The combination of discourse markers in spontaneous conversations

Abstract

This paper attempts to establish some basis for the combination of discourse markers in conversations. The analysis presented here will be based on Spanish spontaneous conversations and will make use of the Val.Es.Co model of discourse units developed in the last ten years (Briz et al. 2003; Grupo Val.Es.Co 2014) and a corpus of spontaneous conversations. As a result, patterns of combination of DMs will be established; some types of combinations will be described, and a distinction will be drawn between lexicalization of DMs, adjacency of DMs in two neighboring discourse units, and combination proper. In addition, some places are favored for the combination of discourse markers: the initial positions of the discourse units act and intervention. Binary combinations are preferred to ternary or 4-ary combinations. Finally, DMs with textual functions are preferred in the combinations studied when compared to modal or interpersonal DMs.