Connectives As Discourse Landmarks

This set of eleven articles, by linguists from four different European countries and a variety of theoretical backgrounds, takes a new look at the discourse functions of a number of English connectives, from simple coordinators (and, but) to phrases of varying complexity (after all, the fact is that). Using authentic spoken and written data from varied sources, the authors explore the ways in which current uses of connectives result from the interaction of syntax, semantics and prosody, both over time and through diversity of discourse situations. Most adopt an integrative approach in which speaker-listener or writer-reader relationships are viewed as part and parcel of the linguistic properties of each marker. Because it combines functional, generative and enunciative approaches into a coherent whole with a common explanatory aim, this book will be of interest to linguists, corpus-linguists and all those who investigate the semantics-pragmatics interface.

This set of eleven articles, by linguists from four different European countries and a variety of theoretical backgrounds, takes a new look at the discourse functions of a number of English connectives, from simple coordinators (and, but) to phrases of varying complexity (after all, the fact is that). Using authentic spoken and written data from varied sources, the authors explore the ways in which current uses of connectives result from the interaction of syntax, semantics and prosody, both over time and through diversity of discourse situations. Most adopt an integrative approach in which speaker-listener or writer-reader relationships are viewed as part and parcel of the linguistic properties of each marker. Because it combines functional, generative and enunciative approaches into a coherent whole with a common explanatory aim, this book will be of interest to linguists, corpus-linguists and all those who investigate the semantics-pragmatics interface.

Provides a cutting-edge yet accessible introduction to connectives and discourse relations, with examples from a range of languages.

This book is a comparative corpus-based study of discourse markers based on verbs of saying in English and French. Based on a wide comparable web corpus, the book investigates how discourse markers work in discourse, and compares their differences of position, scope and collocations both cross-linguistically and within single languages. The author positions this study within the wider epistemological background of the French-speaking ‘enunciative’ tradition and the English-speaking ‘pragmatic’ tradition, and it will be of particular interest to students and scholars of semantics, pragmatics and contrastive linguistics.

Discourse markers constitute an important part of linguistic communication, and research on this phenomenon has been a thriving field of study over the past three decades. However, a problem that has plagued this research is that these markers exhibit a number of structural characteristics that are hard to interpret based on existing methodologies, such as grammaticalization. This study argues that it is possible to explain such characteristics in a meaningful way. It presents a cross-linguistic survey of the development of discourse markers, their important role in communication, and their relation to the wider context of sociocultural behaviour, with the goal of explaining their similarities and differences across a typologically wide range of languages. By giving a clear definition of discourse markers, it aims to provide a guide for future research, making it essential reading for students and researchers in linguistics, and anyone interested in exploring this fascinating linguistic phenomenon.

Recent years have witnessed the European Union struggling to keep Europe together in increasingly difficult economic and political circumstances. Communication within and about European institutions has become more challenging in this perplexing political environment, demonstrating the complex nature of EU political discourse. In order to highlight these complexities, the contributors to this volume present different theoretical and methodological approaches to the analysis of diverse facets of EU discourse, realized through a variety of linguistic and discursive phenomena. The approaches represent rhetorical theory, metaphor and conceptual theory, cognitive and corpus linguistics, lexical statistics, polyphony, logical semantics, pragmatic and philosophical perspectives. Through this multitude of perspectives the book complements existing approaches and suggests new approaches in the study of political discourse.

This volume presents innovative research on the interface between pragmatics and translation. Taking a broad understanding of translation, papers are presented in four different parts. Part I focuses on interpreting; Part II centers on the translation of fictional and non-fictional texts and spaces; Part III discusses audiovisual translation; and Part IV explores translation in a wider context that includes transforming senses and action into language. The issues that transpire as worth exploring in these areas are mediality and multi-modality, interpersonal pragmatics, close and approximate renditions, interpretese and translationese, participation structures and the negotiation of discourses and power.

How do you get from ‘after all those movies’ to ‘I went to a movie after all’?