The diversity of the expressions in the English language

1. The Diversity of Discourse Markers in the English Language

Within the framework of a language, the logical connection of sentences in larger patterns for a meaningful discourse (spoken or written) is called discourse competence. To arrange sentences in sequence so as to produce coherent stretches of language discourse markers and discourse connectives are of vital importance. The present chapter is an attempt to illustrate the notion of discourse marker in the English language, and the influence of discourse markers and discourse connectives on written and oral communication. [ Michael Swan, 11]

Discourse markers are the inseparable part of the English language and vocabulary. They are relatively syntax-independent and usually do not change the truth conditional meaning of the sentence.

They can show the connection between what a speaker is saying and what has already been said or what is going to be said; they can help make clear the structure of what is being said; they can indicate what speakers think about what they are saying or what others have said.

Common discourse markers used in the English language include “you know”, “actually”, “basically”, “like”, “I mean”, “okay” and “so”, “oh”, “well”, now”, “then”, “however”, “although”, “nevertheless”, and the discourse connectives “so”, “because”, “but”, and “or”. The term discourse marker was coined by Deborah Schiffrin in her 1988 book Discourse Markers. [Kenneth Beare, 10]

In practical English Usage, Michael Swan defines a discourse marker as “a word or expression which shows the connection between what is being said and the wider context”.

For him, a discourse marker is something that either connects a sentence to what comes before or after, or indicates a speaker’s attitude to what he is saying. He gives three examples: on the other hand; frankly; as a matter of fact.[21]

The term “fanboys” stands for co-ordinating conjunctions. McCormick points out that “fanboys” is mnemonic to recall co-ordinating conjunctions: for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so. Traditionally, some of the words or phrases that were considered discourse markers were treated as “fillers” or “expletives”: words or phrases that have no function at all. Now they are assigned functions in different levels of analysis: topic changes, reformulations, discourse planning, stressing, hedging, or back channelling.

Those functions can be classified into three broad groups: relationships among utterances; relationships between the speaker and the message, and relationships between speaker and hearer. [Andre Ramos, 3]

Discourse markers are referred to more commonly as ‘linking words' and 'linking phrases’, or ‘sentence connectors’. They can be described as the ‘glue’ that binds together some pieces of writing or speech making the different parts of the text ‘stick together’. Without satisfactory discourse markers in a piece of writing, a text would not seem logically constructed and the connections between the paragraphs and different sentences would not be so obvious.

Attention is also needed, however, to avoid over-use of discourse markers which may cause a piece of writing to sound too heavy and ‘artificial’. They are important, but must only be used when necessary. [Cambridge Dictionary, 13]

There are lots of discourse markers that express different relationships between ideas.

The primary types of relationship between ideas, and the sentence connectors that are often used to express these relationships, are given in the table below. The discourse markers in the table are generally used at the beginning of a phrase or clause.

A clause is a minimal grammatical frame that has meaning in its own right, and consists of a verb and subject, and often an object, too.

Sentence connectors do not always start a completely new sentence; they may be separated from the prior idea with a semi-colon. [Scott Thornbury, 12]

It is sometimes possible to use conjunctions instead of sentence connectors to add variety to one’s speech. A conjunction is a vocable like ‘and’, ‘but’, which is used to put two ideas together into a complex sentence. Unlike sentence connectors such as ‘However’, a conjunction cannot be used at the start of a sentence and must come at a mid-point, at the end of one clause and the start of another. It is usually possible to rephrase two sentences that use a sentence connector by using a conjunction instead. For instance, instead of saying ‘He studied French; however, his wife studied Physics’, it will actually be more natural to say ‘He studied English but his wife studied Physics’. Similarly, instead of saying ‘English is hard; therefore, one should spend a lot of time practicing it’, we can say: ‘English is hard, so one has to spend a lot of time practicing it.’

These are simple samples, but the basis of paraphrase can be extended to other, more complex sentences.[20]

Words like ‘and’ and ‘but’ may seem tiring, but they help to lighten the style of the writing. This in turn helps the writing to sound less timid and formal. And in any case, in writing, it is often helpful to use a variety of structures rather than just say things in one way.

It can also be helpful to omit discourse markers if they do not have any useful purpose. Knowing when to omit the discourse marker is a subtle aspect of language use and comes with more skill and reading. [Elena Adamova, 5]