Variation in the use of discourse markers in a language contact situation
Research on the use of discourse markers by 17 speakers of Anglophone Montreal
French (AMF) shows a very great range in terms of individual repertoires and
frequency of use. Whereas 5 subjects manifest rates of usage comparable to those
of native speakers, or to their own L1 usage in English, the other 12 display a
much more restricted use of the markers. In decreasing order of frequency, the
markers used are: (1) tu sais 'y'know' ; (2) là 'there', which
does not correspond to any English marker, and is the most frequent among L1
Montreqal French speakers; (3) bon 'good', alors 'so', comme
'like', and bien 'well'; and (5) the local discourse conjunction fait
que 'so'. Occasional use is also made of the English markers you know,
so, like and well. As far as the individual markers are
concerned, those typical of Qu´´bécois French, with no English equivalent,
are used by speakers who have been exposed to French in their early childhood
environment. The one marker that shows influence from English is comme,
which AMF speakers appear to have calqued on English like. Overall,
frequent use of discourse markers was found to correlate only with speakers'
knowledge of French grammar, evidence that higher frequency of discourse marker
use is the hallmark of the fluent speaker. As a feature that is not explicityly
taught in school, mastery of the appropriate use of discourse is thus
particularly revealing of speakers' integration into the local speech community.
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