Abstracts
Abstract
The present article compares the use of the discourse marker so between English-dominant speakers and English language learners through an analysis of 20 one-on-one audio-recorded sessions with 10 English-dominant speakers and 10 English language learners. While employment of the discourse marker by both speaker groups was found to be discrepant, one prominent difference was discovered in the English language learner data. Move so, one of so’s six discursive functions, was produced with a higher frequency by the English language learners. The findings of the study indicate that while the learner group demonstrated a limited range of functions, as did English language learners in prior studies, they also had an overall lower rate of frequency compared to the English-dominant speakers.
Keywords:
- discourse marker,
- so,
- English language learners,
- English-dominant speakers
Résumé
Cette étude compare l’emploi du marqueur discursif anglais so entre les personnes de langue maternelle anglaise et les apprenants de l’anglais par le biais d’une analyse de 20 séances enregistrées en tête-à-tête avec 10 personnes de langue maternelle anglaise et 10 apprenants de l’anglais. Les résultats démontrent que l’emploi du marqueur discursif par les deux groupes divergent. La différence la plus notable a été découverte dans les données des apprenants de l’anglais. « Move so », une des six fonctions discursives de so, a été employé plus fréquemment par les apprenants de l’anglais. Les conclusions de cette étude confirment les résultats des études précédentes quant à l’emploi d’un éventail limité de fonctions par les apprenants de l’anglais. De plus, ces participants ont employé le marqueur moins fréquemment que les locuteurs natifs.
Download the article in PDF to read it.
Download
Appendices
Bibliography
- Aaron, J. E. (2004). “So respetamos un tradición del uno al otro”: So and entonces in New Mexican bilingual discourse. Spanish in Context, 1(2), 161-179.
- Aijmer, K. (2011). Well I’m not sure I think… The use of well by non-native speakers. International Journal of Corpus Linguistics, 16(2), 231-254.
- Asik, A., & Cephe, P. T. (2013). Discourse markers and spoken English: Nonnative use in the Turkish EFL setting. English Language Teaching, 6(12), 144-155.
- Blakemore, D. (1987). Semantic constraints on relevance. Oxford, United Kingdom: Blackwell.
- Blakemore, D. (1988). So as a constraint on relevance. In R. Kempson (Ed.), Mental representation: The interface between language and reality (pp. 183-195). Cambridge, United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press.
- Bolden, G. B. (2006). Little words that matter: Discourse markers “so” and “oh” and the doing of other-attentiveness in social interaction. Journal of Communication, 56, 661-688.
- Bolden, G. B. (2009). Implementing incipient actions: The discourse marker ‘so’ in English conversation. Journal of Pragmatics, 41, 974-998.
- Bortfeld, H., Leon, S. D., Bloom, J. E., Schober, M. F., & Brennan, S. E. (2001). Disfluency rates in conversation effects of age, relationship, topic, role, and gender. Language and Speech, 44(2), 123-147.
- Brinton, L. J. (1996). Pragmatic markers in English: Grammaticalization and discourse functions. Berlin, Germany: Mouton de Gruyter.
- Bu, J. (2013). A study of the acquisition of discourse markers by Chinese learners of English. International Journal of English Studies, 13(1), 29-50.
- Buysse, L. (2012). So as a multifunctional discourse marker in native and learner speech. Journal of Pragmatics, 44, 1764-1782.
- Buysse, L. (2014). “So what’s a year in a lifetime so.” Non-prefatory use of so in native and learner English. Text & Talk, 34(1), 23-47.
- Clark, H. H. (1996). Using language. Cambridge, United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press.
- Clark, H. H., & Fox Tree, J. E. (2002). Using uh and um in spontaneous speaking. Cognition, 84, 73-111.
- Corley, M., & Stewart, O. W. (2008). Hesitation disfluencies in spontaneous speech: The meaning of um. Language and Linguistics Compass, 2(4), 589-602.
- Flores-Ferrán, N. (2014). So pues entonces: An examination of bilingual discourse markers in Spanish oral narratives of personal experience of New York City-born Puerto Ricans. Sociolinguistic Studies, 8(1), 57-83.
- Fox Tree, J. E. (2010). Discourse markers across speakers and settings. Language and Linguistics Compass, 4(5), 269-281.
- Fraser, B. (1990). An approach to discourse markers. Journal of Pragmatics, 14, 383-395.
- Fraser, B. (1996). Pragmatic markers. Pragmatics, 6(2), 167-190.
- Fraser, B. (1999). What are discourse markers? Journal of Pragmatics, 31, 931-952. Fuller, J. M. (2003). Discourse marker use across speech contexts: A comparison of native and non-native speaker performance. Multilingua, 22, 185-208.
- Fung, L., & Carter, R. (2007). Discourse markers and spoken English: Native and learner use in pedagogic settings. Applied Linguistics, 28(3), 410-439.
- Gilquin, G. (2008). Hesitation markers among EFL learners: Pragmatic deficiency or difference? In J. Romero-Trillo (Ed.), Pragmatics and corpus linguistics: A mutualistic entente (pp. 119-149). Berlin, Germany: Mouton de Gruyter.
- Goldman-Eisler, F. (1961). A comparative study of two hesitation phenomena. Language and Speech, 4(1), 18-26.
- Hellermann, J., & Vergun, A. (2007). Language which is not taught: The discourse marker use of beginning adult learners of English. Journal of Pragmatics, 39, 157-179.
- Iglesias Moreno, A. E. (2001). Native speaker—non-native speaker interaction: The use of discourse markers. ELIA, 2, 129-142.
- Katayama, A. (2012). Effects of instruction on Japanese discourse marker n desu (Master’s thesis). Retrieved from ProQuest.
- Kjellmer, G. (2003). Hesitation. In defence of er and erm. English Studies, 84(2), 170-198.
- Ko, H. S. (2013). Overuse of the discourse filler, “so” in micro-teaching talks by Koreans. Language Research, 49(1), 25-44.
- Lam, P. W. Y. (2010). Toward a functional framework for discourse particles: A comparison of well and so. Text & Talk, 30(6), 657-677.
- Lenk, U. (1998). Marking discourse coherence: Functions of discourse markers in spoken English. Tübingen, Germany: Narr.
- Liao, S. (2008). Variation in the use of discourse markers by Chinese teaching assistants in the US. Journal of Pragmatics, 41, 1-16.
- Lim, J. J. (2016). Discourse marker so: A comparison between English language learners and English-dominant speakers (Master’s thesis). Retrieved from ProQuest.
- Local, J., & Walker, G. (2005). Methodological imperatives for investigating the phonetic organization and phonological structures of spontaneous speech. Phonetica, 62, 1-12.
- Matzen, L. (2004). Discourse markers and prosody: A case study of so. LACUS Forum XXX: Language, Thought and Reality, 30, 75-94.
- Müller, S. (2004). ‘Well you know that type of person’: Functions of well in the speech of American and German students. Journal of Pragmatics, 36, 1157-1182.
- Müller, S. (2005). Discourse markers in native and non-native English discourse. Amsterdam, Netherlands: John Benjamins.
- Pellet, S. H. (2005). The development of competence in French interlanguage pragmatics: The case of the discourse marker ‘donc’ (Doctoral dissertation). Retrieved from ProQuest (3217159)
- Quirk, R., Greenbaum, S., Leech, G., & Svartvik, J. (1985). A comprehensive grammar of the English language. London, United Kingdom: Longman.
- Raymond, G. (2004). Prompting action: The stand-alone “so” in ordinary conversation. Research on Language and Social Interaction, 37(2), 185-218.
- Rehner, K. (2002). The development of aspects of linguistic and discourse competence by advanced second language learners of French (Doctoral dissertation). Retrieved from ProQuest Schegloff, E. A., & Sacks, H. (1973). Opening up closings. Semiotica, 8(4), 289-327.
- Schiffrin, D. (1987). Discourse markers. Cambridge, United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press.
- Schourup, L. (1999). Discourse markers. Lingua, 107, 227-265.
- Segal, E. M., Duchan, J. F., & Scott, P. J. (1991). The role of interclausal connectives in narrative structuring: Evidence from adults’ interpretations of simple stories. Discourse Processes, 14, 27-54.
- Shimada, K. (2014). Contrastive interlanguage analysis of discourse markers used by nonnative and native English speakers. JALT Journal, 36(1), 47-68. So. (n.d.). In Oxford English Dictionary. Retrieved from http://www.oed.com.myaccess.library.utoronto.ca/view/Entry/183635?rskey=rcQfb2&result=2#eid
- Tanaka, L. (2010). Is formality relevant? Japanese tokens hai, ee and un. Pragmatics, 20(2), 191-211.
- Torres, L., & Potowski, K. (2008). A comparative study of bilingual discourse markers in Chicago Mexican, Puerto Rican, and MexiRican Spanish. International Journal of Bilingualism, 12(4), 263-279.
- Tottie, G. (2011). Uh and um as sociolinguistic markers in British English. International Journal of Corpus Linguistics, 16(2), 173-197.
- Van Dijk, T. A. (1979). Pragmatic connectives. Journal of Pragmatics, 3, 447-456.
- Zarei, F. (2012). An investigation of discourse markers in English. The Journal of Linguistic and Intercultural Education, 5, 191-220.