Chapter 1
Challenges in the contrastive study of discourse markers
The case of then
I argue that the position of the discourse
markers in the utterance should be part of the contrastive analysis
on the basis of a corpus case study of then and its
Swedish cognate då. The focus for the contrastive
analysis has been on then which has been studied
both in the left and the right periphery while då
has been investigated only in its use in the right periphery.
English and Swedish then/då seem to have partly
overlapping polysemies reflecting the fact that they are not
completely grammaticalized. However, when we take the position of
then/då into account there are differences
between them reflecting both the uncertain distinction between their
uses as discourse marker or modal particle and that languages prefer
different strategies.
Article outline
- 1.Introduction
- 2.Then in the left and the right periphery
- 3.The use of then in the left and the right
periphery in authentic corpus examples
- 4.Then in the left periphery
- 4.1LP then as a connective adverbial stating
the consequence of an event or circumstance in the preceding
discourse
- 4.2Then as a discourse marker indicating that
an utterance is a deduction from what has been said in the
preceding discourse
- 4.3Then as a discourse marker in
non-declarative utterances indicating that a request or a
question is warranted by the preceding discourse
- 5.Then in the right periphery
- 5.1RP then in questions
- 5.2Then in assertions expressing modal
uncertainty
- 5.3RP then in requests for action with a
mitigating function
- 5.4RP then commenting on what has been said by
adding a modification
- 5.5RP then with textual functions on the
information structure level
- 5.6Summarising then as a modal particle in the
right periphery
- 6.Some cross-linguistic similarities and
differences: A comparison between English then and Swedish
då in the right periphery
- 6.1RP då in questions
- a.Då in
wh-questions
- b.Då in yes-no
questions
- c.Då in conclusions in the form of
declarative sentences
- 6.2Då in imperatives with a strengthening or
weakening effect
- 6.3Då in utterances signalling
conclusion
- 7.German correspondences of English then in final
position
- a.Then translated by denn in
questions
- b.Then in questions having declarative form
(indicating a conclusion and a request for confirmation)
- c.then in imperatives (justified
requests)
- 8.Conclusion
-
Notes
-
References
-
Appendix
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