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Discourse Markers in Second Language Acquisition / Les marqueurs discursifs dans l’acquisition d’une langue étrangère: Studies on Italian and French as L2 / Études en italien et en français langues étrangères
Edited by Margarita Borreguero Zuloaga and Britta Thörle
[Language, Interaction and Acquisition 7:1] 2016
► pp. 89–116

Pointing backward and forward

Be’-prefaced responsive turns in Italian L1 and L2

| Stockholm University

In this study, we analyze the kind of actions L1 and L2 speakers of Italian perform by prefacing their responsive turns with the discourse marker be’. As a baseline, the article begins with an analysis of how native speakers of Italian use be’. We then carry out quantitative and qualitative analyses of the use of be’ in a number of L2 learners at different proficiency levels from three data sets of different types of interactions between students and native speakers of Italian. In the qualitative analysis, we adopt a conversation analytic perspective. The results suggest that both native speakers and L2 speakers, from intermediate to advanced level, perform a variety of social actions by be’-prefacing their responsive turns.

Published online: 30 August 2016
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/lia.7.1.04pau
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