"Spoken language is characterized by the occurrence of linguistic devices such as discourse markers (e.g. 'so', 'well', 'you know', 'I mean') and other so-called "disfluent" phenomena, which reflect the temporal nature of the cognitive mechanisms underlying speech production and…
Based on a rich set of historical data, this book traces the development of pragmatic markers in English, from hwaet in Old English and whilom in Middle English to whatever and I'm just saying in present-day English. Laurel J. Brinton carefully maps the syntactic origins and dev…
This volume brings together a number of articles on the form and function of extra-clausal constituents, a group of linguistic elements which have puzzled linguists by defying analysis in terms of ordinary sentence grammar. Given their high frequency and communicative importance…
"Fundamental to oral fluency, pragmatic markers facilitate the flow of spontaneous, interactional and social conversation. Variously termed 'hedges', 'fumbles' and 'conversational greasers' in earlier academic studies, this book explores the meaning, function and role of 'well',…