Re: I'll Show You Mine If You Show Me Yours-2

Jim Grossmann <jimg@...> wrote:
> >Pardon my ignorance, Jim, but what's a discourse marker?
>
> >-kristian- 8-)
I was going to ask the same thing.

> From what I understand, these constituents convey information about the
> discourse (conversation, text, etc.) rather than standing for things
> referred to by words and sentences.
>
> For instance, "ummm," is a discourse marker.   Instead of referring to a
> class of ums, it lets the listener know that the speaker wants to hold the
> floor but cannot speak further without taking the time to think.
>
> "indeed," "in fact," "by the way," and "so" have been identified as
> discourse markers:   they identify bits of the discourse as means of
> emphasis, truths, tangental subjects, or statements about the consequences
> of things referrred to by previous statements.
>
> There are many other discourse markers, including "oh."
This is a blurry subject. Some of the things you mention
are adverbs, some are interjections, and some may be
just idioms or holophrases (if I understood well what
holophrases are).

I think I have some discourse markers in Drasele'q:

_a"t_ "so, well" (this is also the preposition "until"!)

_ge`n_ "indeed", sometimes the phrase _ge`n gim_ "indeed it's true"
 (not grammatically used)

_tha"n anth tadh_ "however, nevertheless"; lit. "with this however"
(meaning something you have just said). I'm not sure if this is a
discourse marker, but it gives the sentence a subtle touch.

Have you read something about Quechua attitude particles?
In Quechua (and many other Native American languages) you can
inflect verbs to show an attitude (for example, you regret
what is said, you did it on purpose, you don't believe it's true,
etc.) These could be called grammaticalized discourse markers.


--Pablo Flores

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 Stewart's Law of Retroaction:
  It is easier to get forgiveness than permission.