Pragmatic markers in comparative perspective: A contribution to cross-language pragmatics

Paper presented at PRAGMA 99, Tel Aviv, June 1999. — 22 p.Author Info:
French Department.
University of California, Berkeley.
Berkeley CA 94720-2580.
suzanne@socrates.berkeley.edu.The larger question issue this study addresses is whether languages develop functionally-parallel discourse markers in the same way as they develop, say, functionally parallel grammatical categories? Specifically, if different languages independently develop pragmatic markers displaying the same function or, more strikingly, the same range of functions, and if the lexical sources of these markers are also similar, then this state of affairs would appear to have important implications for cross-language pragmatics. As a contribution to this agenda, I present here a case study, highlighting its theoretical implications for comparative pragmatics.