The presence of discourse relations can be marked explicitly with lexical items such as specialized and underspecified connectives or left implicit. It is now well established that the presence of specialized connective facilitates the processing of these relations. The question is to gauge how… read more
In this study, we analyze to what extent the type of unit influences the position and function of discourse markers (DMs). By comparing DM use across peripheries and across units, we aim to identify which linguistic level (syntax, intonation, turns) is most functionally and cognitively motivated.… read more
The chapter presents a cross-linguistic study of the subordinating conjunctions parce que in French and omdat in Dutch (both corresponding to English because) at the interface between discourse and grammar. It is argued that causal subordinate conjunctions do not always mark a causal relation at… read more
This chapter presents an empirical method for the identification and annotation of discourse markers (DMs) in in spontaneous spoken French (MDMA project). Central to the proposal is the assumption that DMs may be described as clusters of features that, in specific patterns of combination, allow… read more
This article presents a corpus-based contrastive study of (dis)fluency in French and English, focusing on the clustering of discourse markers (DMs) and filled pauses (FPs) across various spoken registers. Starting from the hypothesis that markers of (dis)fluency, or ‘fluencemes’, occur more… read more
Discourse markers are a crucial component of natural language, which is why a description and account of their diachronic evolution must be part of our linguistic models. However, researchers have different views on whether this evolution should be accounted for in terms of grammaticalization… read more
This chapter presents an empirical study of the left periphery of Basic Discourse Units, viz. the linguistic segments that speakers and hearers use to interpret the discourse they are engaged in. A Basic Discourse Unit is bound by the mapping of a syntactic (dependency) structure and a major… read more
The aim of this contribution is to investigate, by means of a diachronic multi-genre corpus-based approach (Academic, Narrative, and Present-day Spoken French), whether the historical functional shift from the propositional domain to the causal/pragmatic domain of linguistic expressions correlates… read more
This paper presents an in-depth study of the semantics of the French discourse marker alors ‘at that time, then, so’. Its evolution from temporal adverbial with local anaphoric meaning to polysemous marker including conversation management uses in spoken French is traced through a systematic… read more
In this paper, we propose a contrastive corpus study of French car and parce que and Italian ché and perché, meaning “because”. Our goal is to assess the importance of subjectivity in grammaticalization in general, and in the renewal of causal conjunctions in particular. The evolution of these two… read more
The article investigates the multi-functional status of the French connective donc (‘so’) showing on the basis of a corpus analysis that the connective may be used to structure the discourse at different levels. The study distinguishes four main functions for donc: consequential, recapitulating,… read more
This paper deals with the semantics of two discourse markers, viz. French en fait (“in fact”) and Dutch eigenlijk (“actually”), commonly associated with the expression of “opposition” and “reformulation”. A special focus lies on methodological issues in the description of such markers, since their… read more
This study focuses on the impact of linguistic markers of coherence on the comprehension of expository discourse. The impact of such markers on comprehension (i.e., off-line) is a highly controversial topic in current studies, especially for connectives for which a facilitating as well as an… read more