A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF THE ...

and part-time discourse markers, doing work above the sentence level. Mystery particles,
on the other hand, are full-time discourse markers as they are always working at a level
above the sentence, indicating a variety of interpersonal functions, e.g. denial of
propositions, justifications, reprimands, eliciting pity, correcting interlocutors, etc.
In more theoretical terms, this thesis contributes to the literature an account of the
use of second position particles and preverbal elements as discourse markers, expanding
the domain in which these elements are known to occur. This is significant as the
literature to date has been virtually silent about the occurrence of discourse markers in
second position, as well as those occurring as preverbs (a common grammatical element
in Algonquian languages). With the contribution of the Ojibwe data, the cross-linguistic
data show that discourse markers may essentially occur in any position within the domain
of a sentence (or in its vicinity straddling sentence boundaries), showing that discourse
markers cannot be defined by their location, as early characterizations have attempted to
do (such as Schiffrin 1987). Nor can they be reliably defined by their linguistic form,
since discourse markers appear to come in many forms, e.g. grammatical/lexical items,
affixes, clitics, particles, including entire inflectional paradigms. Therefore, the general
behavior of discourse markers cross-linguistically suggests that the identity of discourse
markers and their likely locations are largely constrained by the linguistic machinery
already existing in the language. For example, if a particular language does not make use
of second position phenomena, we would not expect to find discourse markers in that
position. The opposite case also appears to be true. If a language makes use of second
position phenomena, second position would be a potential docking spot for discourse
markers. The identity and the various docking spots of discourse markers are not only
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