Discourse Markers Across Languages: A Contrastive Study of Second-level Discourse Markers in Native and Non-native Text With Implications for General and Pedagogic Lexicography

379 Pages·2005·0.48 MB·English

by  Siepmann Dirk

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Cover
title: Discourse Markers Across Languages : A Contrastive Study of
Second-level Discourse Markers in Native and Non-native Text
With Implications for General and Pedagogic Lexicography
Routledge Advances in Corpus Linguistics ; 6
author: Siepmann, Dirk.
publisher: Taylor & Francis Routledge
isbn10 | asin: 0415349494
print isbn13: 9780415349499
ebook isbn13: 9780203315262
language: English
subject Discourse markers, Contrastive linguistics, Lexicography,
Language and languages--Study and teaching.
publication date: 2005
lcc: P302.35.S54 2005eb
ddc: 401/.41
subject: Discourse markers, Contrastive linguistics, Lexicography,
Language and languages--Study and teaching.
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Page i
Discourse Markers Across Languages
This book deals with ready-made phrases, or ‘second-level discourse markers’ such as it is argued that or the same
goes for. Specifically the book answers questions such as ‘how can such phrases be defined or translated?’ or ‘how
can they be recorded in dictionaries?’
The book falls into two parts. Part I presents a functional taxonomy of second-level markers in English, French and
German as well as an analysis of their use in continuous text. Part II offers a contrastive interlanguage analysis of
the performance of non-native writers and translators.
The book is essential reading for professional linguists or lexicographers with an interest in collocation and
phraseology, as well as for academics, translators and language teachers seeking to produce well-crafted text in a
foreign language.
Dirk Siepmann is Lecturer in English at Siegen University, Germany.
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Page ii
Routledge advances in corpus linguistics
Edited by Anthony McEnery,
Lancaster University, UK,
and Michael Hoey,
Liverpool University, UK.
Corpus-based linguistics is a dynamic area of linguistic research. The series aims to reflect the diversity of
approaches to the subject, and thus to provide a forum for debate and detailed discussion of the various ways of
building, exploiting and theorizing about the use of corpora in language studies.
1. Swearing in English
Anthony McEnery
2. Antonymy
A corpus-based perspective
Steυen Jones
3. Modelling Variation in Spoken and Written English
Daυid Y.W.Lee
4. The Linguistics of Political Argument
The spin-doctor and the wolf-pack at the White House
Alan Partington
5. Corpus Stylistics
Speech, writing and thought presentation in a corpus of English writing
Elena Semino and Mick Short
6. Discourse Markers Across Languages
A contrastive study of second-level discourse markers in native and non-native text with implications for general and
pedagogic lexicography
Dirk Siepmann
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Page iii
Discourse Markers Across Languages
A contrastive study of second-level discourse markers in native and non-native text with implications for general and
pedagogic lexicography
Dirk Siepmann
LONDON AND NEW YORK
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Page iv
First published 2005
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
270 Madison Ave, New York, NY 10016
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group
This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2005.
To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s collection of thousands of eBooks
please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk.
© 2005 Dirk Siepmann
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or
reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical,
or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including
photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or
retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
A catalog record for this book has been requested
ISBN 0-203-31526-X Master e-book ISBN
ISBN 0-415-34949-4 (Print Edition)
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Page v
Unter Südländern ist die Sprache ein Ingredienz der Lebensfreude, dem man weit lebhaftere gesellschaftliche
Schätzung entgegenbringt, als der Norden sie kennt. Es sind vorbildliche Ehren, in denen das nationale Bindemittel
der Muttersprache bei diesen Völkern steht, und etwas heiter Vorbildliches hat die genußreiche Ehrfurcht, mit der
man ihre Formen und Lautgesetze betreut. Man spricht mit Vergnügen, man hört mit Vergnügen—und man hört mit
Urteil…*
Thomas Mann, Mario und der Zauberer
Mache die Dinge so einfach wie möglich—aber nicht einfacher†
Albert Einstein
Il faut…ramener la linguistique vers le lexique où la complexité des langues parvient à son plus haut degré de force
et d’épanouissement‡
Harald Weinrich, Le Français dans le Monde (303)
* ‘Among southern peoples language is an ingredient of life’s joys which is held in much livelier social esteem than in
the north. The honours paid by these nations to that national binder, the mother tongue, are exemplary, and there is
something joyfully exemplary about the appreciation and awe with which they treat its forms and sounds. One
speaks with pleasure, one listens with pleasure—and one listens with discernment.’ (my translation)
† ‘Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler.’ (my translation)
‡ ‘Linguistics has to be steered back towards the area of lexis, where language attains its highest degree of
expressiveness and complexity.’ (my translation)
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Page vii
Contents

Preface ix
What this book is about xii
Acknowledgements xiii

PART I Linguistic considerations 1

1 Observing languages: introduction to Part I 3
1.1 Aims, scope and methodology 3
1.2 Corpora and corpus-enquiry tools 22
2 Investigating routines: defining and describing multi-word discourse markers 34
2.1 Pragmatic perspectives on discourse markers 37
2.2 Lexicological perspectives on multi-word discourse markers 45
2.3 Syntactic realizations of SLDMs 52
3 Identifying meanings and functions: an attempt at a functional taxonomy of SLDMs 82
3.1 Introduction 82
3.2 Language functions and textual relations 82
3.3 A taxonomy of SLDMs 87
3.4 Points of interest 98
4 Straddling cultures: three types of second-level discourse markers in contrastive perspective 106
4.1 Exemplifiers 111
4.2 Reformulators and resumers 141
4.3 Inferrers 219
4.4 Summary and conclusion 239
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Page viii

PART II A contrastive interlanguage analysis with implications for dictionary making 241

1 Introduction 243
2 Facing realities: the performance of non-native writers and translators 245
2.1 Interlanguage analysis 246
2.2 German writers’ performance in the field of discourse markers 252
2.3 Translations under the spotlight 278
2.4 Conclusion 282
3 Lexicographic treatment of SLDMs 283
3.1 Lexicographic coverage of SLDMs 283
3.2 Macrostructural and microstructural treatment of SLDMs 290
3.3 Sample entries 308
4 Avenues for further research 325

Notes 327
Bibliography 330
Index 351
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Page ix
Preface
The present work stands at the interface of several converging developments in linguistics and language teaching.
Most importantly, perhaps, there has been in recent decades a dramatic increase in the amount of scholarship on
text and discourse. Indeed, despite a time-honoured concern with both written and spoken texts in classical rhetoric,
systematic discourse analysis did not really get off the ground until the 1970s, with the work of such linguists as
Quirk et al. (1972) and van Dijk (1972). The overarching concern in such work has been the empirical investigation
of the structure and functions of naturally occurring text rather than the atomistic study of sentence-level syntax
inspired by Chomsky.
Such paradigm change has not been without influence on the study of language for specific purposes (LSP), a field
in which the greatest research effort has probably been expended on academic writing. Here too there has been a
move from the microlinguistic analysis of syntax, terminology and word formation prevalent until well into the 1970s
(Drozd and Seibicke 1973; Kocourek 1982) towards the study of specialist text (Gläser 1979; Hoffmann 1983;
Baumann 1986). A natural consequence of this has been the establishment of contrastive text linguistics as a
discipline in its own right; numerous works have been published comparing specific languages at the textual level
(cf. for example Newsham 1977 for the language pair English/French; Hinds 1983 for English/Japanese; Kachru 1983
for English/Hindi; Clyne 1987 for English/German; Blumenthal 1997 for French/German; Hatim 1997 for
English/Arabic).
Another rapidly growing line of research is the study of phraseology. Founded by Bally (1909), this branch of
linguistics suffered comparative neglect in Western Europe until fairly recently. It was the great merit of Russian
linguistics to intensify phraseological research from the 1940s onwards, establishing precise criteria for the
description of various types of conventionalized expressions. With the large-scale shift in the West from idealist
Chomskyan linguistics to renewed empirical research, the phraseology of languages such as English, German and
French became in its turn the subject of numerous research ventures (e.g. Cowie 1975; Burger 1973; Feilke 1996;
Moon 1998; Bresson 1998). Among the results
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