1887
Volume 29, Issue 2
  • ISSN 0929-0907
  • E-ISSN: 1569-9943

Abstract

Although critical reception of discourse markers (DMs) such as and has often been noted, surprisingly little research has actually investigated this attitudinal perspective on usage. Moreover, a recent, rapidly expanding body of research on non-L1 speakers’ use of discourse markers in English has suggested that their more or less frequent use of specific markers may be due to familiarity with these markers and positive or negative marker perceptions. The present study presents the results of a survey measuring British English L1 speakers’, English as Foreign Language (EFL) learners’, and English as a Lingua Franca (ELF) speakers’ perceptions of the discourse markers , , and and their reactions to either abundance or lack of DMs. The survey measured speaker attitudes by asking participants to evaluate the usage of other DMs. We found that L1, EFL, and ELF have varying attitudes about certain markers, and these markers are perceived differently for traits like politeness and friendliness. Generally speaking, L1 speakers were more positively disposed towards markers than either of the other groups, who in their turn rated the propositional functions of the markers as more acceptable than interactional functions.

Available under the CC BY 4.0 license.
Loading

Article metrics loading...

/content/journals/10.1075/pc.21023.bla
2023-04-11
2025-02-14
Loading full text...

Full text loading...

/deliver/fulltext/pc.21023.bla.html?itemId=/content/journals/10.1075/pc.21023.bla&mimeType=html&fmt=ahah

References

  1. Aijmer, Karin
    2002English discourse particles: Evidence from a corpus. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. 10.1075/scl.10
    https://doi.org/10.1075/scl.10 [Google Scholar]
  2. 2011 ‘Well I’m not sure I think …’: The use of well by non-native speakers. International Journal of Corpus Linguistics16(2). 231–254. 10.1075/ijcl.16.2.04aij
    https://doi.org/10.1075/ijcl.16.2.04aij [Google Scholar]
  3. 2013Understanding pragmatic markers: A variational pragmatic approach. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. 10.1515/9780748635511
    https://doi.org/10.1515/9780748635511 [Google Scholar]
  4. Andersen, Gisle
    2001Pragmatic markers and sociolinguistic variation: A relevance-theoretic approach to the language of adolescents. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. 10.1075/pbns.84
    https://doi.org/10.1075/pbns.84 [Google Scholar]
  5. Andersson, Lars-Gunnar & Peter Trudgill
    1990Bad language. London: Penguin.
    [Google Scholar]
  6. Beeching, Kate
    2016Pragmatic markers in British English: Meaning in social interaction. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 10.1017/CBO9781139507110
    https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139507110 [Google Scholar]
  7. Berkeley, Susan
    2014 How to cure the verbal virus. https://career-intelligence.com/author/sberkley/ (27 January, 2021).
  8. Blanchard, Meaghan
    2021 Pragmatic markers in native and non-native Englishes: A study into the use of and attitudes towards pragmatic markers. Brussels: KU Leuven PhD dissertation.
  9. Buchstaller, Isabelle
    2006 Social stereotypes, personality traits and regional perception displaced: Attitudes towards the ‘new’ quotatives in the UK. Journal of Sociolinguistics10(3). 362–381. 10.1111/j.1360‑6441.2006.00332.x
    https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1360-6441.2006.00332.x [Google Scholar]
  10. Buysse, Lieven
    2012So as a multifunctional discourse marker in native and learner speech. Journal of Pragmatics44(13). 1764–1782. 10.1016/j.pragma.2012.08.012
    https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pragma.2012.08.012 [Google Scholar]
  11. 2014 “So what’s a year in a lifetime so”: Non-prefatory use of so in native and learner English. Text & Talk34(1). 23–47. 10.1515/text‑2013‑0036
    https://doi.org/10.1515/text-2013-0036 [Google Scholar]
  12. 2015 ‘Well it’s not very ideal…’: The pragmatic marker well in learner English. Intercultural Pragmatics12(1). 59–89. 10.1515/ip‑2015‑0003
    https://doi.org/10.1515/ip-2015-0003 [Google Scholar]
  13. 2017 The pragmatic marker you know in learner Englishes. Journal of Pragmatics1211. 40–57. 10.1016/j.pragma.2017.09.010
    https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pragma.2017.09.010 [Google Scholar]
  14. Crible, Ludivine
    2018Discourse markers and (dis)fluency: Forms and functions across languages and registers. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. 10.1075/pbns.286
    https://doi.org/10.1075/pbns.286 [Google Scholar]
  15. Dailey-O’Cain, Jennifer
    2000 The sociolinguistic distribution of and attitudes toward focuser like and quotative like. Journal of Sociolinguistics4(1). 60–80. 10.1111/1467‑9481.00103
    https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9481.00103 [Google Scholar]
  16. Fox Tree, Jean E.
    2007 Folk notions of um and uh, you know, and like. Text & Talk27(3). 297–314. 10.1515/TEXT.2007.012
    https://doi.org/10.1515/TEXT.2007.012 [Google Scholar]
  17. Fox Tree, Jean E. & Josef C. Schrock
    2002 Basic meanings of you know and I mean. Journal of Pragmatics34(6). 727–747. 10.1016/S0378‑2166(02)00027‑9
    https://doi.org/10.1016/S0378-2166(02)00027-9 [Google Scholar]
  18. Fuller, Janet M.
    2003 Discourse marker use across speech contexts: A comparison of native and nonnative speaker performance. Multilingua221. 185–208. 10.1515/mult.2003.010
    https://doi.org/10.1515/mult.2003.010 [Google Scholar]
  19. House, Juliane
    2009 Subjectivity in English as Lingua Franca discourse: The case of you know. Intercultural Pragmatics6(2). 171–193. 10.1515/IPRG.2009.010
    https://doi.org/10.1515/IPRG.2009.010 [Google Scholar]
  20. Jucker, Andreas H.
    1993 The discourse marker well: A relevance-theoretical account. Journal of Pragmatics19(5). 435–452. 10.1016/0378‑2166(93)90004‑9
    https://doi.org/10.1016/0378-2166(93)90004-9 [Google Scholar]
  21. Kristiansen, Tore
    2020 Methods in language-attitudes research. InJan-Ola Östman & Jef Verschueren (eds.), The Handbook of Pragmatics: 23rd Annual Installment, 3–37. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. 10.1075/hop.23.met5
    https://doi.org/10.1075/hop.23.met5 [Google Scholar]
  22. Lam, Phoenix W. Y.
    2009 The effect of text type on the use of so as a discourse particle. Discourse Studies111. 353–372. 10.1177/1461445609102448
    https://doi.org/10.1177/1461445609102448 [Google Scholar]
  23. Miskovic-Lukovic, Mirjana
    2009 ‘Is there a chance that I might kinda sort of take you out to dinner?’: The role of the pragmatic particles kind of and sort of in utterance interpretation. Journal of Pragmatics41(3). 602–625. 10.1016/j.pragma.2008.06.014
    https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pragma.2008.06.014 [Google Scholar]
  24. Müller, Simone
    2005Discourse markers in native and non-native English discourse. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. 10.1075/pbns.138
    https://doi.org/10.1075/pbns.138 [Google Scholar]
  25. O’Donnell, William & Loreto Todd
    1991Variety in contemporary English. London: Routledge.
    [Google Scholar]
  26. Schiffrin, Deborah
    1987Discourse markers. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 10.1017/CBO9780511611841
    https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511611841 [Google Scholar]
  27. Schourup, Lawrence
    1999 Discourse markers. Lingua107(3–4). 1025–1060. 10.1016/S0024‑3841(96)90026‑1
    https://doi.org/10.1016/S0024-3841(96)90026-1 [Google Scholar]
/content/journals/10.1075/pc.21023.bla
Loading
/content/journals/10.1075/pc.21023.bla
Loading

Data & Media loading...

This is a required field
Please enter a valid email address
Approval was successful
Invalid data
An Error Occurred
Approval was partially successful, following selected items could not be processed due to error