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. 

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