0000000000759263
AUTHOR
Maria-josep Marín
Co-occurrence of discourse markers in Catalan and Spanish oral narrative
The analysis of oral narratives in Catalan and Spanish highlights the frequency, variety and importance of co-occurring discourse markers. A detailed study of the formal aspects of co-occurrences leads to differentiating three degrees of integration of markers: juxtaposition, addition and composition. These types can be related to dominant category patterns, positions in the narrative and also functional domains (namely, propositional, structural and modal). The analysis and extensive exemplification suggests that co-occurrences based on the addition and composition of markers behave and contribute to discourse cohesion in a special way.
Discourse markers and modality in spoken Catalan: The case of (és) clar
Abstract The present paper illustrates the fuzzy limits between modality markers and discourse markers by analysing the different uses based on the word clar ‘clear’ in oral Catalan. Clar is lexically described as an adjective, but it has developed different functions in various syntactic and pragmatic contexts. In the adverbial and the interjective uses, (es) clar (que) ‘it is clear that’ is a modality marker indicating certainty and shared knowledge. As a conjunction, clar que has developed a concessive meaning (‘but, nevertheless’). When (es) clar acts as a discourse marker (i.e. introducing an utterance) it can be an effective mitigation device used to soften a potentially face-threaten…