University of Szeged, Department of Hungarian Linguistics Discourse markers in classroom interactions Anita Schirm

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1 University of Szeged, Department of Hungarian Linguistics Discourse markers in classroom interactions Anita Schirm http://schirmanita.hu schirmanita@gmail.com

2 Why choosing this topic? Research of discourse markers (DMs) is popular and topical. (Schiffrin 1987, Foolen 1996, Knott 1996, Németh T. 1998, Lenk 1998, Jucker - Ziv 1998, Fraser 1999, Blakemore 2002, Banczerowski 2005, Fischer 2006, Redeker 2006, Cohen 2007....) hot topic But! The use of DMs in classroom interactions is largely unexplored. Exceptions: Fung 2003, Lee and Hsieh 2004, Liu 2006, Castro 2009, Kertes 2011...

3 About discourse markers connect discourse segments mark pragmatic relations Fraser (1999: 938): marker of a bivalent relationship: Későn indultunk (=S1) Mégis (=DJ) időben érkeztünk (=S2). ‘ We set out late (=S1). Still (=DM) we arrived on time (=S2). ’

4 About discourse markers do not have an effect on the truth conditions or the propositional content of an utterance (Jucker 1993) carry an expressive + emotive functions procedural, not conceptual meaning syntactically + prosodically detached from the rest of the sentence typically characteristic of spoken language

5 Examples of DMs English: well, so, then, anyway, you know, I mean, but, now, because, oh, or, and, however, although, nevertheless, of course Polish: to, tak, także, wiesz, to znaczy, więc German: nun, sowie, also, ja, aber, ehe, wenn

6 Hungarian DMs

7 Frequent words in semi- structured interviews (Szabó 2009) Source: http://www.nyest.hu/hirek/hattal-kezdjuk-a-mondatothttp://www.nyest.hu/hirek/hattal-kezdjuk-a-mondatot

8 My investigation 377 minutes ’ worth of text from 8 classroom sessions classroom interactions: institutional discourses method: discourse analysis corpus: Ágnes Antalné Szabó: ASZ-MODA (2002-) Magyar nyelvű osztálytermi diskurzusok adatbázisa ‘ Database of Hungarian language classroom discourse ’

9 Hypotheses i.) DMs occur to a more limited extent in classroom interaction than in spontaneous everyday conversation ii.) students use DMs more often than their teachers iii.) DMs in teachers ’ utterances serve to support explanations + to preserve face

10 Characteristics of classroom discourse interactive communication between teacher and students asymmetrical, institutional, formal fixed time limits question-answer dominates among adjacency pairs

11 Functions of DMs (Schiffrin 1987, Kertes 2011, Schirm 2011) textual function: defines the relationship between units of text interactional function: refers to the relationship of speaker and listener attitude marking function: expresses the relationship between the speaker and what is being said, provides an evaluation

12 DMs in classroom interactions most frequent elements: hát ‘ well ’, tehát ‘ thus ’, akkor ‘ then ’, ugye ‘ tag question-like meaning ’, na ‘ emphatic word ’, persze ‘ of course ’, tényleg ‘ really ’, illetve ‘ or rather ’, vajon ‘ question marker ’, szóval ‘ so ’, -e ‘ question particle ’ - DMs depending on role and speech acts: teachers: question particles + question markers: ugye, -e, vajon DMs in instructions: na, akkor, ugye - role independent DMs: hát, tehát, szóval

13 Pedagogical questions, explanations, instructions Tanár: Na, hát ezek az alárendelő szóösszetételek... és akkor most... ‘ Teacher: Well then, these are subordinating compounds … and then now ’ Tanár: Na most itt nem azt írom, ha milliót lenne, ugye akkor 1000000-t, milliókat, bizony ám, de a -k is ott van, 1000000-kat. ‘ Teacher: So, now here I do not write ‘ million ’ in the accusative, then it ’ s ‘ 1,000,000-t ’, right, but the –k is there as well, so it ’ s ‘ 1,000,000- kat ’. Tanár: Szóval, ki az, aki naggyal írná? ‘ Teacher: So, who would write that with a capital letter? ’ Tanár: És azon belül, egyébként? ‘ Teacher: And within that, by the way? ’

14 Linguistic superstitions on DMs they are empty filler words Hát-tal nem kezdünk mondatot! ‘ Do not start a sentence with hát! ’ The truth: hát is not a filler element, but it has variety of functions.

15 Hát: a role independent DM 122 occurences in 377 minutes 46 hát ’ s 76 hát ’ s variables: school type: primary / secondary user: teacher / student teacher ’ s age: under 35 / over 35 teacher ’ s gender: male / female

16 A = primary, 35, female; C = primary, 35, male; E = secondary, 35, female; G = secondary, 35, male Frequency of hát in classes

17 Hesitation Tanár: Hír TV, igen, hát az öö nem egészen, ö melyik a közszolgálati magyar televízió? ‘ Teacher: Hír TV, yes, well, that ’ s er not exactly, er, which one is the national public TV channel? ’ Diák: Hát ez egy ilyen weblapnak ö olyan része, ahol aa öö a véleményüket kifejtik az emberek. ‘ Student: Well, that ’ s a sort of part of a er website where er people express their opinions. ’

18 Uncertainty Tanár: Melyikből keletkezett a másik? Diák: Hát szerintem az összetett szó keletkezett a jelzőssel szemben. ‘ Teacher: Which one was the basis for the creation of the other?Student: Well, in my opinion the compound was formed against the one with the premodifier. ’ Tanár: Milyen műfajú szöveg ez? Tünde, mire gondolhatunk itt? Diák: Hát szakirodalom szerintem. ‘ Teacher: What is the genre of this text? Tünde, what should we think about this?Student: Well, it ’ s professional literature, I think. ’

19 Strengthening ‘ Teacher: This is a really difficult question, so, this is almost impossible to answer. Student: The subject? Teacher: Of course, the subject. The subject. ’ Tanár: Ez olyan iszonyatosan nehéz kérdés, szóval erre szinte lehetetlen válaszolni. Diák: Az alany? Tanár: Hát az alany. Az alany.

20 Emphasis + evidentiality marker Tanár: Ugy van, a Szozat. Miert? Mit? Hogyan hasznalja ki a Szozat?Diák: Hat hogy Hazadnak rendu ̈ letlenu ̈ l legy hive es Legy hive rendu ̈ letlenu ̈ l, o, magyar. ‘ Teacher: Yes, it ’ s the Hymn. Why? What? How does the Hymn explore it?Student: Well, that ‘ support your country without failing ’ and ‘ without failing support your country, oh, Hungarian ’.

21 Logical relationship of inference Tanár: Hogy fiatalok voltak, hát éltek bizonyos tudatmódosító szerekkel, rendben van. ‘ Teacher: They were young, so they used some mind altering substances, fine. ’

22 Self-correction, reformulation Tanár: Nem, nem muszáj mindent elmondani róla, vagy hát nem is tudnak mindent elmondani róla, majd én kiegészítem még esetleg a azt információkat. ‘ Teacher: No, no, they don ’ t have to tell everything about it, or, in fact, they can ’ t tell everything about it, I will add to it whatever is, the information. ’

23 Continuation Diák: Szerintem azért teheti meg, hogy egy mondatba sűríti, mert végu ̈ l is azért ebben az enciklopédiában van egy rész, hogy nyulak, és hát ez egy rövid részlet, vagy legalábbis másfél oldal. ‘ Student: I think it ’ s OK to summarize it all in one sentence because, after all, this encyclopedia has an entry about rabbits, and then, this is a short excerpt, or at least a page and a half ’.

24 Justification Tanár: Hm. Észrevette. Olvasna belőle? Hát hogy a többiek is tudják, miről beszél. A legrövidebbet mondjuk. ‘ Teacher: Hm. You noticed it. Would you read from it? In order that the others know what you are talking about. Let ’ s say the shortest one. ’

25 Emotionality Tanár: Igen. Gondolatjel és ott a vonal. (mutatja a munkafüzet- ben). Hát ez nagyon könnyű. Karcsi. ‘ Teacher: Yes. An m-dash and there is a line. [She points at it in the workbook.]) Well but it is very easy Charly. ’

26 Response marker Tanár: Miért ezt a hírt választottátok? Először ti! Diák: Hát mert a gomba maradt meg ez, és akkor végül is erre esett a választás. ‘ Teacher: Why did you choose this piece of news? First you!Student: Well, because mushrooms were all that was left, and this is what we chose in the end. ’

27 Other DMs with similarly wide range of functions Tanár: A minőség- és mennyiségjelző. Na most, nem emlékszik valaki, persze ezt biztos megbeszéltük, hogy tulajdonképpen nem az a helyzet, hogy nincs ragja, hanem, hogy a ragja az, ragja az, hát ugyanaz, csak egy kicsit matematikusabb nyelven. Hát akkor mi a ragja? Figyelj. Mit teszel be abba az egyenletbe, hogy 25+x=25? ‘ Teacher: Premodifiers of quality and quantity. Now then, does anybody remember, of course, we must have discussed this, that really it is not the case that it has no inflection but that that is its inflection, well, the same, in a slightly more mathematical language. Well then, what is its inflection? Listen. What do you put into the equation 25+x=25? ’

28 Conclusions i.) DMs occur to the same extent in classroom interaction as they do in spontaneous everyday conversation ii.) teachers and students also use DMs iii.) teachers use DMs in pedagogical questions, explanations and instructions iv.) the DM hát has a wide range of use

29 So Then In other words thank you for your attention! Well However Actually By the way Także