In this paper I defend the claim that certain discourse markers (DMs) are presupposition triggers. In itself, this claim is not new but its exact content and consequences are rarely analyzed in detail. However, such an analysis is required for at least three reasons, which correspond to the three main contributions of the paper. (1) The claim that DMs are presuppositional contrasts with two oth...

Discourse connectives play an important role in making a text coherent and helping humans to infer relations between spans of text. Using the Penn Discourse Treebank, we investigate what information relevant to inferring discourse relations is conveyed by discourse connectives, and whether the specificity of discourse relations reflects general cognitive biases for establishing coherence. We al...

Eine Reihe von Diskurspartikeln werden mit dem Ziel analysiert, die Rolle, die sie bei der Markierung von Sprechakten spielen können, zu erklären. Die Analyse verwendet eine optimalitätstheoretische Rekonstruktion der Präsuppositionstheorie.

Using the RST annotated corpus (Carlson et al., 2003), we use simple statistics on the distribution of discourse markers or cue phrases as evidence of the three-way distinction of Contrast relations, Contrast, Antithesis and Concession, recognized in standard Rhetorical Structure Theory (RST, Mann & Thompson 1987). We also show that however, an intuitive marker of Contrast, is not actually used...

The automatic identification of discourse relations is still a challenging task in natural language processing. Discourse connectives, such as since or but, are the most informative cues to identify explicit relations; however discourse parsers typically use a closed inventory of such connectives. As a result, discourse relations signaled by markers outside these inventories (i.e. AltLexes) are...

During a narrative discourse, accessibility of the referents is rarely fixed once and for all. Rather, each referent varies in accessibility as the discourse unfolds, depending on the presence and prominence of the other referents. This leads the speaker to use various referential expressions to refer to the main protagonists of the story at different moments in the narrative. This study relies...

This study attempts to examine Iranian English language teachers’ perception towards the use of discourse markers (DMs) in the English as a Foreign Language (EFL) classroom. It is the contention of this study that past research studies have not paid sufficient attention to how teachers perceive the use of discourse markers in the English language classroom. This research extends on Fung’s (2011...

Aim. To analyze historical formation of the terms “discourse” and “discursive marker” their current interpretation. Methodology. Content analysis, as a key research method, enables author to study dictionaries linguistic well researches devoted issues discourse discursive markers. The analyzed content terms, summarized information made number conclusions. Results . At present stage development ...

Discourse relations in the recent literature are typically classified as either explicit (e.g., when a discourse connective like “because” is present) or implicit. This binary treatment of implicitness is advantageous for simplifying the explanation of many phenomena in discourse processing. On the other hand, linguists do not yet agree as to what types of textual particles contribute to reveal...