Contrastive Analysis of German 'weil' and English 'because' as Discourse Markers in Connected Speech

Bachelor Thesis from the year 2012 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Linguistics, grade: 1,0, University of Koblenz-Landau (Anglistik), language: English, abstract: Discourse markers mark discourse. Although this paraphrase may not be regarded incorrect, the subject proves to be far more intricate. Since verbal communication is regarded a highly structured social activity, connected speech as part of interactional spoken dialog requires a substantial amount of metalinguistic knowledge from all participants, speakers and hearers alike. When attempting to interpret possible speaker intentions, identifying word, phrase, and utterance borders as well as recognizing occurrences of speech repair and hesitation, the hearer relies on specific cues and signposts, respectively, assisting in structuring information distributed within discourse as well as organizing the alternation of speakership. Recent linguistic research has shown proactive interest in defining and categorizing such devices, including, inter alia, the rather controversial class of discourse markers. The presented paper aims at investigating various uses and functions of German weil and English because as discourse markers in spoken discourse, also taking into account functional dissociations to other fields of operation.