Variation in the use of discourse markers in a language contact situation

Abstract

Use of discourse markers by 17 speakers of Anglophone Montreal French (AMF) showed^reM,YMiatipjijruridividual repertoires and frequency of use. Only five subjects manifested rates of usag^corrip^rableTo thos^ToTliaFive speakers or to their own LI usage in English. In decreasing order of frequency, the speakers used tu sais 'y'know'; la 'there' (the most frequent among LI Montreal French speakers); bon 'good', alors 'so', comme 'like', and bien 'well'; and the local discourse conjunction fait que 'so'. The subjects occasionally made use of the English markers you know, so, like, and well. Quebecois French markers with no English equivalent were used by the speakers who had been exposed to French in their early childhood environment. The one marker that showed influence from English was comme, apparently calqued on English like. Overall, frequent use of discourse markers correlated only with the speakers' knowledge of French grammar-evidence that a higher frequency of discourse marker use is the hallmark of the fluent speaker. As a feature that is not explicitly taught in school, mastery of the appropriate use of discourse markers is thus particularly revealing of the speakers' integration into the local speech community.

A study of the acquisition of discourse markers by Chinese learners of English

“…The results of frequency of each discourse marker by the subjects in the classroom discussion and in the interviews show that discourse markers may be acquired by Chinese learners of English to a different degree, which confirms earlier research on variation in the use of discourse markers (Sankoff et al, 1997) that non-native English speakers display variation in their use of discourse markers. While Chinese learners of English do use many of the same discourse markers as native English speakers do, they either do not fully adopt the functions of discourse markers used by native English speakers (e.g.…”

“…Sankoff et al (1997) investigate the use of discourse markers in English and in French by English learners of French as second language in Montreal, Canada. They find that learners generally tend to use discourse markers less frequently in their L2 (i.e.…”

Acquisition of the internal and external constraints of variable schwa deletion by French immersion students

“…In contrast, recent research taking a sociolinguistic perspective on L2 acquisition has begun to focus on aspects of the target language where native speak-ers display sociolinguistic variation. This type of research has investigated the learning of sociolinguistic variation in French (e.g., Dewaele 1999;Dewaele and Regan 2001;Knaus and Nadasdi 2001;Mougeon and Rehner 2001;Nadasdi and McKinnie 2003;Regan 1996;Rehner, Mougeon, and Nadasdi 2003;Sankoff et al 1997) and a variety of other languages (e.g., Adamson and Regan 1991;Bayley and Preston 1996;Major to appear;Yamagata and Preston 1999). Thus, this new strand of research has started to fill a long-standing gap in the field of L2 acquisition studies.…”

The language functions of tipo in Argentine vernacular

“…However, few studies have examined the nature of the vernacular vocabulary that study abroad students are exposed to in these types of interactions. A close examination of the language functions of a youth vernacular pragmatic marker such as tipo becomes essential given that study abroad students' expert-like use of pragmatic markers can be taken as an "accurate indicator of the extent to which a speaker is integrated into the local speech community" (Sankoff, Thibault, Nagy andBlondeau, 1997: 193 as cited in Grieve, 2010). As marker of in-group membership, tipo is a language resource that L2 study abroad participants could draw on while in the host community in order to build stronger ties with age-peer local speakers.…”