Linguistics to use these markers more frequently than the students of Commercial Sciences, and to a richer extent. 'So' is the most frequent discourse marker in all three sub-corpora, and all interviewees use 'so' as such. 1,258 tokens of 'so' have been identified as fulfilling a discourse marker function in the corpus, amounting to some 80 per cent of all attested tokens of the item. These can be classified into ten categories, and can be recognised as expressing a relationship that is either ideational, interpersonal or textual. It is argued that these ten functions are polysemously related to each other and to a 'resultative' core. The relative distance of these functions to one another is determined by the intensity with which the following three characteristics are (saliently) present in each function: a 'result' meaning, a hypertactic shift and a sense of closure. Discourse marker 'so' is significantly more frequent in the learner sub-corpora than in the native sub-corpus, and the students of English Linguistics use 'so' slightly more often than their peers who study Commercial Sciences. The dissertation provides tentative explanations for these findings and suggests avenues for further research. Its results have important implications for the study of the discourse marker 'so' as well as for research on the acquisition of pragmatic devices by foreign language learners and the development of approaches to the teaching of pragmatics in the foreign language classroom. Read more issues|LINGUIST home page|Top of issue Page Updated: 08-Sep-2010       About LINGUIST    |   Contact Us       While the LINGUIST List makes every effort to ensure the linguistic relevance of sites listed on its pages, it cannot vouch for their contents.