French discourse markers in Shaba Swahili conversations

Abstract

One of the most striking characteristics of Shaba Swahili/French conversations is the near-exclusive use of French discourse markers. It is shown that from a structural point of view, the use of French markers presents no serious problems. Of course, the mere structural possibility of switching French markers cannot explain their near- categorical use. This phenomenon is best explained by taking into account the function of discourse markers as elements that create and strengthen discourse cohesion and coherence. In order to accomplish this task, discourse markers have to be as salient as possible. In bilingual discourse, this saliency may be maximized by using discourse markers from the language that is most salient. Since the language of morpho-syntax in Shaba Swahili/French discourse is Shaba Swahili, French markers stand out more clearly and have a higher contrastive value than their Shaba Swahili counterparts. Hence, French discourse markers are used instead of their Shaba Swahili equivalents. The importance of increasing contrastiveness as a way of maximizing saliency is evident from the fact that French markers are predominantly accompanied by pauses and/or prosodic cues, and from the fact that they predominantly occur in all-Shaba Swahili contexts, that is, they are followed and preceded by Shaba Swahili material in the majority of cases.

Keywords

bilingual conversation codeswitching discourse markers

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