A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF THE ...

the additive marker and indexes an utterance with both prior and upcoming talk since its
additive function is forward looking to the next idea or action, while the marker but only
indexes an utterance with prior talk since it seeks to contrast an utterance to prior talk
(Schiffrin 1987:323-324).
This indexical role, however, is partly delimited by the individual functions that
markers may have. The meaning relations between utterances which they select (and
consequently display, rather than create) are constrained by both their respective
referential (semantic) meanings and their grammatical or lexical properties, if any. For
example, conjunctions and and but (in sentence grammar), when used as discourse
markers (i.e. in discourse grammar), are used in ways which reflect their grammatical use
as conjunctions, and may have distributions at the discourse level which do not parallel
their distribution in sentence grammars (as we saw above with and). 15 The point here is
that these discourse markers have a primary function as conjunctions in the ideation plane
in conjoining idea or propositional structures, but may also have secondary functions as
discourse markers in other planes of discourse (see Schiffrin 1987:315-317). For
example, all the conjunctions have their primary function within idea structures
(propositional structures), but are, in a sense, borrowed to accomplish more global
functions at the discourse level. 16 Their functions at this level of discourse, because of
15
Early on, Grimes also recognized this tendency, stating: “the kinds of relationships that are involved
once we go beyond the sentence are different from those that operate within sentences” (Grimes 1975:4).
Schiffrin too has observed this tendency in regards to the use of conjunctions within discourse: “But we
have also seen several features of discourse that point to differences between discourse grammars and
sentence grammars, and thus suggest that the principles governing [the] use of conjunctions in discourse do
not totally parallel those for conjunctions in sentences” (Schiffrin 1987:320, see also Schourup 1985:123).
16
Fraser appears to disagree with this, suggesting: “In short, discourse markers are not adverbs, for
example, masquerading as another category from time to time” (Fraser 1990:388). Oddly, before and after
that statement, he seemingly contradicts this statement by recognizing that discourse markers are indeed
drawn from various grammatical sources, and proceeds to give examples of both grammatical and
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