SEMANTIC AND PRAGMATIC PECULIARITIES OF CONTRASTIVE DISCOURSE MARKERS IN CONVERSATIONAL DISCOURSE ..

. If we accept the corpus evidence, it seems clear that discourse markers are extremely frequent in, at least, native speaker speech. Defining a discourse marker DM is a difficult task, something Jucker and Ziv acknowledge when they suggest that there is no generally agreed upon definition of the term discourse marker [3,p.11]. Instead, the literature reveals both a multiplicity of definitions and terms. Amongst these are sentence connective, discourse marker[5,p.9], discourse operator [4,p.1139], pragmatic marker[2,p.411], and discourse particle[1,p.237]. The variety of terms reflects distinct theoretical perspectives[3, p.11-12]. within each piece of research and is perhaps also a result of the difficulty researchers have had in providing a definition for a part of speech which can have multiple functions and also operate as part of several word classes, sometimes as a DM and sometimes not. We need therefore to acknowledge that researchers use different terms and a DM is something of a fuzzy concept[3, p.3]. Having acknowledged this, the term discourse marker has been chosen for the purposes of this study as it seems to be the term most widely understood and used. Although the functional definitions outstanding grammaticians take us closer to a definition of a DM, it would be premature to claim that it is definitive. As Aijmer states: we are only just beginning to define what we mean by discourse particles[1,p.239]. For this reason, and for the purposes of my study, it is perhaps most useful to suggest that in order for a lexical item or phrase to be a DM, there are a number of characteristics it will display, and the more characteristics it seems to display, the more prototypical[4,p.7-8] it is as a DM. These peculiarities may be summarised as follows: DMs are lexical items or phrases [5,p. 1154-1156; 2,p. 149-158], such as right, I mean, you know, I think. DMs are optional the absence of a DM does not affect the semantics or grammar of an utterance. However, the absence will make comprehension at least more difficult. Consider the example listed below: HOTCH: The police closed the case, anyway? GINA:Cooper kicked and screamed but the FBI brass told him to get his butt home. He did as he was told. [6,Season 1, Episode 12] DMs are multifunctional the same DM can have a variety of functions, each dependent on context. Examples: I dont know how I ate any food. Im not used to drinking anyway.[6, Season 7, Episode 7] It is a bit boring in a way. Well think about it anyway.[6, Season 2, Episode 6] She wasnt supposed to wear the necklace, she did anyway. [6, Season 5, Episode 1] In the provided examples, the utterance containing anyway modies semantically not only the utterance it appears in, but also the previous utterance. Here

we do not give our fully developed semantic account of anyway, but a simplied version: anyway(I dont know how I ate any food, Im not used to drinking) anyway (It is a bit boring in a way, Well think about it) anyway(She wasnt supposed to wear the necklace, she did) As we can see, anyway takes two semantic arguments which correspond to the utterance where anyway occurs (appearing as the second argument), and the utterance preceding anyway (appearing as the rst argument). DMs have a procedural but not propositional meaning. A DM may possess a propositional meaning when used as part of another class. An example of this is the temporal use of now and the use of right. The meaning of a DM can be defined from the broader context in which it operates:Right, shall we start the search?[6, Season 3, Episode 4] DMs function at a referential, interpersonal, structural and cognitive level [1, p. 333-349; 3, p. 412-421]. They act as signposts for speakers and listeners as they orientate themselves to the ongoing discourse [5,p. 212-226; 1, p. 344-349] by, for instance, signaling that listeners need to time to think or that they wish to show they are listening. He was in danger. I refuse to believe that otherwise. [6, Season 3, Episode 10] DMs should be prosodically independent and be largely separate from the utterances they introduce [3,p. 413]. This will generally be indicated by the DM occupying a separate tone unit and (often) being followed by a pause. Last, stop being such a coward! I know you can do that! [6, Season 5, Episode 13] In conclusion, we can suggest that DMs have both textual and interpersonal functions. In other words, DMs act to make discourse more coherent by showing links between discourse segments but also to fulfill a number of other functions, such as encouraging speakers to continue or softening opinions. The more of these characteristics a word or phrase has, the more prototypical a DM it will be. LITERATURE 1. Aijmer, K. English Discourse Particles/ Karin Aijmer. Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 2002. 237 349p. 2. Fung, L., & Carter, R. Discourse Markers and Spoken English/ Loretta Fung, Ronald Carter.//Native and Non-Native Use in Pedagogic Settings. Applied Linguistics, 28(3), 2007. 410 439p. 3. Jucker, A., &Ziv, Y. In Discourse Markers: Descriptions and Theory/Andreas Jucker, Yael Ziv. Amsterdam/Philadelphia : John Benamins, 1998. 7 112p. 4. Redeker, G. Linguistic Markers of Discourse Structure/Gisela Redeker. Linguistics, 29(6),1991. 1139 1172p. 5. Schiffrin D. Discourse Markers / Deborah Schiffrin. Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press, 1996. 364 p. 6. Criminal Minds : [TV series] / directed by Jeff Davis. The Mark Gordon Company, ABC Studios, Paramount Television, 20052011. Seasons 1 7. 3822 min.