Kerry Mullan

Expressing opinions in French and Australian English discourse : a semantic and interactional analysis

Based on the analysis of conversations between French and Australian English speakers discussing various topics, including their experiences as non-native speakers in France or Australia, this book combines subjective personal testimonies with an objective linguistic analysis of the expression of opinion in discourse. It offers a new perspective on French and Australian English interactional style by examining the discourse markers I think, je pense, je crois and je trouve . It is shown that the prosody, intonation unit position, and the surrounding context of these markers are all fundamental to their function and meaning in interaction. In addition, this book offers the first detailed comparative semantic study of the three comparative French expressions in interaction. The book will appeal to all those interested in linguistics, French and Australian English interactional style, cross-cultural communication, and discourse analysis. Students and teachers of French will be interested in the semantic analysis of the French expressions, the authentic interactional data and the personal testimonies of the participants.

The Guidebook to Sociolinguistics

realization of the proposed research problems, many problems require only basic statistical competence, but some require strong skills in advanced statistical methods and mathematical modelling. Also, with many problems a deeper linguistic background is needed for reliable quantification. Hence this book will be of interest for beginners in linguistics as well as for advanced researchers seeking new challenges in the growing field of quantitative linguistics and the application of statistical methods in linguistics. Thus, all in all, it fulfils its intentions, and will give the interested reader easy access to the state of the art in quantitative linguistics.

Et Pis Bon, Ben Alors Voilà Quoi! Teaching Those Pesky Discourse Markers

Abstract Discourse markers have been described as “nervous tics, fillers, or signs of hesitation”, and are frequently dismissed as features of lazy or inarticulate speech. Yet in fact they have a number of crucial functions in spoken interaction, such as buying time, managing turn taking, linking utterances, introducing a new topic and indicating the degree of speaker involvement. Discourse markers are said to be used more in conversational speech than in any other form of communication. For this reason, it is essential that we teach our language students how to recognise, understand and use these markers in spoken interaction. Because of their slipperiness, however, discourse markers are often omitted from the language classroom. This article will demonstrate how authentic data can be exploited to teach a number of French discourse markers to tertiary learners of French as an additional language, and will include an idea for a follow up assessment task.