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Discourse markers and the PA/SN distinction

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 April 2002

SCOTT A. SCHWENTER
SCOTT A. SCHWENTER
Affiliation:
The Ohio State University
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Abstract

Many languages have two types of adversative sentence conjunctions (e.g. Spanish, German). These are normally referred to as PA and SN conjunctions. However, while PA conjunctions can be used as discourse markers (DMs) in dialogal discourse, SN conjunctions such as those found in Spanish and German cannot be used in dialogues. Thus the PA/SN distinction does not extend fully to the dialogal realm. Using data from another Spanish DM, I argue that the PA/SN distinction can be extended beyond the monologal realm of sentence conjunction to the realm of adversative discourse markers employed in dialogal discourse. The findings have implications for the question of functional equivalence across different types of discourse.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Linguistics , Volume 38 , Issue 1 , March 2002 , pp. 43 - 69
Copyright
© 2002 Cambridge University Press

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Footnotes

This paper represents an extension of ideas that originated in chapter 4 of my Ph.D. dissertation (Schwenter 1999). I would especially like to thank Maria Josep Cuenca, Yukiko Morimoto, Salvador Pons, Elizabeth Traugott and Richard Waltereit for comments and many helpful discussions. Two anonymous JL referees also provided excellent critical commentary. Prior versions of the paper were presented at the 6th International Pragmatics Conference (Reims 1998) and at The Ohio State University.