Discourse particle

Discourse particle

In linguistics, a discourse particle is a lexeme or particle which has no direct semantic meaning in the context of a sentence, having rather a pragmatic function: it serves to indicate the speaker's attitude, or to structure their relationship to other participants in a conversation. Discourse particles are primarily a feature of spoken language; in written language they indicate an informal or jocular tone.

Contents

Examples

Examples in English include:

  • well e.g. in "Well, I wouldn't say that." or "Well, look who it is!"
  • y’know e.g. in "It's not as easy as that, y'know."
  • like e.g. in "It can drive some parents, like, nuts."[1]

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Lotozo, Eils (September 4 2002). "The way teens talk, like, serves a purpose". Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2002-09-05/features/0209050015_1_linguistics-english-project-discourse-particles.  Citing Siegel, Muffy E. A. (2002). "Like: The Discourse Particle and Semantics". Journal of Semantics 19 (1): 35–71. doi:10.1093/jos/19.1.35. http://jos.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/19/1/35. 

References

  • Hansen, Maj-Britt Mosegaard (1998). The Function of Discourse Particles: A study with special reference to spoken standard French. Philadelphia: Benjamins. ISBN 1-55619-815-9. 

Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Нужен реферат?

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Discourse marker — In linguistics, a discourse marker is a word or phrase that is relatively syntax independent and does not change the meaning of the sentence, and has a somewhat empty meaning.[1] Examples of discourse markers include the particles oh , well , now …   Wikipedia

  • Sentence-final particle — A sentence final particle, also sometimes referred to as a modal particle ,cite book | last=Lin | first=Huey Hannah | title=Contextualizing Linguistic Politeness in Chinese [http://www.ohiolink.edu/etd/send pdf.cgi/Lin%20Huey%20Hannah.pdf?acc num …   Wikipedia

  • Noun particle — A noun particle is any morpheme that denotes or marks the presence of a noun. Noun particles do not exist in English, but can be found in other languages such as Korean and Japanese. Korean particles Main article: Korean language Korean particles …   Wikipedia

  • Modal particle — In linguistics, modal particles are always uninflected words, and are a type of grammatical particle. Their function is that of reflecting the mood or attitude of the speaker or narrator, in that they are not reflexive but change the mood of the… …   Wikipedia

  • Like — In the English language, the word like has a very flexible range of uses. It can be used as a noun, verb, adverb, adjective, preposition, particle, conjunction, hedge, interjection, and quotative. Word history As a preposition or adjective, it… …   Wikipedia

  • Hmong-Mien languages — or Miao Yao languages Language family of southern China, northern Vietnam, Laos, and northern Thailand, with more than nine million speakers. Hmong (Miao, Meo) has been divided into three dialect groups, Western, Central, and Northern. Beginning… …   Universalium

  • Thai language — Thai ภาษาไทย phasa thai Pronunciation [pʰāːsǎːtʰāj] Spoken in Thailand, Northern Malaysia, Cambodia, Southern Burma, Laos, USA, Canada …   Wikipedia

  • Weak form and strong form — In the phonology of stress timed languages, the weak form of a word is a form that may be used when the word has no stress, and which is phonemically distinct from the strong form, used when the word is stressed. The strong form serves as the… …   Wikipedia

  • Singlish — Spoken in Singapore Language family Creole Singlish Language codes ISO 639 3 …   Wikipedia

  • literature — /lit euhr euh cheuhr, choor , li treuh /, n. 1. writings in which expression and form, in connection with ideas of permanent and universal interest, are characteristic or essential features, as poetry, novels, history, biography, and essays. 2.… …   Universalium

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
… Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”