Manual Of Discourse Markers In Romance

Virtually unstudied until the 1980s, discourse markers have gone on to become a growth industry. Research on markers is central to comprehensive theories of the synchronic linguistic system as such, of the use of language in communication, and of language change. From the very beginning, linguists working on Romance languages have been at the forefront of research on discourse markers. Including among its contributors many of the foremost experts in the field, this volume not only offers substantial state-of-the-art introductions to the diverse facets of contemporary research on discourse markers, with a focus on Romance, but it achieves added value by including in each chapter original and previously unpublished results. The first part of the book addresses foundational issues: What are discourse markers? What is their relationship to other types of pragmatic markers? The second part considers discourse markers at different levels of linguistic description, in particular: their grammatical status, their semantics and pragmatics, their prosodic features, their positioning within discourse units. The third part outlines different approaches to the study of discourse markers, namely contrastive studies, corpus linguistics, discourse traditions, and historical linguistics. The fourth part explores discourse markers at the interface with central topics in linguistics, such as politeness, social variation, language acquisition and psycholinguistic processing. The final part focuses on discourse markers in each of the major Romance languages, namely French, Italian, Spanish, Catalan, Portuguese and Romanian. The volume will be of interest to researchers and students working in the field of Romance studies, general linguists, pragmaticians, discourse analysts, educationalists, and psychologists.

The series Manuals of Romance Linguistics (MRL) aims to present a comprehensive, state-of-the-art overview of Romance linguistics. It will comprise approximately 60 volumes that can either be consulted individually or used as a series of books providing a detailed overall picture of the current state of research in Romance linguistics. A special focus will be placed on the presentation and analysis of the smaller languages, the linguae minores.

The volume gives an overview of current activity in the field of Romance morphology and word formation. It consists of two main sections: the first part treats cross-linguistic topics, while the second part presents morphological profiles of the individual Romance languages. In the first part of the volume, we initially address definitional questions. We then focus on fundamental processes, mechanisms, and typical interfaces and interactions in the realm of morphology, e.g. the delimitation of inflection, derivation, and composition on the one hand and the relationship between morphology, phonology, and syntax on the other. The second main part of the volume systematically outlines the essentials of inflection and word formation in the individual Romance languages, beginning with a section dedicated to morphological innovations in Vulgar Latin. Each language profile also addresses important diachronic morphological issues. We further discuss aspects of inflection and word formation which are specific to individual Romance languages, and special features of non-standard varieties and dialects.

Different components of grammar interact in non-trivial ways. It has been under debate what the actual range of interaction is and how we can most appropriately represent this in grammatical theory. The volume provides a general overview of various topics in the linguistics of Romance languages by examining them through the interaction of grammatical components and functions as a state-of-the-art report, but at the same time as a manual of Romance languages.

The Romance languages offer a particularly fertile ground for the exploration of the relationship between language and society in different social contexts and communities. Focusing on a wide range of Romance languages – from national languages to minoritised varieties – this volume explores questions concerning linguistic diversity and multilingualism, language contact, medium and genre, variation and change. It will interest researchers and policy-makers alike.

Different components of grammar interact in non-trivial ways. It has been under debate what the actual range of interaction is and how we can most appropriately represent this in grammatical theory. The volume provides a general overview of various topics in the linguistics of Romance languages by examining them through the interaction of grammatical components and functions as a state-of-the-art report, but at the same time as a manual of Romance languages.

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