Journal of the Faculty of Humanities and Human Sciences;Volume 18

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A functional-semantic approach to discourse markers : A contrastive analysis between Ukrainian and Russian

Karbovnycha, Anna

Permalink : http://hdl.handle.net/2115/88158
JaLCDOI : 10.14943/jfhhs.18.9

Abstract

The aim of this study is to define and classify discourse markers (henceforth DMs) in Ukrainian. In addition, a comparative analysis with corresponding data of DMs in Russian was conducted, leading to the claim that the number of possible meanings and semantic interpretations of DMs in these two languages differs. In this study we concentrate on two DM categories:1 (1) Contrasting and (2) Detailing, and explore semantic characteristics (analyzing usage schemes in the context and possible meaning gradation accounting facets A,B,C) of the following DM pairs: R:Наоборот — U:Навпаки “on the contrary, vice versa”; R:Впрочем — U:Втім “however, though”; R:Как раз — U:Якраз “exactly, just”; R: По меньшей мере — U:Щонайменше “at least”. According to the results of the analysis conducted, we observed that Ukrainian and Russian DMs differ in the following aspects. 1. The number of facets presented in Russian (Kiseleva, Paillard, 1998) does not coincide with the facets that could be distinguished in Ukrainian, and vice versa. 2. Depending on the DM, Ukrainian has a wider spectrum of possible meanings inside and outside of the earlier proposed classification of facets. Furthermore, it is proposed that the number of facets in certain DMs in Ukrainian can be extended (adding facet D); as such, DMs have a broader scope of possible semantic interpretations.

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