Realizations of the Connective Adjunct: summary
Adverbs: nevertheless, moreover, first, therefore, next, now namely,
accordingly, consequently, alternatively
PPs: in other words, by the way, on top of that
AdjGs: last of all, better still
AdvGs: more accurately
Fin.cl: that is to say, what is more
Non-fin.cl: to sum up, to cap it all
In daily life, turns in conversation are often initiated by a common institutionalized connective adjunct, such as Well . . ., Now . . ., Oh . . ., So . . ., Right . . ., functioning as discourse markers. Their role is double: they mark a new speaker’s turn in the conversation, and at the same time they mark the management of information, as well as the speaker’s attitude to the message. Well has a variety of meanings, signalled by intonation, ranging from decision to deliberation. Oh is a surprisal, indicating that the information received is contrary to expectations, or that the speaker is adjusting to the new information or perception. I mean, you see and you know regulate shared and unshared knowledge. Look and Hey are attention signals, while yes, yeah, no and nope are responses that can occur together with other markers. Here are some examples of discourse markers in spoken English:
Oh my coffee’s gone cold! [KCU]1
It was dreadful! That shop. Oh, that’s supposed to be a good shop! [KST]
I’ve lost my keys! Well, what do you expect? You never put them away.
Several of these markers, as well as stance and connective adjuncts, occur in the following extract from Alan Ayckbourn’s play Just Between Ourselves, in which Neil comes to Dennis’s house to inspect a car for sale.
Dennis: It’s the pilot light, you see. It’s in a cross draught. It’s very badly sited, that stove. They
should never have put it there. I’m planning to move it. Right, now.1 You’ve come about
the car, haven’t you?
Neil: That’s right.
Dennis: Well,2 there she is. Have a look for yourself. That’s the one.
Neil: Ah.
Dennis: Now3 I’ll tell you a little bit about it, shall I? Bit of history. Number one,4 it’s not my car.
It’s the wife’s. However,5 now 6 before you say ah-ah – woman driver, she’s been very
careful with it. Never had a single accident in it, touch wood. Well,7 I mean8 look,9 you
can see hardly a scratch on it. Considering the age.10 To be perfectly honest,11 just
between ourselves,12 she’s a better driver than me – when she puts her mind to it. I
mean,13 look14 considering it’s what now – seven – nearly eight years old.15 Just look
for yourself at that body work.
Neil: Yes, Yes.16
1marker/connective; 2connective; 3connective; 4connective; 5connective; 6connective; 7marker; 8marker, 9attention signal; 10stance; 11stance; 12marker; 13stance; 14attention signal; 15stance; 16response signal.
1This and other examples with a three-character identifier are taken from the BYU-BNC (Davies 2004-), based on The British National Corpus from Oxford University Press. Available online at http://corpus byu. edu/bnc.
