Discourse features
Study funded by the John Fell Fund. PI: Prof. Sandra Paoli
We investigate the hypothesis that discourse markers based on ‘dir’ in Mauritian Creole (koumadir, dizon and savedir) share common properties. Based on dialogic contexts, we loosely employ a canonical approach to analyse which features are present or absent with each marker. Koumadir exclusively appears in Creole, dizon (with a French parallel disons) displays the same properties across the two languages, and savedir can occur in both French (ça veut dire) and Creole, but it has developed further formal and functional characteristics in Creole. Ultimately, the initial hypothesis of a shared core cannot be sustained.
Keywords: discourse markers, Mauritius, multilingualism, dizon, koumadir, savedir
Hannah Davidson
Junior Research Fellow in Linguistics and Associate Lecturer in German
I am a Junior Research Fellow in Linguistics at Newnham College, Cambridge and Associate Lecturer in German at the Open University.