A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF THE ...

There is evidence that existing machinery from other languages resulting from
language contact can influence both the identity and location of discourse markers. For
example, Torres (2006) noted that some Spanish discourse markers have been borrowed
into the indigenous speech of both Tojolab'al and Yucatec Maya speakers, and now co-
occur with indigenous native markers (Torres 2006:616).
(20) Spanish markers borrowed into indigenous speech (Torres 2006:616)
a) Tojolab’al (Torres 2006:616 quoting Brody 1987:512)
Entonse ti=wa yajni jaw=7i
then then = but now when that = term
‘And that’s how it was.’
b) Yucatec Maya (Torres 2006:616 quoting Solomon 1995:293)
DESPWÈESE´ ká t u tukul t u bino´o[b] kàahah chik´intz´ono´ot
after-top then prog erg3 think-incomp prog erg3 go/incomp-P town Chikindzonot
‘After, then they were thinking of going to the town of Chikintzonot.’
In these examples, the standard Spanish words entonces ‘then’ and después ‘after’ have
both been borrowed into Tojolab’al and Yucatec Maya as markers entonse and
despwèese, respectively; and now co-occur with the native markers ti ‘then’ and ká
‘then’, respectively.
Other types of borrowings occur as well. Maschler (1997), for example, noticed that
in Hebrew-German bilingualism “discourse may be separated from its frame of markers
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