A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF THE ...

3.0 Ojibwe Discourse Markers
The discussion of Ojibwe discourse markers will be divided up into two major
classes: 1) discourse connectives, and 2) ‘mystery particles’. Discourse connectives in
Ojibwe are largely borrowed items (my wording) – items which have sentence-level
uses, but which lend themselves for work at the discourse level. They contribute to the
overall textual structure of a discourse, functioning to relate units of discourse in prior
discourse with upcoming discourse. Ojibwe mystery particles, on the other hand, are
markers which are largely interpersonal, attitudinal, or epistemic in nature. They are
somewhat different from the Ojibwe discourse connectives in that they are not borrowed
sentence level functions which are then used at the discourse level, but are full-time
discourse markers. Ojibwe mystery particles work at both the sentence and discourse
level, all the time. The one common trait that both types of markers share as discourse
markers is that they do work at a level above the sentence to contribute some discourse
effect, either structurally (discourse connective) or pragmatically (mystery particles).
The organization of Ojibwe discourse markers into these two categories is largely
motivated by the natural division of discourse markers observed by Schiffrin and Brinton
into textual and interpersonal functions (Schiffrin 2003:459, Brinton 1996:38,
respectively). All markers in this thesis will be further divided into those which occur in
initial position, those which occur in second position, and those which occur as a relative
root.
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