Pragmatic Markers and Sociolinguistic Variation

Abstract

This book combines theoretical work in linguistic pragmatics and sociolinguistics with empirical work based on a corpus of London adolescent conversation. It makes a general contribution to the study of pragmatic markers, as it proposes an analytical model that involves notions such as subjectivity, interactional and textual capacity, and the distinction between contextual alignment/divergence. These notions are defined according to how information contained in an utterance interacts with the cognitive environment of the hearer. Moreover, the model captures the diachronic development of markers from lexical items via processes of grammaticalisation, arguing that markerhood may be viewed as a gradient phenomenon. The empirical work concerns the use of like as a marker, as well as a characteristic use of two originally interrogative forms, innit and is it, which are used as attitudinal markers throughout the inflectional paradigm, despite the fact that they contain a third person singular neuter pronoun. The author provides an in-depth analysis of these features in terms of pragmatic functions, diachronic development and sociolinguistic variation, thus adding support to the hypothesis that adolescents play an important role in language variation and change.

Avoid silence! Keep talking!

“…The tag innit from a grammatical as well as pragmatic point of view is dealt with by Tandberg (1996) and Andersen (2001), while Erman (1998) discusses innit as an object of grammaticalization. Like as a pragmatic marker has been described in detail, from a methodological as well as sociolinguistic and relevance-theoretic point of view, by Andersen (1998Andersen ( , 2001.…”

Análise de alguns marcadores de controlo de contacto na linguagem da juventude de Madrid e de Buenos Aires

“…A análise dos marcadores do discurso tem registado uma grande evolução desde a década de 1980, e disto são testemunho os trabalhos de Schiffrin (1987), Brinton (1996), Andersen (2001) ou Fischer (2006). Naquilo que diz respeito à língua espanhola, podemos mencionar estudos de carácter geral como os de Martín Zorraquino e Montolío (1998), Briz (1998), Portolés (1998Portolés ( e 2001, Martín Zorraquino e Portolés (1999), Cuenca (2004) e Loureda e Acín (2010), cujo objectivo central foi a definição e caracterização destes elementos, ao mesmo tempo que, paulatinamente, se ia forjando e aperfeiçoando uma classifi cação que teve em atenção a função semântico-pragmática que estas partículas pudessem desempenhar no discurso.…”

Automatic identification of discourse markers in dialogues: An in-depth study of like and well

“…As a DM, like may function as a lexicalised filled pause, akin to an interjection or hesitation word such as uhmm, uttered while preparing the upcoming words of the utterance. But like often fulfils more complex roles in dialogue, broadly indicating to the hearer that what follows it is a loose interpretation or an approximation of the speaker's belief (Andersen, 2000(Andersen, , 2001. Five different functions of the DM like have been identified in the literature, and are illustrated below by excerpts from the ICSI-MR corpus, with added punctuation.…”