The pragmatics of selected discourse markers in Swahili

The dissertation is a description of several discourse markers in Swahili in a pragmatic framework which assumes that speakers and hearers are rational agents whose behavior, including verbal behavior, is plan-based and goal-oriented. In this view, speech is coherent because the hearer can perceive the relation of utterances to the speaker's plan in the discourse. Discourse markers have a role in achieving coherent speech because their use guides the hearer in inferring how the speaker probably intends the utterances which they accompany to be part of her plan in the discourse. Each discourse marker has a basic sense which is invoked when the speaker accompanies her utterance with a discourse marker. The hearer, believing that the speaker is cooperative, i.e., guided by the Cooperative Principle (Grice, 1975), infers what intention he must impute to the speaker in using the discourse marker that she used, when she used it, such that he may preserve the overall assumption of the speaker's cooperativeness. Thus, the speaker's use of a discourse marker requires the hearer to relate the utterance which it accompanies to his model of the speaker's plan in the discourse, thereby realizing its coherence.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Linguistics

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2011

Author dc:creator

• Dunn, Andrea Susan

Contributors dc:contributor

• Green, Georgia M.

• Language, Linguistics

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 1990 Dunn, Andrea Susan

Language dc:language

eng

Identifier

AAI9114228
(UMI)AAI9114228

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/20068